The Origins of Guyana’s Amerindians

The wind whistled deafeningly that day as they crossed over the Bering Strait, from Asia into North America in search of food, their feet numbed by the ice, while they followed herds of animals from one feeding ground to the next, in search of a place to call their home. The tribes travelled further south until they reached Mexico and Florida, at which point one group continued the southward march through the Isthmus of Panama and into South America, while another took to the sea route and started to colonize the West Indian Islands. 
Before the Amerindians discovered the Golden City of Eldorado, they journeyed along the ice cold sea after the land bridge had disappeared.   The Journey began approximately 12000 years ago as they travelled from Asia to the Americas via the Beringia, a land bridge which connected the two continents across what is now the Bering Strait during the fourth ice age in search of food.
They introduced to these shores a dynamic culture, one which was unique and would still be practiced even to this day. Their economy was based on hunting, fishing and collecting wild resources, and they organized themselves into small bands rather than settling in villages. They used the techniques of chipping and grinding to make tools of stone, bone, and shell.
They also brought with them some agriculture, with the cassava root as their main staple. The farmers were more sedentary, thus village settlements were established for the first time.
Some of those who came to South America reached the Coast of Guyana 1500 years ago and thus became the first Guyanese.

Appearance
Columbus, after discovering the Amerindian, found that they looked a lot different to his people; their natural skin colour was bronzed olive; they had a good posture and appeared to be strong and robust. The Amerindian never wore clothes but they used a loincloth to conceal their privates. However, even with such an appearance, one could have definitely indentified a married woman since she wore a piece of cloth closely resembling that of an apron.
Amerindians’ beauty was displayed mainly by their hair, which they often wore long; their hair was black and straight with a sheen. Another was the flattened forehead, which created a beautiful look for them also; the mothers of these children would normally flatten their forehead with a board or cushion, or by their mother’s elbows pressed against them
Necklaces made of seashells and other animal bones, or sometimes bones of their enemies, hung around their necks.  On their feet they wore little bells of seashells, while the women wore a little sash with bells attached. The rattle of snail shells accompanied dances on strings that dancers wore around their arms, hips, calves and heels.
Every day Amerindians reddened their bodies with a mixture of roucou and castor oil.  It was believed that this would please their enemies and that they would have nothing to fear if they took this precaution. After painting their husband’s body with roucou the wife wiped her hands on her leggings to stiffen them.
For fine black paint to be used for facial painting, gum was burnt from the root of the gum tree. A man often stood for twelve hours while his wife drew curves and lines from shoulders to buttocks. She also covered the back, arms and chest with fanciful lines, which were not unpleasant to look at. This decoration was made for warfare and for feasts.

Amerindian food and cooking methods
The Amerindians, whose economy was based on hunting, farming and fishing, introduced to Guyana many dishes, which have become not only Amerindian tradition, but also a tradition to all the different races in Guyana.
Fish was shot with the bow and arrow from the rocks and then retrieved by diving. They were often inebriated first, using a certain beaten up bark of a tree.  Nets were made of palm fibre or cotton. Rocks were taken to dive for lobsters and for conchs.  Turtles were caught by slipping a cord around their flippers and by harpooning.

Crabs were searched for at night by using torches made from torchwood. Pelicans and kingfishers were tamed to fish for them. Hunted were: Rice-rat, birds, iguana, snakes, worms, insects, spiders. Birds were shot with an arrow with a wad of cotton on the end instead of a sharp head. Birds were trapped in small traps and also by strong glue from resins. Parrots were gassed from fires lit under trees in which gum, green pimentos or peppers were burnt.

Food was often roasted on a boucan, from which we get the word ‘barbecue’. Food was also roasted in the embers of a fire. The ash formed a jacket that was later scraped off. Sometimes roasts were wrapped in clay and placed straight in the fire. When the clay was broken open, feathers or scales came with it.
Boiling was not so common except for crabs. Crabs were cooked in a pot with little water and much red pepper, the whole being covered with leaves. Fish, half gutted and with scales left on, were also cooked this way. No salt was ever used.
Cassava is a root vegetable that is the main staple of the Amerindians. The cassava plant grows easily, but is a factor of soil degradation. This is probably the reason why the Amerindians moved slowly up the Lesser Antillean chain when they left South America at about the time of Christ. Cassava kept and travelled well in ocean-going canoes.  After processing, it produces flour, bread loaf (6 ins thick) and several other varieties, a sauce called cassareep and a wine. As a vegetable it was light on the stomach. It is cooked over a fire on a griddle.
Agouti is a dark brown rodent that lived in Antigua.  It is about the size of a rabbit, and was introduced to South America by migratory Amerindians. Agouti was hunted by non-barking dogs. It was kept for a day as it was too gamy, then it was salted, smoked and boiled in cassava juice for a long time to tenderize it. The guinea pig was another mammal occasionally used as food.
Larger birds, like Terns, had their wings cut half off and were turned in the fire to burn off the feathers. They were then left on a grill to smoke.  Small birds were wrapped in leaves to cook slowly. The outer skin was peeled off and the guts taken out. They were eaten without a sauce. Sometimes small birds were boiled in cassava juice with peppers, they were smoke-cured, then drawn and feathered.  Flamingos and parrots were aboriginal fare present in Antigua and were prized for their flesh and colourful feathers.
Fish was boiled in fresh water, often half cleaned without being scaled. It was sometimes roasted on a spit. Fish was seasoned with peppers. Sea food was kept alive in corrals until needed; this was a common food storage m
Crabs were a delicacy. Many different species of crabs and shellfish have been found archaeologically in kitchen middens (garbage dumps).  Conch and whelks appear to be the commonest in most village sites.
The pepperpot was called Tomali  (Toma= Sauce, ali= clay pot). This method of cooking was an ingenious type of food storage. A rich brown
pungent sauce was made by boiling any or all of the following available items:- fish heads, bones of fish, agouti, rice rat (Oryzomys spp.), iguana, birds, monkey, seashells (chip-chips, oysters, whelks) into a deep clay fire pot with peppers, sweet potatoes, cassava juice and fine cassava flour. Cassava bread and other meats were dipped into this stew. It was boiled continuously and added to next day. Father Breton noted that it was rather unhygienic (even by 17th century standards!) as often roucou (body paint) and old women’s hair was always found in pepper pots.
Maize (corn) was roasted on coal and maize cakes, Kayzu, were made by boiling. Green maize soup was also made.  Other vegetables were yams (kuchu), beans (mankonti), arrowroot baked, Carib cabbage (taya) was used as a seasoning. Peanuts were eaten with cassava. Some fruits were the pineapple, introduced from South America, and the native coco plum (Chrysobalanus icaca L.) Native seaside grapes and the fruits of the prickly pear cactus were also eaten, as well as many other introduced plants as avocado, soursop, guava, paw-paw and mamey.
Delicacies were raw fish eyes, and the entrails of the sea-cucumber were sucked out. If food was short, these holothurians were rubbed in the ashes of a fire to rid them of their slime and then cooked.  Another delicacy was lice, particularly those from the heads of their enemies, these were rolled between the teeth for a quarter of an hour to savour. Toads (houa), snakes, worms and insects were also eaten.  The Amerindian thus exploited natural resources to the maximum. They were very fond of honey.
The main alcoholic drink was cassava wine, Wi’ku. This was a heady drink made from cassava and sweet potatoes fermented in syrup and water.  “Gossiping old women” chewed and spat out the cassava, which was fermented in pots.  A beer was made from maize (pallino), and pressed pineapples were used. The juice was probably left to ferment as a wine.  A soft drink was honey and water – maba, and another was made from the cooked roots of the Carib cabbage. An unknown plant called karratas was used to make a drink to quench the thirst when far from water. During the European contact period, the Caribs pounded sugarcane in a pestle and boiled it to make a drink.

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