“The almost complete disappearance of the Neo-Indians was as a result of their backwardness”. Discuss.

The Americas was populated by Neo Indians before Christopher Columbus’ 1492

“discovery”. The Ciboney were found in parts of Cuba and the Bahamas and the most

numerous groups the Taino in Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (presently, Haiti and the

Dominican Republic), and Puerto Rico. The smaller eastern island chain was the home

of the Caribs, Barbados and a number of smaller islands were not permanently

inhabited and the Chibcha, the Warao, the Yanomamo, the Caracas, the Caquetío, or

the Jirajara were found anywhere from Panama to Brazil.

The societies and cultures (linguistic features, agricultural practices, food ways,

medicine, fishing practices, technology, architecture, oral history, and religious views) of

the Neo Indians were structured and I believed far from backwards. While some

indigenous peoples of the Americas were historically hunter-gatherers, many

practiced aquaculture and agriculture. The impact of their agricultural endowment to the

world is a testament to their time and work in reshaping and cultivating the flora

indigenous to the Americas. Some societies depended heavily on agriculture while

others practiced a mix of farming, hunting, and gathering. In some regions the Neo

Indians created monumental architecture, chiefdoms, large-scale organized cities, 

states, and empires.

The extent of the development of the Neo Indians can be seen in their political,

economical and social organization. For instance, the social and political organization of

Carib society reflected both their military inclination and their mobile status. Villages

were small, often consisting of members of an extended family. The leader of the

village, most often the head of the family, supervised the food-gathering activities,

principally fishing, done by the men, and cultivation, a task for the women. In addition,

the leader settled internal disputes and led raids against neighboring groups. The

purpose of these raids was to obtain wives for the younger males of the village.

The Taino Indians lived in organized, hierarchically arranged kingdoms. Communities

were divided into three social classes: the naborias, who were the working class, the

nitainos or sub-chiefs and noblemen, which included the bohiques or priests and

medicine men, and the Caciques or chiefs. Each Taino kingdom was ruled by a Taino

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Cacique, or chieftain. Taíno societies performed the traditional activities of fishermen

and hunters, and agriculture. Their staples included maize (corn), beans, squash,

peanuts, yucca, and tobacco. They created a variety of tools and artifacts by polishing

stones and carving wood, and they were accomplished potters, crafting a variety of

utilitarian pieces and small figurines of animal and human forms, male and female,

which represented spirits considered sacred by each community. The Taínos also made

houses, called bohíos, out of cane or bamboo, and formed villages, which were ruled by

caciques or behiques, whose functions comprised those of priests, doctors, and chiefs.

They also cultivated cotton, using it to weave fishing nets and sleeping hammocks.

Tobacco was used for religious, medicinal, and ceremonial purposes. The late Fifteenth Century saw the Neo Indian population of the Americas

undergoing mutual adaptations. The generally more peaceful Arawaks were becoming

more adept at fighting; and, away from the contested frontier, the Caribs, like those in

Trinidad, were spending more time on agriculture than warfare. When the Spanish

arrived in the Caribbean in 1492, Columbus was impressed by the beauty, peaceful

nature, and agricultural techniques of the Neo Indians, and often wrote about the

richness and productivity of the land. One of the main reasons for the Europeans

interest in the New World was for the exploitation of its resources. The resources found

in the New World to be used for exploitation included its human resources, the Neo

Indians. As the conquerors, the Europeans believed that they were entitled to the labour

of the Neo Indians and as a result of this the Neo-Indians were used to provide the

labour needed in the fields and the mines. The almost complete disappearance of the

Neo Indians can be accredited to this and other factors, such as starvation and over

work and not their supposedly backwardness.

One major cause of the almost complete disappearance of the Neo Indians is

starvation. Many Indians were subsistence farmers, when the lands they used in their

food cultivation and gathering was commandeered by the Spaniards their ability to feed

themselves were greatly reduced or removed. The fact that they however were taken

away from their fields and forced to work in the mines searching for gold for the

Spaniards, also contributed to they not being able to provide food for themselves and

their families and many died of starvation.

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The Encomienda System 1503 also contributed to the almost complete disappearance

of the Neo Indians. The Encomienda was a legal system, instituted by Nicholas

Ovando. This System was employed by the Spanish crown during the colonization of

the Americas to regulate Neo Indian labour. In the Encomienda, the Spanish crown

granted a person a specified number of natives for whom they were responsible. This

included the receiver of the grant protecting the natives from warring tribes and

instructing them in the Spanish language and in the Catholic faith: in return they could

extract tribute from the natives in the form of labour, gold or other products. In practice,

the difference between Encomienda and slavery were minimal. Many natives were

forced to carry out hard labour and subjected to extreme punishment and death if they

resisted. Under the Encomienda system the Neo Indians were underfed, ill-treated,

overworked and abuse.

Other causes of the disappearance of the Neo Indian population include the

introduction of European disease for which the Neo Indians had neither immunity nor

cure and acts of brutality. The diseases brought to the New World by Columbus and his

men included smallpox, cholera, measles and influenza. Europeans would purposely kill

and maim the Neo Indians. Europeans would shoot at the feet of the Neo Indians as a

sport to see them dance. Europeans would also play games to see who could kill a Neo

Indian in one blow.

ConclusionThe Neo Indians were progressively wiped out by the after-effects of the

European “discovery”/ conquest and not from their volitions. The Europeans who

invaded and conquered the Caribbean terminated the internally cohesive world of the

native peoples and subordinated the region and the peoples to the events of a wider

world. The Neo Indians were devastated by new epidemic diseases, hard work,

starvation and brutality. Their social and political organizations were restructured in the

name of Christianity. Their simple lives were regimented by slavery and the demands of

profit-oriented, commercial-minded Europeans. Above all, they were slowly inundated

culturally and demographically by the stream of new immigrants in the years

immediately after the conquest.

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A backward people would not have any bearings on society and the Neo Indians have

contributed to the culture and development of the Americas. The Neo Indians left

indelible influences on the languages, diet, and ways of life of the people who live in the

region. Caribbean food crops, such as peanuts, cashew nuts, potatoes, tomatoes,

pineapples, pumpkins, manioc, and maize, have spread around the world. The Indians'

habit of smoking tobacco has become widespread, and tobacco has become an

important commercial commodity. Arawakan and Cariban words have permeated the

languages of the region: words such as agouti, avocado, barbecue, bohio (a peasant

hut), buccaneer, calpulli (an urban zone),caney (a thatched hut), canoe, cannibal,

cassava, cay, conuco (a cultivated area), quaqua (a bus or truck), quajiro (a peasant),

guava, hammock, hurricane, iguana, maize, manatee, and zemi (an icon).

The almost complete disappearance of the Neo-Indians was not as a result of their

backwardness but the effects of the European conquest.

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