List of illustrations Abbreviations 1. introduction 2. The discovery 3. Aboriginal condition of the islands 4. Espanola under Columbus 5. Change of government license to discover (1499-1502) 6. Veragua, last venture of Columbus (1502-1504) 7. Organization of the Indies (1502-1509) 8. Attempts to occupy Tierra Firme (1504-1509) 9. Expansion from Espanola (1509-1519) 10. Island crisis and its effects (1509-1519) 11. Entry to Darien and the South Sea (1511-1514) 12. Cuevan country and people 13. Castilla del Oro (1514-1519) 14. Indian langs of farther Castilla del Oro 15. Establishment on the South Sea 16. Native decline and ecologic change in Castilla del Oro 17. The end of the era Index.

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The Early Spanish Main

The demography and dental traits of the skeletal samples from the necropoles of Cueva Roja (IIrd millennium b.C.), El Soco (800 a.D) and Juan Dolio (1400 a.D.) have been analyzed. The preceramic sample from Cueva Roja consists of some 50 individuals, the one from El Soco consists of 158 individuals and the one from Juan Dolio of 108 individuals. The demographic analysis has revealed a slight improvement of life conditions from the pre-contact period to the beginning of the contact period. Dental metrical traits show a marked overlapping of the metrical data for the anterior teeth. A reduction can be noted for the posterior teeth, especially for the first molar, from the preceramic period to the later ceramic period. The analysis of nutritional stresses, through the study of dental enamel hypoplasias, reveals a high incidence of stress in the preceramic population. In the preceramic group, it peaks late in childhood (3.5—3.9 years of age) which could be caused by a delay in weaning. Instead the more recent groups (El Soco and Juan Dolio) show evidence of an earlier occurrence of hypoplasia. Both peak at 3.0–3.4 years of age. The frequencies of hypoplasias calculated by type of tooth are less in the Tainos groups than in the preceramic one. From of the data now available, we can suppose that an amelioration of life conditions occurred from the preceramic period to the later ceramic period. As regards the Tainos groups, a slight improvement in life conditions can be noted from the precontact period to the period immediately before the European colonization. The dental non-metric traits show a strong homogeneity within the Taino groups. However, the preceramic group shows more marked differences when compared to the others. This could be supposed to be due to a different demic background between the Tainos and the group from Cueva Roja.

Dental anthropology and paleodemography of the precolumbian populations of hispaniola from the third millennium B.C. to the Spanish conquest

This paper examines certain colonial and contemporary texts for their representations of Amerindian cannibalism during the Columbian period. Colonial texts from this period describe cannibalism as one of the Amerindians’ major “offences” against humanity. Some contemporary studies criticize this depiction of Amerindian cannibalism as a “myth” perpetrated by colonizers and their apologists to justify the enslavement and genocide of Amerindians. On the one hand colonial texts fall prey to an ethnocentric view of cannibalism; on the other hand contemporary texts explain away this amply documented cultural phenomenon. While the two positions appear to be at variance with each other, it is suggested that what they hold in common is a schema of analyzing culture that does not easily admit the existence of a phenomenon that is “Other” without explaining it as a totalized alterity or without explaining it away. Both positions thus help reinscribe the Wild Savage-Noble Savage stereotypes.

Amerindian cannibalism: practice and discursive strategy

It is known that, during the first years of Spanish colonization in Hispaniola, there was a rapid depopulation of the island, until the Taino aborigines were totally extinct.

M. E. Danubio

Papers

The Decline of the Tainos. Critical revision of the demographical-historical sources