This site emerges from a project known as the Caribbean Amerindian Centrelink, which was active from 1998 through 2008, until it was largely replaced by the Indigenous Caribbean Network (ICN) and this news site. The CAC was distinctly "Web 1.0".
The Caribbean Amerindian Centrelink was first established in September of 1998 by Maximilian C. Forte, and published from the borough of Arima on the island of Trinidad that is part of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. By March of 1999, an international editorial board was formed. At one time or another, CAC editors have been based in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, and France.
The CAC's motto was "From the Guyanas to Central America, from the Antilles to North America". North America was included since many Caribbean territories currently have diasporic populations resident there, i.e., Tainos from Puerto Rico and Garifunas from Belize. Central America was included due to the deportation of "Black Caribs" from St. Vincent in the 1790s to that region, with contemporary communities existing in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, amongst whom the Island Carib language is still spoken. The Guyanas (Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana) have formed a cultural and historical part of the Caribbean, from pre-colonial times to the present.
The CAC's editorial statement was as follows:
The Indigenous Legacy of the Caribbean
The Native Inhabitants of the Caribbean have a long and rich history of cultural development that is often overshadowed by the tragedy of their being the first Amerindian people to suffer the effects of European colonization. As the first to encounter Columbus, the Taino and Carib have been written into Western history as the first victims of Spanish genocide in the Americas.
For reasons of political expediency, the Native people of the Caribbean were declared extinct in the mid-sixteenth century, even though they continued to exist on the margins of Caribbean colonial society. Against great adversity -- sharing with and borrowing from other cultures -- Indigenous bloodlines, traditions, and life ways persisted for five hundred years to the present. While the degree of Native heritage and the strength of Native identification varies from island to island and community to community, many individuals of Indigenous Caribbean ancestry are today reclaiming their past. Upon examination and contemplation, the story of their extinction is proving to have been a myth. There is a general awakening of the Native contributions to Caribbean culture and, contrary to the record of extinction, the Taino and Carib are entering the twenty-first century very much alive.
Critical re-assessment of historic chronicles along with ethnographic studies of Indigenous survivals in the Caribbean are providing a more complete record that contradicts the supposed extinction of the Taino and Carib. Indian people and customs are found continuously "between the lines" of census records and historical reports and a large amount of Native culture has survived in the forms of language, food ways, architecture, agriculture, medicinal knowledge, folklore, family life, spiritual practice, and popular identity. Blood studies and anthropometric studies have also supported commonly held understandings of the persistence of certain biological characteristics identified with Natives in many parts of the Caribbean.
While it is certainly true that the Native people mixed with Africans and Spaniards, and incorporated different bloodlines and culture into their own, this does not mean they became "extinct." Anthropologists have begun to discard racist definitions of group boundedness and today see how populations are in a constant state of flux. When survival is the principal goal of community, cultural forms become flexible toward this end. From outside the community come questions of "Who is or is not an Indian?" Inside the community it goes without saying and begs the question "Who has the authority to define?" Furthermore, as suggested in the American Anthropological Association's recent Statement on Race, the notion of "blood purity" is neither a biological concept nor does biology have a necessary connection to cultural continuity.
In different parts of the Caribbean, Native identification is expressed differently. In the Dominican Republic, for example, Taino heritage is so pervasive in many contemporary cultural forms-- including language, food ways, agriculture, architecture, medicinal knowledge, crafts and technologies, folklore and religion, and other forms of popular expression -- that it is difficult to maintain the theory of Taino extinction. However, while Taino heritage is strong, the Taino past has been downplayed in favour of an assimilated, colonized Hispanic nationalist identity. Like the identities of many colonized people living in American nations, history and culture have been driven by the actions of State and Church control. Furthermore, contemporary European and Western culture threaten traditional cultural forms as do social and economic processes of foreign emigration and migration to cities to work for foreign sponsored assembly and tourist industries.
The direction that Taino and Carib identity will take in the twenty-first century Caribbean seems to depend on both the survival of indigenous cultural elements in the face of advancing Western capitalist culture, and on the work of motivated individuals to critically examine the composition and politics of their past and present. The same could be said of Taino and Carib identity in the American diaspora.
Ultimately, though, it is an emotional feeling of identification that comes from the heart that leads to the defining and strengthening of culture. The simple possession of an inventory of cultural attributes, rituals, or the expression of resistance against oppressive forms of history and culture are only part of the story. This "identification from the heart" arises from the active vision of elders, the true teaching of parents to their children, the selfless commitment of individuals to their community, and the heartfelt love and respect for the spirit of the land people live on and call their home. And it is in these subtle, yet transcendent ways that the Taino and Carib have struggled and survived.
Copyright © 1999, Pedro J. Ferbel, Ph.D.
The CAC's editorial statement was as follows:
The Indigenous Legacy of the Caribbean
The Native Inhabitants of the Caribbean have a long and rich history of cultural development that is often overshadowed by the tragedy of their being the first Amerindian people to suffer the effects of European colonization. As the first to encounter Columbus, the Taino and Carib have been written into Western history as the first victims of Spanish genocide in the Americas.
For reasons of political expediency, the Native people of the Caribbean were declared extinct in the mid-sixteenth century, even though they continued to exist on the margins of Caribbean colonial society. Against great adversity -- sharing with and borrowing from other cultures -- Indigenous bloodlines, traditions, and life ways persisted for five hundred years to the present. While the degree of Native heritage and the strength of Native identification varies from island to island and community to community, many individuals of Indigenous Caribbean ancestry are today reclaiming their past. Upon examination and contemplation, the story of their extinction is proving to have been a myth. There is a general awakening of the Native contributions to Caribbean culture and, contrary to the record of extinction, the Taino and Carib are entering the twenty-first century very much alive.
Critical re-assessment of historic chronicles along with ethnographic studies of Indigenous survivals in the Caribbean are providing a more complete record that contradicts the supposed extinction of the Taino and Carib. Indian people and customs are found continuously "between the lines" of census records and historical reports and a large amount of Native culture has survived in the forms of language, food ways, architecture, agriculture, medicinal knowledge, folklore, family life, spiritual practice, and popular identity. Blood studies and anthropometric studies have also supported commonly held understandings of the persistence of certain biological characteristics identified with Natives in many parts of the Caribbean.
While it is certainly true that the Native people mixed with Africans and Spaniards, and incorporated different bloodlines and culture into their own, this does not mean they became "extinct." Anthropologists have begun to discard racist definitions of group boundedness and today see how populations are in a constant state of flux. When survival is the principal goal of community, cultural forms become flexible toward this end. From outside the community come questions of "Who is or is not an Indian?" Inside the community it goes without saying and begs the question "Who has the authority to define?" Furthermore, as suggested in the American Anthropological Association's recent Statement on Race, the notion of "blood purity" is neither a biological concept nor does biology have a necessary connection to cultural continuity.
In different parts of the Caribbean, Native identification is expressed differently. In the Dominican Republic, for example, Taino heritage is so pervasive in many contemporary cultural forms-- including language, food ways, agriculture, architecture, medicinal knowledge, crafts and technologies, folklore and religion, and other forms of popular expression -- that it is difficult to maintain the theory of Taino extinction. However, while Taino heritage is strong, the Taino past has been downplayed in favour of an assimilated, colonized Hispanic nationalist identity. Like the identities of many colonized people living in American nations, history and culture have been driven by the actions of State and Church control. Furthermore, contemporary European and Western culture threaten traditional cultural forms as do social and economic processes of foreign emigration and migration to cities to work for foreign sponsored assembly and tourist industries.
The direction that Taino and Carib identity will take in the twenty-first century Caribbean seems to depend on both the survival of indigenous cultural elements in the face of advancing Western capitalist culture, and on the work of motivated individuals to critically examine the composition and politics of their past and present. The same could be said of Taino and Carib identity in the American diaspora.
Ultimately, though, it is an emotional feeling of identification that comes from the heart that leads to the defining and strengthening of culture. The simple possession of an inventory of cultural attributes, rituals, or the expression of resistance against oppressive forms of history and culture are only part of the story. This "identification from the heart" arises from the active vision of elders, the true teaching of parents to their children, the selfless commitment of individuals to their community, and the heartfelt love and respect for the spirit of the land people live on and call their home. And it is in these subtle, yet transcendent ways that the Taino and Carib have struggled and survived.
Copyright © 1999, Pedro J. Ferbel, Ph.D.
The CAC editors were:
TRACY ASSING (Carib)
Carib/Cariña of Trinidad
6 Prospect Avenue, Maraval
Port of Spain, Trinidad
Republic of Trinidad & Tobago
West Indies
E-Mail: tkabones [at] yahoo [dot] com
Tel: 868-622-3821
JANETTE BULKAN, PhD (ABD)
Amerindians of Guyana
School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Yale University
205 Prospect Street
New Haven, CT 06511
United States of America
E-Mail: janette [dot] bulkan [at] yale [dot] edu
DR. GERARD COLLOMB
Galibi (Caribs) of French Guiana
Laboratoire d'Anthropologie des Institutions, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique,
Maison des Sciences de l'Homme
54 boulevard Raspail 75006.
PARIS, France
E-Mail: gerardcollomb [at] yahoo [dot] fr
Website: http://www.laios.msh-paris.fr/collomb.html
JORGE ESTEVEZ (Taíno)
Taínos of the Dominican Republic
Public Programs
National Museum of the American Indian/ The Smithsonian
One Bowling Green,
New York, NY 10004
United States of America
E-Mail: EstevezJ [at] si [dot] edu
DR. PEDRO FERBEL-AZCARATE
Taínos of the Dominican Republic
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Black Studies
Portland State University
P.O. Box 751, Portland, OR 97207-0751, United States of America
E-Mail: pferbel [at] yahoo [dot] com
DR. MAXIMILIAN C. FORTE
Caribs of the Lesser Antilles/Webmaster
Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY
1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W.
Montreal, QC, H3G 1M8, Canada
E-Mail: mcforte [at] centrelink [dot] org
DR. LYNNE GUITAR
Taínos of the Dominican Republic
CIEE International Study Programs
Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra
Santiago de los Caballeros
Dominican Republic
E-Mail: lynneguitar [at] yahoo [dot] com
Website: Student and Researcher Services, Santo Domingo
CHERYL NORALEZ (Garifuna)
Garifuna of Belize
BA student in Communications,
Long Beach City College
Long Beach, California
United States of America
E-Mail: mamagapg [at] yahoo [dot] com
Website: http://www.labuga.com/
cheryl/cheryall.htm
DR. DAVID TIMOTHY DUVAL, 2000-2001
Island Caribs
Lecturer, Department of Tourism,
School of Business, University of Otago, PO Box 56
Dunedin, New Zealand
E-Mail: dduval [at] business.otago.ac.nz
Website: http://www.otago.ac.nz/tourism
CHRISTOPHER ECKARD, 1999-2000
Caribbean Archaeology
President of the Nansemond Chapter of the Archeological Society of Virginia
E-Mail: nansemondasv [at] yahoo.com
Website: http://www.geocities.com/ CapeCanaveral/Galaxy/2863/index.html
SANTIAGO GIRALDO, 2000-2001
South and Central America
Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia
Universidad de los Andes
Calle 12 No. 2-41
Bogotá
Colombia
