MEAD— AN ARAWAK PENDANT 



the insular Carib differ somewhat in language, blood, and culture from 

 those of the mainland of South America, since most of them were the 

 offspring of Carib fathers and Tainan mothers, who were slaves. The 

 captive Tainan women incorporated their arts in the Carib life, 

 naturally developing a close similarity between the various mixed 

 Carib and Tainan cultures." 1 This being the case, it is possible that 

 these pendants were made by the Caribs or by the mixed race of 

 Arawak and Carib. Many of the stone objects from the West Indies 

 seem to be characteristic of both peoples. 



Let us now turn to the northern part of South America. As so 

 much of this section is peopled by tribes of both Arawak and Carib 

 stocks, we should naturally expect to find some similarities in the 

 arts, foods, etc., between the continental and insular peoples, and 

 this is the case. Throughout the Guianas, Venezuela, and Colombia, 

 for example, the chief articles of food were maize, potatoes, and 

 manioc. This is true also for the West Indies. The animals of the 

 islands used for food were doubtless derived from South America, and 

 numerous examples could be cited to show similarities in culture. 



Among prehistoric objects perhaps the best known example of 

 similarities is found in the hatchet with its handle made from a single 

 piece of stone. The American Museum of Natural History has a 

 remarkably fine specimen of this form of hatchet in the George J. 

 Gibbs collection, from Caicos island. It has been figured and de- 

 scribed by Prof. O. T. Mason. 2 From the Santa Marta region of 

 Colombia the Museum has three specimens. In workmanship these 

 are much inferior to the Caicos hatchet. 



Between the eastern coast of South America and Colombia no 

 specimens of these hatchets or of the pendants under discussion have 

 been reported; but this does not disprove their existence, for as a 

 matter of fact the ethnology of this region is very imperfectly known, 

 and of its archeology we know practically nothing. 



The stone pendant shown in no. 4 is another object which, like 

 the hatchet mentioned above, would seem to connect the peoples of 

 northern South America with those of the West Indies. 



This pendant, which comes from the upper Rio Caiary-Uaupes, 

 in Colombia, is in the collection gathered for the Museum by Messrs 

 Schmidt and Weiss. Mr Hermann Schmidt, ethnologist of the ex- 

 pedition, informed the writer that it had a wide distribution on the 

 western tributaries of the Rio Negro. In some localities it served as 

 the insignia of the chief, but in some places it was worn by all the 



1 Twenty-fifth Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnology, p. 26. 

 - Smithsonian Rep. for 1876. 



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