THE ARAWAKS/ LUCAYANS

INTRODUCTION

The Arawaks usually settled on the first island they came to and after a few years they would move again. The reason for this is still somewhat of a mystery today. A reason for this type of 'behavior' may have been that life on the coast and islands was much easier compared with the harsh jungle climate and equally dangerous animals. The soils may have been easier to cultivate and maybe because the population was growing, more land was needed to farm, hunt and fish. This type of settlement pattern began to change as the Caribs began their movement into the Caribbean as well.
The Arawaks were gentle, pleasure loving people who liked dancing and playing ball games. They believed in an afterlife and sometimes strangled a dying chief to speed him into paradise. They hunted, cultivated a few crops and fished. Their canoes were made by burning and chiselling out the trunks of silk cotton trees, a method that is still used today. Another legacy of the Arawaks is bammy, a thick pancake made from cassava and delicious fried with fish.

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE WORD ARAWAKS

There are many words in the Bahamian language today that originated from the Arawak language. The English translation of the word Arawak is “meal eaters.”

NAMES OF THE FOUR TYPES OF ARAWAKS

Columbus arrived in the Bahamas in 1492 and by this time the Arawaks were divided into several groups. In the west, the Lucayanos occupied the Bahamas, the Borequinos were in Puerto Rico and the Tainos lived in Cuba, Jamaica and Haiti. Note that "taino" is an Arawak word meaning peace. Barbados and Trinidad in the east was settled by the Ignerians .

MAP OF THE CARIBBEAN WITH THE LABLES AND LOCATION OF THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF ARAWAKS.



KEY
RED (Lucayans) YELLOW (Tainos) GREEN (Ignerians) BLUE (Borequinos)
ABOUT THE LUCAYAN ARAWAKS

Before Columbus arrived in the Bahamas, Native American peoples thrived on these islands. Originating in South America, these Indians had gradually colonized the Caribbean. Eventually they migrated north to the Bahamas chain. These arawaks were called Lucayans.

HOUSING

The Lucayans chosen village sites on the top of hills as a precaution against surprise attacks. Most Lucayans communities were small, although a few had more than a thousand houses. The Lucayans had two types of houses. The bohio, which was the cacique's house, but the name was applied loosely to all houses. Because of his status, the bohio should be rectangular, but the Lucayans found that building this was difficult, so a round house was used instead. The other was the caneye or family house. The construction of these houses is rather simple. Wooden posts were put into the ground in a circle and canes were woven between them and tied with creepers. The roof was thatched in a conical shape and a hole was left at the top to allow smoke to escape. There were no windows and only an opening was left for a door. The houses were thoroughly built and could withstand hurricanes.

 

CUSTOMS and BELIEFS

The basis for the Lucayans beliefs were a mixture of Zemism and spiritualism with emphasis on nature worship, ancestor worship and protective magic.
They believed in a sky-god and an earth-goddess. The Lucayans had a creation story, which said that the first man escaped from a cave with the sun when the keeper of the cave forgot to close it. Another story said that men were turned into animals and plants because they looked at the sun, which was forbidden.
Since both the sky-god and earth-goddess were too far away to affect them, the Lucayans believed that there were many nature gods and ancestral spirits who controlled the wind, rain, sickness, fire, hurricanes, luck, misfortune and fertility, in the case of the earth-goddess. Each of these gods were represented by a zemi, which were idols made from wood, bone, stone or shell in the form of a human or animal. Cotton zemis held the bones of a respected ancestor. The skulls and bones of ancestors could also be neatly packed in a zemi basket and kept in the household. Lucayans believed that trees, rivers and rocks were the homes of evil spirits. They wore amulets to protect themselves, painted their bodies with sacred designs and took specially prepared medicine. In addition, they also believed in spirits called opia, which belonged to the dead, who returned at night to enter their bodies. For this reason they ventured out at night only in groups, and protected themselves by wearing zemis around their necks or on their foreheads.
Each village had its own zemi house, set aside from the other buildings. It was a shadowy place, and since ordinary people could not communicate with the gods or ancestors through the zemis, then priests had to pray, offered food and clothing, to cure sickness, or bring good fortune, or make crops grow, or keep away the Caribs. A bowl of tobacco or cohaba (powdered tobacco) was placed before the zemis. When the prayer starts, the tobacco was placed on the zemi's flat-topped head and burnt and the fumes were inhaled through a Y-shaped cane tube. This was done to induce a state of unconsciousness, the best state for communication with the zemis.
Religious ceremonies were important to the Lucayans since they depended on the advice of the zemis before making important decisions. The cacique announced the day on which the ceremony was to take place and a conch shell was blown to summon all the villagers, wearing their finest, of course. Their bodies were carefully washed, and were painted red, white and black. The men wore their feathered cloaks, and the women decorated their arms and legs with shell and coral.

When all were assembled, the entire village formed a precession, with the cacique at its head, playing a wooden gong. He led them to the sacred hut on the outskirts of the village, and there he and the priests entered to pray. First they tickled their throats with swallow-sticks to make themselves vomit, and so prove to the zemis that no impurities remained within them. After this they each smoked the smoldering cohaba, drawing deep breaths until they lost consciousness. It was then that the zemis were supposed to speak to them. If the priest failed to have his prayer answered, it was felt that the power of the zemis were too strong.
Lucayans believed that the soul left the body after death and wandered for a while at night feeding on mammy apples. This unhappy time ended when the soul was miraculously carried to magical islands in the south to join other souls. Death was something to look forward to and not to be dreaded. Columbus found this belief very strong and persuaded several Arawaks to come aboard his ship making the false promise to sail them south to the magical islands. The Arawaks' belief was deep in coyaba, which explained their many suicides rather than enduring the cruelty under the Spaniards.

 

THEIR FOOD

The Lucayan women did the planting and were responsible for the preparation of food. They women worked in rows, each woman carrying a bag of soaked grain around her neck. The woman made a hole with her digging stick, threw a few grains of corn into it with her left hand, covered the hole with her foot, and repeated the process until her share of the planting was done. Corn was planted on the hillsides during the period of new moon and after the start of the rains.
Cassava was planted twice a year when the soil was damp. Cotton and tobacco sweet peppers, hot pepper (chili), groundnuts and yutia (another root crop) were also grown. The Lucayans grew and ate a variety of other fruits and vegetables including pineapples, star apples, naseberries, guavas and cashews. They did not eat mammy apples because they believed that it was food for dead people.
The cassava was the main food for the Lucayans. They made it into a paste that was left to dry and then pounded into flour using a stone mortar and pestle. The flour was formed into flat cakes and baked on a clay griddle until they were hard and dry. In this way, the cassava flour could keep from an extended period of time. Seasoning played a big part in food preparation. Salt and especially pepper were the common seasonings used. In addition, a sauce called cassareep, which was made of cassava juice, salt and pepper was frequently used, especially when serving the Lucayans' prize dish, pepperpot. Pepperpot was prepared in a large clay pot. Cassava juice, with the poison extracted of course, beans, peanuts, potato and some meat were all allowed to simmer. This pot of soup was used to feed a family about three times a day and as the pot is emptied, more ingredients are added so that one can have pepper-pot at anytime of the day or night!
Even though the Lucayans were mainly farmers, they did not lack protein, as they were proficient at fishing and hunting as well. As fore mentioned, Lucayan villages were always near the sea or river. The surrounding bodies of water were rich in food which, required little effort or skill to obtain. Since there were no large animals in the Caribbean islands, then it was natural for the Amerindians to focus more on fishing rather than hunting. Huge piles of shells were found on the remains of campsites suggesting that snails, barnacles, shellfish and crab played an important role in the diets of the early West Indian peoples. Favorite fish were snapper, grouper, grunt, jack, parrotfish and barracuda. In Cuba, the tribes there actually bred their own fish in artificial ponds. Archaeologists have found a number of oval stones with notches cut in their sides, which may have been used as sinkers for fishing nets. Fishermen used nets, hooks, spears and the remora to catch turtles. This method showed some ingenuity on the part of the Amerindians. The remora is a fish with suction cups on the back of its head, which it uses to cling to larger fish. A long cotton line was tied tightly to the remora's tail and was gently let out. The remora would dive for the turtle (or fish) and attach itself to its unsuspecting victim. The remora and its captive were then carefully pulled back to the canoe. The manatee (sea cow) and the pedro seal, now extinct, were favorites among the Lucayans as well.
Hunting was done on a small scale, because the islands were not the homes of larger animals. Smaller animals and birds were caught using various types of traps, such as nooses, snares and nets. Birds such as doves were snared in finely woven nets strung between trees, where as parrots were trapped by slipping a noose over their heads. The method of catching water birds like ducks showed some cunning. First, they floated gourds downstream until the ducks became used to seeing them and then the hunter himself would drift downstream with a gourd over his head, breathing through a hole and seeing through eye-slits. Once he reached a bird, it would be pulled underwater and drowned.
A favorite prey was the hutia which was a type of coney. Armed with clubs and carrying torches, the men would chase the hutia at night, frightening it with shouts and the flames of their torches toward a corral which they built. There the coney was killed with their clubs. The iguana, or giant lizard, was caught by imitating its cry and then, when it opened its mouth to respond, jamming something inside its jaws to prevent its biting while they plucked it off the tree. To help them hunt, the Lucayans had small dogs called alcos which could not bark, but made a low, growling sound. This was their only domestic animal. Note that the alcos was fattened on cornmeal and eaten with great delicacy. Note that the yellow snake, bats, agouti, rabbits and several other small animals and birds, some of which are now extinct were are part of the Lucayans' diet.
The Lucayans could also make intoxicating drinks out of cassava and maize, but drunkenness was uncommon except on some ceremonial occasions. Smoking tobacco was a big part of the
Lucayan culture.

 

PHYSICAL APPERANCE

The Lucayans were of short to medium height, well shaped, but slightly built, except in Hispaniola where they were plump. It appeared that they were physically weak in comparison with the Africans and Europeans. Their skin was "olive" meaning smooth and brown. The Lucayans were considered naturally good-looking but distorted their features by artificial means. Their heads were flattened at the foreheads as babies when the skull was bound between two boards. This elongated head was considered as a mark of beauty. This may have been done to thicken the skull thus it could withstand heavy blows. The Lucayans had broad noses and their nostrils probably flared wide. Their hair was straight and black, but coarse, and was usually worn long.
In most islands, the Lucayans were naked. In comparison the Arawaks in Hispaniola and Cuba, married women wore a piece of cloth over their loins. Sometimes in Jamaica and Cuba, the woven cloth was not used as clothing, but for cotton bands around the arms and legs. Clay and fat mixed with bright colored dyes were smeared in patterns all over the body: "some of them…with black, others white and others red, most of them on their bodies, and some on their faces, and eyes, or only the nose". This was a common custom, especially in Hispaniola. Besides being colorful, the clay and grease kept off insects and rain.
Several small amulets, or charms, were carried in sacks around the neck. Others made from clay, shell and cotton were woven into the hair. Sometimes the Lucayans had gold in their noses as plugs or hanging ornaments.

  

Recreation & Activities

The Lucayans led very happy lives before the coming of the Spaniards. Life was easy, their diet ample and varied. They were also very nice people. Columbus noted that they were very honest and stole nothing from the Spaniards. Sympathy, generosity and putting others before themselves were other was what they stood for.
They a lot of leisure time and many festivals, marked the Arawak year, some religious and some not. For example, the naming of a baby was a time for rejoicing, for the Lucayans that a child without a name will meet with great misfortune. The wedding of a cacique, and the inauguration of a new cacique were times of festivity. So was harvest time, or the return of a victorious war party. During these parties and other leisure time, emphasis was placed on singing and dancing, called areitos. Woman and men danced separately, but sometimes both sexes danced together to the music of drums, reed pipes, and wooden gongs. On these occasions, the pleasure of drinking was added. They also played a ball game, called batos, a cross between volleyball and football. The ball court was an important part of the village, with the cacique's bohio built alongside it. The ball court was similar to the one at Chichén Itza, and the game played was similar. There were sometimes as many as twenty players on one side, using a ball made from the roots of certain herbs, which were boiled to give a black sticky substance. The ball had to be knocked over a line on the opponent's side using any part of the body except the hands. It could not touch the ground or be knocked outside the ball court, or else that team lost a point. The game was usually organized be the cacique, who watch it from a seat of honor on the sidelines.
The most well known of the Lucayans' pleasure was that of smoking. The Lucayans called the tobacco plant cohiba and the pipe for smoking the leaves, tabaco. The Lucayans liked tobacco for peace and contentment, and for helping them to meditate. They made cigars and smoked it in a pipe which they enjoyed very much.