INTRODUCTION 3 



Antillean tribes had retained or borrowed the elements of cassava 

 culture from tribes of southeastern South America, where it con- 

 tinues to be characteristic of the area. Making of bread from the 

 cassava plant {Manihot edulis) and the making of vinegar from 

 its juices, used as a seasoning for the pepper pot, was introduced 

 from South America. In the West Indies the culture of cassava 

 was subjected to environmental conditions and changes. The fact 

 that cassava and not maize was the principal food of the aboriginal 

 population of Santo Domingo is significant of the antiquity of 

 South American culture influence and likewise of the relative free- 

 dom from Mexican and Gulf State culture origins. 



Pottery was brought to the islands and there developed into 

 artistic forms not known in the pristine home of the island Arawak. 

 This development may apparently be ascribed to the delimiting 

 influence of a new environment and also to cultural tendencies 

 within the circumscribed island archipelago. Stoneworking became 

 especially developed in Porto Rico and Santo Domingo and in 

 certain islands of the Lesser Antilles, but this art appears not to 

 spring from any South American focus of Arawak or Carib influ- 

 ence, nor did its intensity of development persist up to the time 

 of the Spanish conquest. It is rather a special growth affiliated 

 with Mexican and Central American art. The Carib-Arawak of 

 the Guianas and of other parts of South America remain in a 

 prestone age grade of culture peculiar to the tropical forest and 

 savanna tribes of South America. The West Indies are not repres- 

 sive areas like the overpowering forests of South America, but 

 include drier areas where agriculture is practiced to advantage. 

 The practice of irrigation in the western part of the island pre- 

 supposes a high development of primitive agriculture. 



The chief culture bearers in eastern South America were the 

 Arawak and perhaps also the Carib. At the time of the Spanish 

 conquest they occupied the Guianas and Venezuela in part, also 

 portions of Brazil and of Colombia. Ceramic remains from the 

 deltas of the Parana in Argentina and from the island of Marajo in 

 the delta of the Amazon are ascribable to the early Arawak, whose 

 influence in South American culture has not yet been fully deter- 

 mined. The ancient characteristics of Arawak ceramic form and 

 design such as are found in quantity throughout the Antilles but 

 modified by local technical developments may be found as char- 

 acteristic features of other ancient cultures only in what are un- 

 mistakably old sites in Panama, Venezuela, Brazil, and the Guianas. 

 Such elements of form include shallow spherical or narrow globular 

 bov/ls, with incurved, outcurved, or straight rims and decorated 

 with an encircling panel of geometric incised patterns with modeled 

 figurine heads added to the outer wall of the vessel near the lip. 



