404 ANNUAL, REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 34 



Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil. This area inchides the three 

 Guianas, Venezuela, all of Brazil, parts of Colombia, Bolivia, and 

 Paraguay. Although there are the several large streams, the 

 Orinoco, the Paraguay, and the Parana, it is usually referred to as 

 Amazonia. Owing to their nearness to the mainland and to the 

 strong northerly trend of the prevailing ocean currents, the native 

 population of the islands of the West Indian archipelago must be 

 included with tribes of the rain-forest areas of tropical South 

 America. 



The provinces of northern Argentina and the grassy plains of the 

 vast Gran Chaco which characterize the territory west of the Parana, 

 afforded little incentive toward the diffusion of the higher cultured 

 upland Andean peoples. In Uruguay a spur of the western uplands 

 becomes a rolling plain similar to the Argentinean pampas. It was 

 occupied by a roving, nomad, hunting population. The central up- 

 land of Brazil with its grassy savannas is infertile and subject to 

 periods of drought. 



A physical population chart classifying the native peoples of east 

 and central South America according to anthropological measure- 

 ments has not been formulated, owing to lack of adequate data. It 

 has been supposed that many of the isolated tribes with a general 

 culture complex distinct from that of the larger linguistic stocks might 

 be remnants of an earlier migration. This has never been definitely 

 determined, owing to lack of comparative data. In fact, unpublished 

 data on the language of the Botocudo of eastern Brazil, previously 

 thought to be a population remnant, point to remote affiliation with a 

 large linguistic stock. The work of Ameghino and others has led 

 to the presupposition of Quaternary men in eastern Brazil and north- 

 ern Argentina. The inhabitants of this area conform, however, 

 according to Hrdlicka, to the general description of Indian physical 

 stocks resembling in a broad way the tribes of other South American 

 areas and of middle America more than the peoples of Oceania 

 or Africa. They have straight black hair, brown skin of various 

 shades, are of medium height, and have a diversity of appearances 

 stamped with more or less tropical or apathetic dispositions. 



DENSITY OF NATIVE POPULATION 



The complete annihilation of the Arawak and Carib occupants of 

 Cuba, Haiti, Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico, the Lesser Antilles, and 

 the Bahamas during the daj^s of the great Spanish gold rush begin- 

 ning with the settlement of Santo Domingo in 1499 is illustrated by 

 the few remaining " black " Carib settlements, more negroid than 

 Indian, still existing in St. Vincent and Dominica. 



