It is hard to truly know if the above photo is the truth when it comes to what the indigenous people of Trinidad looked like. The reason that we have these issues is due to the fact that " Spanish discoverers and early colonizers left us very few records concerning the people they first met in Trinidad and even those are not always reliable " (1). It is difficult to go back to a time where there is no written record that accurately describes the first people of these islands, we can only go by written accounts from a European perspective and what cultural remains can be found. The cultural remains can possibly give us a look into how their communities were set up, how their pottery looked, what they ate through looking at their midden heaps, and how the dead were buried along with what they might have thought important enough to bury with them. It is hard to know if these inhabitants were the Caribs or the Arawaks because there was no way to trace genetic lineages at the time when the first Europeans set foot on these islands.Trinidad today has a multi-ethic population and I would for one would love to see some genetic work on these populations in association with mitochondrial DNA and the movement of it through the world. It is thought that Trinidad has the "oldest Archaic site in the West Indies and that sometime between 5000 and 2000 BC, Archaic groups began migrating from Trinidad or mainland South America into the Lesser Antilles" (2).
When it comes to their social structure we can glean information about how their "villages" were set up and the number of people that could possibly inhabit that number of buildings. The layout could show if the houses were set up around a central area or if certain persons within the "village" had higher social rank. It is my belief that after reading some on the indigenous people prior to colonization that there is little to no proof as to any social stratification. Some of the burials that have been found contain no specific items of prestige and were only buried with a "water jar and food plates . . . to serve the deceased in his afterlife" (3). There is the idea that they moved around to follow resources and that their diet was mostly shellfish but there is also some evidence to suggest that they ate plants and animals that were not indigenous to the island, with the possibility that they would have come from South America ( this links back to the first paragraph concerning migration ).
http://ancientantilles.com/pariasphere.html
There is little we can know with any certainty when it comes to the first people to inhabit these islands. It is basically conjecture as to what the life of these indigenous people were like because there are no written records left by them that can tell us what their everyday life was like. Oral histories are a great place to start that can give us a look into the minds of these first people if we can find someone who knows the oral history. Archaeology is another great asset to finding out how the indigenous people lived but it is limited in scope due to what remains are left behind ( little of which are organic in nature ) and the theory that a particular archaeologist is working on. There is of course the European accounts but as previously stated they are biased due to perspective and motive.
It seems as if this will be a subject that will always be surrounded with much debate depending on who is discussing it. There will be those that will latch onto an idea and never be swayed despite new information that comes to light. There are those who will keep an open mind with regard to wanting to have new information as it comes along. So in essence it seems as though it depends ( again ) on the perspective and motive of those involved in the history of Trinidad.
(1) J.A. Bullbrook, "The Aboriginal Remains of Trinidad and the West Indies-I." Caribbean Quarterly, 1:1 (1949): 17.
(2) William F. Keegan, "West Indian Archaeology. 1. Overview and Foragers." Journal of Archaeological Research, 2:3 (1994): 266.
(3) J.A. Bullbrook, "The Aboriginal Remains of Trinidad and the West Indies-II." Caribbean Quarterly, 1:2 (1949): 12.
It is interesting to see how the indigenous population of Trinidad organized their villages. I am taking a Native American history class that has shown that many of their chiefdoms were set up in a similar fashion with the higher ranking members of society living in the village center and the commoners residing outside palisade walls. It is unfortunate that the only pictures available to demonstrate the appearance of Trinidad’s indigenous population are from the bias perspective of European explorations. I am also curious to know if the animals they brought with them from South America had a significant impact on the island’s habitat the way that the Columbian exchange did on the Americas.
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely unfortunate that most of the sources of information about early inhabitants of Trinidad and Tobago are only available from the European perspective, however, I wonder if they are not worth examining despite that. Any resource available today, even archaeological finds, will be seen through a Western viewpoint. Though it is important to be conscious of that upon examination, I find it hard to discard the information just based on those criteria. I also wonder whether the lack of information regarding Trinidad is due to the early contact, but later settlement of the island. I wonder if we might know more about the indigenous population of the island if the Spanish had decided to settle it soon after they encountered it.
ReplyDeleteKent.....there was some speculation that plants could have been brought from South America as well as a mention about deer bones that were found that were not indigenous to the island.....
ReplyDeleteOlivia..... the written documents are worth looking at regardless of bias or perspective, we just need to keep it in mind when we read the primary sources. It is possible that there might have been more said about the indigenous population if the Spanish had decided to settle it sooner but we can only guess
I found your blog very insightful. I personally had trouble finding information on the indigenious population of Trinidad and Tobago, so this proved very helpful for me. Your notion that we should take all European recorded, Caribbean, history with a grain of salt is a something that I agree with strongly. The fact that some of the earliest archaeological sites in the Caribbean were in Trinidad is not surprising to me. I imagine the early date of settlement is due to its proximity to the South American mainland. The archaeological aspect of your essay, as a whole, provided for an interesting look into the ancient culture of Trinidad and Tobago.
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