Manipulation of the Concept “Indian” in the Caribbean

Abstract

Abstract The Spanish conquest and colonization of the Americas profoundly transformed the societies and environments of the continent. Harsh colonial labor exploitation, imported diseases and violence led to a dramatic collapse of Indigenous societies, and the emergence of populations blending existing Indigenous and external cultural attributes. The surviving local populations were forced to conform to the social roles and identities assigned to them in the world ruled by foreign Others. The unfortunate role of the Caribbean, and particularly of the Greater Antilles, as the initial stage of conquest and colonial enterprise still has many legacies. One of them is the colonizers’ conceptualization of the Indigenous inhabitants of the Greater Antilles as “Indians.” This term became a colonial and racial category that was imposed upon many Indigenous peoples throughout the Americas. By combining results from various historical, and to a lesser extent archaeological studies from Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic, we examine how the representation and identities of Indigenous peoples or their descendants were manipulated by various actors from the arrival of Christopher Columbus and other Europeans in 1492 to the present day. A critical study of this stereotypical image of Indigenous peoples of Greater Antilles unveils the influential role of this term in shaping national histories. Its uncritical reproduction becomes even more problematic as it can lead to alienation from one’s own past given that it is phrased according to a Eurocentric vision of history that is rooted in a particular space and connected to a particular group of peoples.