South American Arawak

The Arawak were Indigenous peoples of South America and the Greater Antilles. The Taino, a subgroup of the Arawak, were the first Indigenous people encountered by Christopher Columbus in Hispaniola. While Old World diseases contributed to their decline, Spanish violence, brutality, and oppression, including enslavement, also played a significant role in their demise.1

A small number of mainland Arawak still live in South America, primarily in Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and Venezuela. Their language is spoken mainly by older adults. The Antillean Arawak, or Taino, were agriculturalists who lived in villages and practiced slash-and-burn cultivation. They had a complex social organization with social ranks and religious beliefs centered on spirits and ancestors, but they were not prone to warfare. They were displaced from the Lesser Antilles by the Caribs before the Spanish arrived.12