The Indigenous peoples pt1. Flashcards
What are the two possible means that people argue that the indigenous people may have entered the American continent by?
1) It is believed that 25,000 years ago the Bering Strait was above sea level and formed the Beringia land bridge. Then 25,000 years ago during the Ice Age, people in Mongolia crossed the Beringia land bridge from Siberia into the American landmass of Alaska. It is believed that they were either fleeing the icy conditions or they were chasing the migratory herds of deer on which they survived.
2) It is also believed that there was no land bridge 25,000 years ago but that there was an ice bridge between Siberia and Alaska. This argument says that the Asians crossed this bridge then followed the corridor between the Alaskan and Canadian mountains, into the Canadian plains, pushing south to the very end of the continent.
Who were the meso Indians (Ciboney)?
Meso-Indians were a group of migrants who travelled from the Venezuelan mainland in South America and entered the Caribbean Sea at Trinidad. They had a more advanced social structure than previous groups which settled in the Caribbean and they used advanced agricultural technologies. They were skilled navigators, great explorers of new lands and open seas and builders of large communities. They did not use agriculture or farming to survive but rather relied upon hunting animals like the manatee, fishing for turtles, crustaceans and reef fish, and gathering wild vegetables.
Another name for the Ciboney?
The Guanahacabibe
How did the meso Indians get the name Ciboney
the name was used in the 16th century by the Spanish priest las Casas who came across them in Cuba and Hispaniola.
Achievements of the Ciboney?
they built walls, assembled large stones for cultural purposes and developed irrigation systems.
What were the three major Caribbean groups?
Arawaks (Tainos), Maya (Meso Americans) and Caribs (Kalinago)
Who were the Ciboney?
the earliest and smallest Caribbean inhabitants who were nomad hunter gatherers . They did not store, trade or distribute any extra surplus food and took only from the Caribbean space what they needed to survive, making minimum changes to it.
What were the two possible ways people believed the Ciboney entered the Caribbean by?
1) Ciboney in Cuba and Bahamas migrated from the south via the Lesser Antilles.
2) Ciboney entered the Caribbean through the Florida peninsula.
3) The Ciboney are from pre farming cultures and entered the Antilles from South America as waves of different migrants over a very long period of time.
What language did the Taino speak
Arawakan
What language did the Kalinago speak
Cariban
Where did the Taino come from ?
Orinoco, Venezuela
What were the two groups of Tainos?
Saladoid & Barrancoid
What was used by archaeologists to differentiate the two Taino groups?
The Saladoid culture group were known for their common use of white-on-red artistic pottery decorations. The Barrancoid culture group’s pottery styles were more varied and less distinctive and were widespread throughout the Lesser and Greater Antilles than Saladoid pottery.
The Taino constructed their settlements in different environments in the Caribbean such as?
rainforests, mountain valleys, dry, open plateaux and to a lesser extent on savanna grasslands
What were the three main ways in which Tainos produced enough food for survival?
1) conuco cultivation
2) house gardens and fishing
3) hunting and gathering
Define the process of Conuco cultivation
a form of agriculture based on mounds of earth which reduced erosion, improved drainage and optimized land use.
Another name for cassava and the two types of cassava the Tainos cultivated
Manioc
sweet &bitter (poison) cassava
differentiate between the two types of cassava
the poison cassava was bitter in taste and contained cyanic acid which was highly poisonous. the sweet cassava had tubers which were much softer and softer and was not as high in yield as the poison cassava.
Define the process of processing the tubers of poison cassava
they grated the tubers then repeatedly washed and packed them together until the poison were strained out . They then dried the grated substance and ground it into flour.
What was used by Taino women to grind maize and cassava?
Mealing stones