MATERIAL, CULTUEE OF THE INDIANS OF SAMANA 37 



mentioned by Columbus as having been seen in a native hut in Cu})a 

 and also observed by Las Cases in Cuba before Yucatan had been 

 discovered by the Spanish are, after all, too slender a foundation for 

 the linking up of pre-Columbian trade between the Arawak of the 

 West Indies and the Maya of Yucatan. 



But Central American influence is noticeable in the presence of 

 maize culture in the Greater Antilles to the limited extent that it 

 did exist, also in the extensive use of cotton. Maize and cotton were 

 the two important culture plants in Yucatan. Guarionex, cacique 

 of the Magna (Vega Keal), offered to plant cornfields extending 

 from Isabella on the north coast of Haiti to the capital city on the 

 south coast and to present the crops therefrom to the Spanish as a 

 tribute in place of gold because his people did not know how to mine 

 gold, although they did know the art of maize production. The 

 fact that a levy of 25 arroba (pounds) of cotton for each adult could 

 be made by the Spanish indicates the degree of native proficiency in 

 cotton production. 



The presence of stone collars within both areas, of stools of stone 

 with sculptured anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurine carvings, 

 the presence of axially drilled tubular stone beads, the weaving of 

 cotton cloth, the wearing of a woman's garment similar to Central 

 American patterns, and, above all, the molding of clay figurines in 

 anthropomorphic and zoomorpliic designs — all these indicate a re- 

 mote influence from Central America entirely distinct from a more 

 direct influence from the Maya of Yucatan, which apparently did not 

 occur. Most of the Arawak artifacts from Cuba have been recovered 

 from the eastern end. If connection had existed with Mexico of the 

 Mayan period, artifacts from western Cuba would have revealed 

 such connection. 



In a recent publication by Samuel K. Lothrop ^^ there appears the 

 following discussion relative to Central American influences on the 

 native culture of the Greater Antilles. 



The chief culture bearers in eastern Soutli America belonged to the Carib 

 and Arawak stocks, whose influence can be traced from the Parana Delta iu 

 Argentina northward across the Antilles to Florida. At the time of the 

 conquest they occupied the Guianas, Venezuela, and the Antilles, but their 

 original home must have been farther south, perhaps in southwestern Brazil. 

 The ceramic remains of this culture are chiefly broad bowls, sometimes with 

 incurved rims, decorated by incising, by geometric patterns in red paint, or by 

 the addition of small modeled figures to the outer walls of the vessel. 



It is the belief of the writer that thisi culture had a distinct connection with 

 southern Central America. This belief is founded upon the fact that the red- 

 line ware patterns and also some of the small-modeled tigures in stone cist 

 ware of Costa Rica have a distinct Antillean flavor. In addition, pictographs 

 from the two regions are surprisingly alike, while the chairs of the present 



" Pottery of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, vol. 2, p. 410. 



