Page 26 - TI GUIDE ANTIGUA & BARBUDA 2020- IT-ENG

TIMES GONE BY The earliest people to live in Antigua and Barbuda were primitive people who probably arrived from South America about 2,000 BC. They were followed by seafaring, Arawak-speaking farmers and shermen who settled in villages around our coastlines about 200 BC. The Arawaks were a peaceful people, catching sh, growing corn and cassava and being skilled in the art of pottery. Their tribes were ruled by a chief, or cacique. Held in great respect was their religious leader, the shaman, who was in contact with the ‘other’ world and who performed religious rites and divination. The Arawaks used tobacco, which they smoked in a special kind of pipe, or rolled into cigars, and drank a liqueur made from corn. In 600 AD their peaceful existence was disturbed by the arrival of a warlike tribe from the Amazon forest, the Caribs. Their name derives from the Spanish word caribal, meaning cannibal. The Caribs conquered and occupied all the lands of the Arawaks. GESCHICHTE 26 GESCHICHTE