CULTURE AREAS IN THE AVEST INDIES 



253 



small adjacent islands, due 

 either to early contact of these 

 two peoples or to migration 

 from one to the other locality 

 in limited numbers. The In- 

 dian villages of Carahate (near 

 the site of the modern Cuban 

 town of Sagua la Grande) and 

 Sabaneque (near Eemedios) 

 were pile dwellingSi^" not unlike 

 those of the Indians now inhab- 

 iting the delta of the Orinoco 

 and the shores of Lake Mara- 

 caibo in South America ; but 

 these adaptive conditions do not 

 necessarily show kinship, and 

 more probably were of inde- 

 pendent origin. The resem- 

 blances between Floridian and 

 Cuban coast peoples were due 

 to contact and interchange of 

 culture. 



There were at least two dis- 

 tinct stages of culture in abo- 

 riginal Cuba. The natives in 

 the first stage were savages with 

 few arts, but those of the second 

 stage were as highly developed 

 as any of the West Indian abo- 

 rigines. Tlie one was an archaic 

 survival, the other an intro- 

 duced culture which originated 

 outside the island. 



The people of the first stage 

 were survivors of the earliest in- 

 habitants of the island, but they 

 have left little to the archeolo- 

 gist to indicate the status of 

 their .culture; nevertheless, it 

 was evidently of a very low or- 

 der. The natives of the Cuban 

 coast and of the numerous small 

 islands were fishermen. Their 



'^^ These houses built on piles wori^ 

 called barbacoas. The polygonal or cir- 

 cular house with conical roof was known 

 as a caney, and the quadrangular dwell- 

 ing, with two-sided root, a bohio or bujio. 



Fig. 07. — Petaloid celt (Santiago Museum). 



