Who were the first people to live in Jamaica?

The first inhabitants of Jamaica arrived in two distinct waves of migration from islands to the east. The earliest known group, referred to as the "Redware people," arrived around 600 CE, though little is known about them beyond their distinctive pottery.1

They were followed around 800 CE by the Arawakan-speaking Taino. The Taino established a society based on fishing and the cultivation of crops like corn and cassava, living in villages governed by chieftains known as caciques. Following the arrival of Europeans in 1494, the Taino population was decimated by enslavement, overwork, and introduced diseases, and they had virtually disappeared from the region by the early 17th century.1