Between the Mainland and the Islands: The Amerindian Cultural

Geography of Trinidad
Author(s): Arie Boomert
Source: Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, 50(1):63-73. 2009.
Published By: Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3374/014.050.0105
URL: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.3374/014.050.0105

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 Between the Mainland and the Islands:
The Amerindian Cultural Geography of Trinidad
Arie Boomert
Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University,
P.O. Box 9515, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
—email: aboomert@hotmail.com

Abstract
This paper discusses the physiographical characteristics, prehistoric cultural development and
ethnohistory of Trinidad. It concludes that both the island’s cultural sequence and its Contact Pe-
riod sociography closely resemble those of the lower Orinoco valley and delta, showing that Trin-
idad can be seen both as a physical and cultural continuation of the South American continent.
The pivotal role Trinidad played in the patterns of interaction, exchange and transmittance of cul-
ture from the mainland to the West Indies and vice versa is also analyzed. Finally, the fragmented
nature of Trinidad’s Contact Period Amerindian population, seen in its ethnicity, linguistic affili-
ation and sociopolitical organization, is contrasted with the uniformity shown by the archaeolog-
ically reconstructable tradition of indigenous pottery manufacture characterizing the island until
as late as the middle 18th century.

Keywords
Archaic, Arauquinoid, Barrancoid, ceramic, Mayoid, Saladoid.

Introduction action to and from the island as well as the simi-

Trinidad is a continental island which, because of
its geographical position directly offshore the
South American mainland, formed a central hub
in the system of Amerindian exchange, commu-
nication and diffusion of culture that developed
in the region encompassing the Orinoco Valley,
the Gulf of Paria, the Guiana coastal zone and the
southern islands of the Lesser Antilles during Ce-
ramic times (Figure 1). Trinidad’s position of “in-
betweenness” is reflected in its prehistoric cultural
sequence and the island’s Amerindian cultural ge-
ography, which can be reconstructed from perti-
nent documentary evidence dating back to the
Contact Period. This paper investigates the phys-
ical and sociocultural position of Trinidad be-
tween the mainland and the West Indies,
discussing the patterns of pre-Columbian inter-
larities and differences between Trinidad’s prehis-
toric cultural sequence and that of the lower
Orinoco valley. In addition, the fragmented char-
acter of the island’s early historic Amerindian eth-
nicity, linguistics and sociopolitical configuration
is compared with the similarly disunited makeup
of the lower Orinoco River and the coastal zone of
the mainland during the same period.
Physiography and Maritime
Interaction Routes
Situated on the northern edge of the South Amer-
ican continental shelf, Trinidad is the southern-
most island of the West Indies. It was severed from
the mainland by post-Pleistocene sea level rise
and the emergence of the Columbus Channel and
the Gulf of Paria, which separate Trinidad from

Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History 50(1):63–73, April 2009.

© 2009 Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University. All rights reserved. • http://www.peabody.yale.edu
64 Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History 50(1) • April 2009
Figure . Geographical situation of Trinidad. Legend: 1, swamps and marshes; 2, edge of continental shelf
(200 m below mean sea level); 3, 1000 m contour line.
the Orinoco River delta and the east coast of Ven-
ezuela. Accordingly, the island is closely associ-
ated both biotically and abiotically with the South
American continent. Its varied physiographic
makeup consists of three chains of progressively
lower mountains aligned on an east–west axis and
two intervening lowlands, from north to south:
the Northern Range, the Northern Basin, the
Central Range, the Southern Lowlands and the
Southern Range. The Northern Range rises
steeply from both the north coast and the North-
ern Basin, which forms the drainage area of the
Caroni, Trinidad’s largest river system. Reaching a
maximum altitude of 940 m, the Northern Range
effectively isolates the northern seashore from the
rest of the island. Originally most of Trinidad was
covered by various types of tropical rainforest, al-
ternating with stretches of dry savanna, savanna
woodland and freshwater swamps or marshes. Ex-
tensive mangrove stands are found along the is-
land’s littoral, intersected by sand beaches and
rocky shores. Living coral reefs are restricted to
Trinidad’s northeastern offshore zone.
Formerly travel to and from Trinidad was
largely determined by the main ocean current that
affects the island, namely the South Equatorial or
Guiana Current, and the prevailing northeastern
trade winds (Agard and Gobin 2000). Coming
from the southeast, this current deflects the silt-
laden outflow of the Orinoco River to the north-
west and bisects on reaching Trinidad, continu-
ing to flow partly along the island’s east coast and
partly along its southern littoral. Floating objects
are carried by the Guiana Current to Trinidad’s
south coast from as far as the mouth of the Ama-
zon River and the Guiana coastal zone. Because
of the annual outpouring of the Orinoco River, the
condition of the surface water in the Gulf of Paria
approaches that of freshwater throughout the wet
season. The huge mainland effluent colors the
Trinidad waters a coffee-and-milk brown, also fa-
cilitating the drifting of animals with low salt tol-
erance from the delta to the island’s southern
shore. Trinidad’s four coastlines are quite differ-
ent from each other. The sea is rough all along the
east coast because of the trade winds, and here the
beaches are constantly pounded by the Atlantic
rollers. The rocky north coast, which harbors only
a few sandy beaches, is the least accessible. In con-
trast, the south coast is characterized by slight
points, various sheltered bays and rocky shores.
The west coast, finally, is shoaly with mud flats
and lined with bays forming safe natural harbors
along its entire length.
Interaction with the east coast of Venezuela
across the Gulf of Paria, indeed a tranquil and al-
most landlocked basin, is easy. The Paria Penin-
sula can be sighted continuously from Trinidad’s
 The Amerindian Cultural Geography of Trinidad • Boomert
west coast, while the delta of the Orinoco River is
visible from the southwestern littoral of the island.
Communication between Trinidad and the Ori-
noco Valley was formerly kept up mainly by using
the four westernmost outlets of the delta. The
Manamó and Pedernales were preferred for trav-
eling from Trinidad to the lower Orinoco. As the
crossing of the Serpent’s Mouth, which connects
the Columbus Channel with the Gulf of Paria, is
difficult because of the contrary current, aborigi-
nal dugouts and sailing craft often used two other
Orinoco delta outlets, the Capure and Macareo,
for the return voyage. The current similarly ham-
pers the direct crossing from Trinidad to the
Guiana coastal zone. As a result, Amerindian
travel in this direction generally took place along
the Lower Orinoco, where an inland waterway of
dendritically interwoven creeks and rivers leads
from the Río Grande, the easternmost Orinoco
branch, to as far as the Moruka and Pomeroon
rivers in coastal Guyana. From here one only has
to travel a short distance on the open sea to reach
the mouth of the Essequibo River, whose basin
forms the largest river system of the three Guia-
nas.
Because of the adverse current in the Gal-
leons’ Passage between Trinidad and Tobago, the
crossing by canoe to Tobago required quite some
effort and navigational skill. If all went well, it took
a day and a night to accomplish. Communication
between the two islands was facilitated by the fact
that northeast Trinidad is almost always in view
from south and central Tobago, and vice versa.
Profiting from the current, Grenada, the south-
ernmost of the Windward Islands, can be reached
easily by canoe, especially from Tobago. Grenada
and Trinidad are separated by the greatest expanse
of open ocean encountered anywhere among is-
lands in the Caribbean, some 140 km. Although
Trinidad and Tobago are equidistant from
Grenada, Tobago may have been used as a halfway
station for travel to the Windward Islands.
Grenada can be spotted from high ground on To-
bago’s west coast on exceptionally clear days in the
wet season, but normally the Lesser Antillean is-
lands can be recognized at sea from distances of at
most 50 nautical miles. Benefitting from the cur-
rent, the coastal zone of Paria and the islands of
Margarita, Cubagua and Coche offshore Venezu-
ela could be reached with little effort by dugout
from north Trinidad, although passing the
65
Dragon’s Mouths, which separate the Paria Penin-
sula from Trinidad, remained a treacherous en-
terprise. The return trip was difficult and travel
between Margarita and Grenada may have been
much easier because of the prevailing wind and
current conditions. Besides, the Testigos may have
been a halfway stop.
Trinidad’s situation at the crossroads of wa-
terways between the South American mainland
and the Caribbean archipelago made the island
the natural gateway for communication and ex-
change of goods and ideas in the region. Trans-
portation and interaction along waterways is also
typical of the former and current Amerindian
communities of the South American tropical low-
lands, where the widespread river systems of the
Orinoco, the Río de la Plata and the Amazon form
the main channels of communication. Conse-
quently, the dense web of sea channels, rivers and
estuaries, together constituting the interaction
sphere of which Trinidad is the focal point, should
be conceived of as a body of land united rather
than divided or bounded by water (Figueredo and
Glazier 1982; Boomert 2000). This maritime ori-
entation of the island’s former Amerindian occu-
pation is shown, for instance, by the fact that in
aboriginal times interaction between the Amer-
indians of the east Venezuelan coast and those liv-
ing across the Gulf of Paria in West Trinidad was
much more intensive than that between the latter
and the inhabitants of Trinidad´s north and east
coasts. Communication primarily took place
along the island’s littoral; overland routes were ev-
idently used to a much lesser extent. As elsewhere
in the Caribbean (Watters and Rouse 1989), the
island mass thus formed a barrier reducing intra-
island interaction.
The Amerindian
Cultural Sequence
Trinidad’s prehistoric and protohistoric cultural
development closely reflects the sea-oriented
view of its former Amerindian population. The
first relative chronology and pre-Columbian cul-
tural classification of the island was devised by
the late B. Irving Rouse, who conducted archae-
ological excavations at nine sites in Trinidad in
July and August of 1946 and, together with John
M. Goggin, in August and September of 1953.
Rouse’s research took place in cooperation with
66 Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History 50(1) • April 2009
John A. Bullbrook, a local avocational archaeolo-
gist attached to the Royal Victoria Institute Mu-
seum (the present Trinidad and Tobago National
Museum), Port-of-Spain, as a curator from 1953
to 1962. The archaeological materials Rouse ex-
cavated, now kept at the Peabody Museum of
Natural History at Yale University, allowed him
to distinguish a series of preceramic and ceramic
complexes in Trinidad (Rouse 1947, 1953). Be-
sides, he was able to correlate the Trinidad se-
quence with those sequences he had developed
for the mainland of South America, more specif-
ically, the lower Orinoco valley and the West In-
dies. Rouse’s framework has stood the test of time
and still forms the backbone of Trinidad’s prehis-
toric chronology and cultural classification. Sub-
sequent work by Harris (1976, 1978, 1991) and
Boomert (1985, 2000) has elaborated and modi-
fied Rouse’s sequence without significantly alter-
ing it. Accordingly, several successive Lithic,
Archaic and Ceramic cultural units can be dis-
tinguished in Trinidad’s pre-Columbian past,
most of which have been named after sites exca-
vated by Rouse.
Nomadic bands of Lithic hunters and for-
agers, whose material culture can be classified as
belonging to the Joboid series, already frequented
Trinidad perhaps as early as about 8000 Cal BC,
before the island’s separation from the mainland.
However, the first major occupation took place
after Trinidad became an island. Archaic (Meso-
Indian) hunters, fishers and food collectors first
occupied Trinidad between about 6000 and 4000
Cal BC, when the Gulf of Paria and the Columbus
Channel gradually attained their present level and
configuration. Seafaring and navigating with large
dugouts was an integral part of the Meso-Indian
cultural heritage. The first movement of Amer-
indians into the Lesser Antilles took place by Ar-
chaic Indians of the Ortoiroid series from
Trinidad and the east Venezuelan littoral at about
5000 to 4000 Cal BC. Trinidad’s Meso-Indian
communities retained contacts with the Indians
of the Paria Peninsula, the west coast of the Gulf
of Paria, Tobago and the Windward Islands until
the end of Archaic times (Harris 1976). Conse-
quently, the patterns of extra-insular interaction
shown by Trinidad’s Ceramic peoples already ex-
isted in the Meso-Indian episode. The present
Warao Indians of the Orinoco delta and north-
west Guyana, who formerly subsisted exclusively
on hunting, fishing and food collecting, may be
the direct descendants of the Ortoiroid Indians of
Archaic times. Small groups of Warao inhabited
parts of south and west Trinidad well into the 18th
century, while Warao made regular visits to the is-
land from the Orinoco delta until as late as the
1940s.
Trinidad was settled by small groups of pot-
tery-making horticulturalists from the South
American mainland by about 300 Cal BC. These
probably Arawakan-speaking Indians, who added
the cultivation of bitter cassava and other root
crops to the indigenous subsistence economy, may
have reached Trinidad from the eastern littoral of
Venezuela, the Orinoco delta or the coast of
Guyana. Their cultural tradition is known as the
Saladoid series, because their ancestors inhabited
the Saladero site on the lower Orinoco after hav-
ing descended this river from its middle reaches
(Gassón 2002). By about 800 Cal BC, the Indians
of the Saladoid series were dislodged from the
lower Orinoco Valley by groups of new arrivals,
known as the peoples of the Barrancoid series.
The Saladoid settlement in Trinidad marked the
onset of the island’s Ceramic Age and is charac-
terized by two successive pottery complexes, Ce-
dros and Palo Seco, both considered to belong to
the Cedrosan Saladoid subseries. Whereas sites of
the Cedros complex are restricted to Trinidad’s
southwestern coastal zone, those of the Palo Seco
complex are to be found all over the island. Many
of these sites consist of configurations of large
shell midden deposits. Simultaneously with their
occupation of Trinidad, the Saladoid peoples rap-
idly colonized the West Indian archipelago and by
the first centuries AD had established themselves
from the South American mainland to as far
north as Puerto Rico. The Cedrosan peoples may
have learned the art of navigating and the build-
ing of seaworthy dugouts from the Archaic pop-
ulations they encountered along the shores of
northern South America. Their way of living was
typically that of egalitarian village societies in
which status differences fluctuated (Boomert
2001).
The pottery typifying the earliest Saladoid
communities is remarkably uniform throughout
the Caribbean. Well-finished, small- to medium-
sized bowls and jars with quite a variety of vessel
shapes are diagnostic, notably inverted bell-
shaped bowls, keeled jars and large cassava-beer
 The Amerindian Cultural Geography of Trinidad • Boomert
brewing containers. Small “nostril” bowls show-
ing tube-like extensions were apparently used by
shamans for pouring tobacco or pepper juice into
the nose to induce an ecstatic visionary trance.
The Saladoid vessels are decorated with predom-
inantly white-on-red painted or zoned-incised
crosshatched designs next to modelled-incised
biomorphic head lugs (adornos). The latter ade-
quately reflect the profoundly animistic nature of
Saladoid religion. Small three-pointed artifacts
made of stone, bone or shell, which were probably
used for vegetative magic, may represent the pro-
totypes of the elaborately sculptured examples en-
countered in late prehistoric times in the Greater
Antilles. The Saladoid villages are typically located
on high and well-drained land just behind the
seashore often close to the estuaries of small rivers,
although inland sites are known as well, with most
found on low hills close to perennial streams. Sal-
adoid subsistence was based on root crop horti-
culture, hunting for small game, and inshore and
estuarine fishing and food collecting, notably the
gathering of shellfish and edible wild plants, palm
nuts and other resources. Throughout the period
of colonization Saladoid communication and ex-
change across the West Indian archipelago re-
mained intensive, suggested by the widespread
occurrence of exotic trade objects, notably orna-
ments made of semi-precious rock materials.
Meanwhile, the pottery of the Barrancoid se-
ries culminated in what is known as the Los Bar-
rancos complex of the lower Orinoco. Heavy,
thick-walled vessels, predominantly bowls with
flanged rims, jars and double-spout-and-bridge
bottles, showing red- or black-painted designs
and elaborately modelled-incised adornos with
strong shamanic connotations, are typical. From
about the first century AD some form of cultural
influence started to radiate from the Barrancoid
center on the lower Orinoco towards the Saladoid
communities of the eastern littoral of Venezuela,
the Orinoco delta, Trinidad, and the middle Ori-
noco valley. It is reflected in the gradual adoption
of Barrancoid ceramic modes by the local Sal-
adoid potters, suggesting frequent contacts for-
malized by ceremonial exchanges in a localized
interaction sphere (Rouse 1983; Boomert 2000).
In Trinidad the onset of these Barrancoid stylis-
tic influences is noticeable on the island’s south
coast in the early manifestations of the Palo Seco
complex. They become even more noticeable
67
after the establishment of the Barrancoid series
in this same area of the island by about Cal AD
300. Their ceramic assemblage, the Erin complex,
seems to have flourished simultaneously with the
later part of Palo Seco. Besides, it is encountered
exclusively at Saladoid sites, suggesting that the
Barrancoid immigrants went to live in existing
Saladoid communities, intermarrying with the
Trinidadian villagers. Beyond southwest Trinidad
the Barrancoid influence is shown only by trade
pottery at Saladoid settlement sites. Such Barran-
coid exchange wares with strong shamanic asso-
ciations have been found as far north as Tobago.
As the Barrancoid peoples apparently formed
the dominant partners in the Saladoid–Barran-
coid exchange relationship, we must assume that
they were primarily responsible for carrying out
the trade expeditions radiating from the lower
Orinoco valley, cementing the interaction sphere.
The growing intensification of local interaction in
the region is also reflected by the presence at the
Saladoid sites of Trinidad of many stone artifacts,
especially axe heads, imported from Tobago, the
Windward Islands or the Paria Peninsula. While
apparently central and south Trinidad interacted
most intensely with the adjacent portions of the
South American mainland, the island’s north
coast was aligned more closely with the Venezue-
lan littoral and offshore islands, Tobago and the
southern islands of the Lesser Antilles. This is ex-
emplified by similarities with the fine-line incised
decorative motifs on the ceramics of the Palo Seco
communities of Trinidad’s north coast, the Río
Guapo complex of coastal Venezuela, the Mount
Irvine complex of Tobago, and the Insular to
Modified Saladoid pottery of the Windward Is-
lands. It is illustrative of the isolated situation of
the island’s northern seashore with respect to the
portion of Trinidad south of the Northern Range.
The latter mountains clearly were a major barrier
for Trinidad’s prehistoric intra-island interaction.
A third major ceramic tradition, the Arau-
quinoid series, crystallized in the middle Orinoco
region by about Cal AD 500. After a short episode
of influencing the Barrancoid earthenware of the
lower Orinoco, Indians producing Arauquinoid
pottery moved downstream, establishing their
own villages here as well as incorporating for-
merly Barrancoid ones.They later moved to the
Venezuelan coastal zone, Trinidad and the Guia-
nas (Boomert 1985, 2003). The onset of Arauqui-
68 Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History 50(1) • April 2009
Figure . Amerindian ethnic groups in Trinidad, about AD 1600. Legend: 1, 100 m contour line; 2, swamps
and marshes.
noid influence in Trinidad was restricted to the
south coast of the island, resulting in the develop-
ment of a mixed Barrancoid–Arauquinoid local
ceramic tradition, the St. Catherine’s complex. It
resembles the pottery that developed simultane-
ously under Arauquinoid stimulus out of the Bar-
rancoid cultural heritage in the Orinoco delta and
the coastal zone of Guyana, the Apostaderan (Late
Mabaruma) subseries (Williams 1996). The suc-
ceeding fully Arauquinoid pottery assemblage of
Trinidad, known as the Bontour complex, is suf-
ficiently like that of the eastern littoral of Venezu-
ela that both can be considered to belong to the
same ceramic subseries, Guayabitan. Simple jars
with inflected contours (showing punctated ap-
pliqué fillets at the neck bases) and open bowls are
typical. Decorated pottery is reduced to a mini-
mum. This resembles the situation that charac-
terized the lower Orinoco area from the onset of
Arauquinoid times and may indicate that ceram-
ics were less imbued by ceremonialism than dur-
ing Saladoid–Barrancoid times. Perhaps shamanic
eschatological expression now manifested itself on
artifacts made of perishable materials.
Settlement sites of the Bontour complex are
to be found mainly in south Trinidad, but this is
probably due to insufficient research elsewhere
in the island. Most of these former villages consist
of extended shell midden deposits, similar to
those of the preceding Ceramic populations in
the island. Moreover, many Saladoid and Sal-
adoid–Barrancoid sites continued to be inhabited
during Arauquinoid times. The subsistence econ-
omy of the Bontour peoples seems quite similar
to that of Saladoid–Barrancoid times, although it
is possible that by now maize had been added to
the local menu. Interaction with the lower Ori-
noco, the eastern littoral of Venezuela, and To-
bago remained intensive. Trade items from the
lower Orinoco encountered in Bontour contexts
in Trinidad include, for instance, pottery, espe-
cially cassava griddles, characterized by freshwa-
ter sponge spicules (cauixí) used as tempering
material. Cauixí-tempered earthenware is typi-
cal of the Arauquinoid communities throughout
the Orinoco basin and beyond. Cauixí-tempered
roller stamps, found on Trinidad’s south coast, are
exchange objects from the mainland. They were
probably used for body painting. In the lower and
middle Orinoco valley such ceramic roller
stamps were highly regarded items of ceremonial
exchange among the local Arauquinoid commu-
nities. Finally, Bontour pottery, which is charac-
teristically tempered with crushed shells, has
been encountered as a “trade” ware at contempo-
raneous sites in the lower Orinoco Valley and on
Tobago, the Testigos and Carriacou (Grenadines).
The final Amerindian ceramic tradition of
 The Amerindian Cultural Geography of Trinidad • Boomert
Trinidad, the Mayoid series, is characteristic of the
Amerindian–European contact period (Boomert
1985). It emerged perhaps a few centuries before
the time of Trinidad’s discovery by Europeans in
1498. At some sites sparse amounts of Mayoid
pottery have been found associated with Bontour
ceramics, suggesting a certain period of overlap
between Mayoid and Guayabitan. Mayoid pottery
is exclusively tempered with caraipé, the burned
bark of a small savanna tree that once grew on the
island. Caraipé is typically used today by Amer-
indians of the Guianas to temper their pottery
clay; it has been suggested that the origin of the
Mayoid series should be sought in the Guiana
coastal zone. Vessel forms include open bowls,
necked cooking jars and large cassava-brewing
containers. Decoration is limited to small nicked
pellets or narrow, black-painted zones along ves-
sel rims. The pottery of the Mayoid series shows
faint resemblances with that of the Koriaban sub-
series, the prehistoric precursor of modern Kalina
(Carib) pottery of the Guianas, and its derivative,
the Cayo complex, which can be taken to repre-
sent the ceramics of the historic Island Caribs of
the Windward Islands (Boomert 1986). Mayoid
ceramics have been encountered in association
with Spanish majolica at St. Joseph, Trinidad’s first
Spanish capital, founded in 1592, which remained
the major center of Spanish occupation on the is-
land until well into the 18th century. Besides,
Mayoid pottery is known from the Capuchin mis-
sion sites founded by the Spanish among Trini-
dad’s Amerindians from 1687 onwards. While
some of these missions survived until 1849, man-
ufacture of Mayoid pottery may have ceased by
the mid-18th century. Its makers may have intro-
duced the Cariban language to Trinidad.
The cultural sequence that characterizes Trin-
idad during Archaic and Ceramic times, showing
the succession of the Ortoiroid, Saladoid, Barran-
coid, Arauquinoid and Mayoid series, largely
agrees with that encountered in the lower Orinoco
valley and delta, as well as the east Venezuelan
coastal zone (Gassón 2002). This suggests that
there was a continuous flow of information
among the Amerindians of these areas through-
out most of the Archaic and Ceramic ages. Trini-
dad and the adjacent parts of the South American
mainland must have formed one extensive inter-
action sphere, tightly knit by ties of kinship, lan-
guage, exchange, war and culture. Apparently,
69
developments taking place on the continent were
quickly felt in Trinidad and vice versa. The May-
oid series is the exception to the rule, because it
has not been encountered in the Orinoco valley
or the east Venezuelan coastal zone to date. The
resemblances between Mayoid and the Koriabo–
Cayo continuum are insufficient to conclude that,
just as Cayo, the Mayoid series represents an off-
shoot of Koriabo (Boomert 1986). However, its
absence from the Orinoco valley can be taken to
represent circumstantial evidence supporting this
derivation. Be this as it may, the prehistoric se-
quence of Trinidad from Archaic to Ceramic
times shows that culturally the island should not
be conceived of as part of the Lesser Antilles, but
as an extension of the mainland of South America
—which in a physical sense indeed it once was.
The Contact Period
Sociocultural Situation
At the time of the European–Amerindian en-
counter Trinidad formed a complex multi-ethnic
and multi-lingual conglomerate of Amerindian
groups of possibly varying sociopolitical com-
plexity (Boomert 2000). Intra-island interaction
was limited. This is exemplified by the case of
John “of Trinidad,” a Cariban-speaking Indian
from southwest Trinidad, probably a Yaio, who
stayed in England for some time and functioned
as an interpreter during Ralegh’s 1595 Orinoco ex-
pedition. In the following year he accompanied
Keymis on the latter’s voyage along the Guiana lit-
toral. During this expedition John “was altogether
unwilling” to comply with Keymis’ request to con-
tact the Amerindians of the Toco region in north-
east Trinidad, as “he knewe no part of that side of
the island” (Raleigh 1848; Keymis 1904). In fact,
as late as the 1880s, thus well in the colonial pe-
riod, the inhabitants of Port-of-Spain still consid-
ered the Mayaro region in the southeast of the
island to be a strange country. Communication
typically took place by boat, skirting round the is-
land, and this was a pattern that dominated trans-
port from prehistoric times until the early 20th
century. In addition, the Northern Range was a
major obstacle to interaction across Trinidad’s
landmass. As we have seen, it effectively isolated
the north coast from the rest of the island.
In all, six Amerindian ethnic groups are
known to have inhabited Trinidad during the con-
70 Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History 50(1) • April 2009
tact period: the Carinepagoto (Kalina, Caribs);
Chaguanes (Warao); Yaio; Shebaio; Arawak
(Lokono); and Nepoio (Boomert 1984; Harris and
Elie 2005). Estimates are that at the time of the Eu-
ropean discovery the island had some 35,000 in-
habitants (Newson 1976). The Carinepagoto ori-
ginally inhabited northwest Trinidad, especially
the region where the Spanish settled in 1592, after
which these Indians moved elsewhere, probably to
the north coast and Tobago. The central part of
Trinidad’s west coast was occupied by Chaguanes,
while Yaio lived in the southwest of the island. She-
baio and Arawak were to be found along the south
coast adjoining the Nepoio, who occupied the
central portion of Trinidad as well as part of the
east coast (Figure 2). Because of Spanish pressure,
in the early 17th century many Amerindians fled
from the island to the coastal zone of the Guianas,
after which the Yaio and Shebaio disappeared
from the record. By the 1630s only some 4,000
Amerindians were reportedly still living in Trini-
dad. The Nepoio and Arawak are mentioned in
documentary sources throughout the 17th and
18th centuries as inhabiting the encomiendas and,
from 1687 onwards, the missions that the Spanish
established in several parts of Trinidad (Newson
1976). In the 18th century, Kalinago (Island
Caribs) from the Windward Islands and Chaima
from Venezuela’s eastern littoral settled along Trin-
idad’s north coast. Warao, finally, were to be found
sparsely inhabiting south Trinidad well into the
19th century. New arrivals of Island Caribs from
the Windwards intermingling with the Nepoio in
the late 18th and early 19th centuries ultimately led
to the adoption of the name Carib by all people of
Amerindian descent on the island.
Linguistically, the Amerindian population of
Trinidad was quite heterogeneous and included
Cariban-, Arawakan- and Waraoan-speaking
peoples alongside groups probably characterized
by gender-related bilinguality comparable to that
of the Island Caribs of the Lesser Antilles. Unfor-
tunately, there are few reliable records on the lin-
guistic affiliations of the Trinidad Amerindians,
except for some word lists written down by Eng-
lish and Dutch sailors and Spanish chroniclers at
the end of the 16th century. As a result, it is diffi-
cult to draw any definite conclusions on this sub-
ject. The Waraoan-speaking Chaguanes must
have been distinct from the other Amerindian
peoples of the island, as they were nonhorticul-
tural, subsisting exclusively on hunting, fishing
and food collecting, just as the present Warao of
the Orinoco delta and northwest Guyana did until
well into the 20th century. All other Indians of
Trinidad practiced root crop horticulture next to
hunting, fishing and gathering. Finally, it is likely
that sociopolitically most Amerindian groups on
the island formed tribal entities, principally egal-
itarian societies of at most several thousand peo-
ple living in a series of semi-independent villages,
not unlike those of the present Arawak (Lokono)
and Kalina (Caribs) of the Guianas and Orinoco
Valley. In these societies the division of labor was
principally based on sex and age, while leadership
was exercised by successful warchiefs, so-called
big men whose position was not hereditary. The
Chaguanes, finally, may have been organized as
bands, each consisting of a series of extended fam-
ilies, similar to the present Warao.
The name Arawak became a generic term for
many of the Trinidad Amerindians, including Ne-
poio, Yaio, Shebaio and Arawaks (Lokono), in Eu-
ropean records of the mid-16th century. At that
time these Indians were favorably disposed to-
wards the Spanish, exchanging cassava bread for
iron implements and weapons with the colonists
of the pearl islands, Cubagua and Margarita
(Boomert 1984). Still a century afterward the
name Alouagues, recorded by the French mis-
sionary Breton, was similarly used by the Island
Caribs to identify collectively their favorite ene-
mies and trade partners. Indeed, several early doc-
umentary sources do not distinguish between the
Nepoio and Arawaks while, instead, in the mid-
18th century the Arawaks of Berbice knew the
Nepoio as a separate ethnic unity. All of the Amer-
indian ethnic groups that can be identified in
Trinidad also resided on the mainland, notably in
the lower Orinoco valley and delta, as well as the
westernmost part of the coastal zone of the Guia-
nas (Glazier 1980; Heinen 1992; Heinen and Gar-
cía-Castro 2000). Apart from Trinidad, the
Nepoio are known exclusively from the lower Ori-
noco valley, while the Chaguanes (Warao) were
originally confined to the Orinoco delta and the
adjacent portion of northwest Guyana. The Yaio
and Shebaio are recorded as living scattered
throughout the entire coastal zone of the Guianas,
but this may be due partially to their exodus from
Trinidad, which started in the 1590s. Finally,
Arawaks (Lokono) and Kalina (Caribs) still in-
 The Amerindian Cultural Geography of Trinidad • Boomert
habit large parts of the Guianas and Orinoco Val-
ley. The latter occupy the east Venezuelan Llanos
as well. All of this indicates that the ethnic, lin-
guistic and sociopolitical fragmentation typical of
Amerindian Trinidad echoes the situation on the
mainland (Heinen and García-Castro 2000; Per-
era 2000), confirming the conclusion drawn from
the island’s prehistoric to protohistoric sequence
that culturally Trinidad can be considered an ex-
tension of the South American continent.
According to the documentary sources, there
were strong resemblances between the lifeways of
the Contact Period Amerindians of Trinidad and
those of the lower Orinoco valley and delta
(Boomert 2000). Apart from shared subsistence
practices and methods of food processing, there
are especially close correspondences between the
settlement patterns and house forms of both
areas. Early 16th-century descriptions suggest
that the Trinidad Indians lived in large, entirely
closed, bell-shaped houses with double roofs
of palm leaves. Apparently, these multifamily
dwellings were capable of sheltering up to 100
people. A village could be composed of several of
these communal houses and consist of up to 400
to 500 inhabitants. Settlements are invariably
called “large” in the ethnohistoric sources on
Trinidad as well as the Orinoco valley. Although
the available descriptions are undoubtedly liable
to some measure of exaggeration, they leave a
strong impression that especially the lower Ori-
noco region was densely settled. It is possible that
some Amerindian groups in the latter area were
sociopolitically somewhat more advanced than
the inhabitants of Trinidad in the Contact Period.
At any rate, there is documentary evidence sug-
gesting that some of the villages of the Arawak
and Guaiana Indians on the lower Orinoco were
organized as minimal chiefdoms, characterized
by hereditary chiefly positions. However, by no
means did the society resemble the elaborate
chiefdoms of, for instance, the Taíno of the
Greater Antilles. Descent seems to have been pre-
dominantly matrilineal in Trinidad as well as on
the mainland.
Both war and exchange represented social in-
stitutions essential to the functioning of the Con-
tact Period Amerindian societies of the region.
Small-scale warfare and trade or ceremonial ex-
change actually formed inseparable aspects of the
same process of social interaction between neigh-
71
boring peoples or conglomerates of ethnic groups
such as the Kalina and Arawak (Lokono) and
their allies. Traditionally this included raids on
each other’s villages and naval battles between
fleets of canoes. In the 1530s Baucunar, a “big
man” of the Carinepagoto, successfully forged a
possibly multi-ethnic military alliance of several
village chiefs of Trinidad and the Paria Peninsula
to oppose a Spanish expeditionary force which,
aided by Arawak from Trinidad’s south coast, was
attempting to settle in the northwestern portion
of the island. In spite of the lasting hostilities
among Trinidad’s Amerindian peoples, the ex-
change of highly valued ceremonial objects next
to that of common trade wares continued. These
exchange items were highly valued because of
their exotic origins and often strong symbolic as-
sociations. Trinidad can be characterized as an in-
termediary in the complicated system of exchange
between the South American mainland and the
Antilles, actually functioning as a kind of hub be-
tween both areas. The settlement of the Spanish
in the pearl islands rapidly reorientated the tradi-
tional communication networks towards the Eu-
ropean settlements because the iron tools that
could be obtained there were very much in de-
mand among the Amerindians. Nevertheless,
throughout contact times three major categories
of “primitive valuables” found their way from the
Orinoco Valley and the coastal zone of the main-
land towards the Antilles: frog-shaped amulets
and accoutrements made of greenish rock (often
nephrite), reputedly made by the mythological fe-
males-without-men; male breast ornaments of a
gold–copper alloy known as guanín; and enor-
mous necklaces consisting of hundreds of small
shell beads, on the mainland known as quiripá.
During the 18th century the latter even developed
into a kind of “commodity money,” both in Trin-
idad and on the mainland.
Remarkably, the linguistic and ethnic differ-
entiation noted for Trinidad and the lower Ori-
noco valley during the Contact Period is not
reflected in the archaeological record to date.
Partly this may be attributed to the still insuffi-
cient level of archaeological investigation on the
mainland. However, this does not apply to Trini-
dad, which is so much better known. Indeed,
throughout historic times the island had a re-
markably uniform Amerindian ceramic tradition,
the Mayoid series, characterizing not only the
72 Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History 50(1) • April 2009
mission sites the Spanish established on the island,
but also the kitchen ware they used at their own
major settlement, St. Joseph. Trinidad remained a
poor outpost of the Spanish empire until late in
the 18th century and only its northwestern por-
tion could be controlled effectively by the Span-
ish. The rest of the island was inhabited exclusively
by Amerindians. It was not until the 1770s that
the indigenous population was smaller than that
of the Spanish and mestizo settlers, other than
black slaves. Because of this “frontier” situation,
in the 1680s the Spanish decided to establish mis-
sions to Christianize the Indians, to acculturate
them to the Spanish way of life and in this way
pacify them. The historical sources suggest that
both the few existing encomiendas as well as the
missions were inhabited predominantly by Ne-
poio and Arawak Indians. Clearly, the Mayoid
earthenware is characteristic of the pottery reper-
toire of these peoples. In addition, it is typical also
of those parts of the island that were not inhab-
ited by either of these groups, notably the Toco
area of the northeast. Consequently, it would seem
that the different ethnic and linguistic groups liv-
ing on Trinidad at the time of the European dis-
covery shared one and the same tradition of
pottery making.
Conclusions
The available archaeological and ethnohistorical
evidence suggests that Trinidad formed part of a
wide-reaching network of interaction, communi-
cation, war and exchange encompassing parts of
the South American continent, Tobago and the
southern portion of the Windward Islands. The is-
land was a major node in this system, apparently
as the intermediary between the islands and the
mainland. Interaction typically took place by wa-
tercraft, skirting Trinidad’s littoral. Clearly, intra-
island interaction was obstructed by the Northern
Range, as a result of which the north coast formed
a sphere of interaction, to a certain extent differ-
ent from Central and South Trinidad. The latter re-
gion was clearly focused on the Orinoco valley and
delta, the west coast of the Gulf of Paria and the
Guiana coastal area. In contrast, the northern lit-
toral of the island concentrated on interaction
with the coastal zone of Paria, Tobago and the
Lesser Antilles. Trinidad’s system of regional com-
munication and exchange is of methodological
interest to students of prehistoric interaction pat-
terns, because it confirms Broodbank’s (2000)
conclusion that the unitary island is by no means
the ideal spatial unit for archaeological recon-
struction. Another methodological lesson can be
drawn from the apparent uniformity shown by the
protohistoric pottery tradition dominating Amer-
indian Trinidad notwithstanding the ethnic and
linguistic fragmentation of the island in contact
times, attested by the contemporaneous docu-
mentary sources. A similar pattern can be taken to
be characteristic of the South American main-
land. No doubt this situation underlines the an-
thropological truism, which is nevertheless often
ignored, that archaeologically established cultural
traditions, generally based on distinctive styles of
pottery manufacture, need not be identical with
ethnic or linguistic units.
Acknowledgments
This paper is dedicated to the late Benjamin Irv-
ing Rouse, in life the Charles J. MacCurdy Profes-
sor of Anthropology at Yale University and a
curator at Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural His-
tory, who established the first relative chronology
and prehistoric cultural classification of Trinidad
following archaeological excavations on the island
in 1946 and 1953. The archaeological finds from
Trinidad curated at the Yale Peabody Museum as
the result of Rouse’s investigations of the island are
the most complete and varied collection of pre-
Columbian remains from Trinidad anywhere in
the world. They are a lasting legacy of by far the
most important scholar of Caribbean archaeology
of the 20th century. This paper is the outcome of
research conducted at the Yale Peabody Museum
and funded by the Yale Department of Anthro-
pology in April 2005. I am indebted to B. Irving
Rouse, Frank Hole, Richard L. Burger, Roger H.
Colten, Birgit Faber Morse and Maureen P.
DaRos, all of the Peabody Museum, for facilitating
and assisting my study of the archaeological col-
lections from Trinidad curated there. Thanks are
due also to Alistair J. Bright, Peter O’Brien Harris
and Alice V. M. Samson, who critically read the
first draft of this manuscript and suggested sev-
eral improvements of the text.
Received 30 May 2008; revised and accepted 25
December 2008.
 The Amerindian Cultural Geography of Trinidad • Boomert 73

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