FEWKES: PREHISTORIC CULTURAL CENTERS 439 



While the different known types of stone objects found in 

 the West Indies may be considered geographically rather than 

 historically, this manner of assembling specimens in large col- 

 lections brings out many facts which will make it possible later 

 to determine a definite chronology, and to associate types of 

 implements with local conditions, thus affording an instructive 

 study of the interrelations of environment and human culture. 



We can believe that certain of the stone implements found on 

 these islands are old, but it cannot be proved that the oldest 

 of them extend back to the earliest polished stone epoch. Stone 

 implements made by chipping, or those having unpolished sur- 

 faces, are rare in the West Indies; they have not been reported 

 in sufficient numbers to enable us to say that they indicate the 

 former existence in these islands of an epoch when chipped im- 

 plements were the only ones employed. A few chipped axes 

 have been reported from Santo Domingo and other islands, but 

 neither there nor in other islands are the flint chips numerous 

 enough to afford conclusive proofs of an epoch, notwithstanding 

 these implements and their chips closely resemble similar ob- 

 jects picked up on the sites of work shops in the Old World. 



The discoverers of the West Indies early recognized that the 

 aborigines of different islands differed in their mode of life, their 

 culture, and their language. In early accounts we find two 

 groups designated as Arawak and Carib, accordingly as their 

 life was agricultural or nomadic. It was stated by the early 

 travelers that these groups inhabited different islands, the 

 former being assigned to the Greater Antilles, the latter to the 

 Lesser. 



The large collection of artifacts characteristic of the aborigines 

 of the West Indies now available shows that the stone tools, 

 pottery, and other, objects found on the islands inhabited by 

 the Caribs are radically different from those from islands on which 

 the so-called Arawaks lived. Students of prehistory did not at 

 first connect this difference with any racial dissimilarity, but 

 ascribed all these implements to Caribs. This conclusion does 

 not necessarily follow, for it fails to take into account the sig- 

 nificant fact that the stone objects found on the so-called Carib 



