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Around 500 BCE,
the Saladoid people from the Orinoco River Basin in Venezuela entered the
Lesser Antilles and traveled northwest to Cuba. The reason for their
migration may have been due to clashes with the Barrancoid people in
Venezuela around 800 BCE, whose presence may have pushed the Saladoids out.
These settlers are credited with advances in agriculture and their use of
ceramics and pottery.
Despite their
migration route, the earliest evidence of Saladoid culture in the Caribbean
appears to be in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Though the earliest
ceramic styles do appear further south, no radiocarbon dates taken at
Saladoid sites in the Windward Islands show evidence of their settlement
until about 500 years after the Greater Antilles. Competing theories
try to explain this enigma: they either skipped over the islands instead of
navigating them in a stepping-stone fashion, or there simply hasn’t been
enough archaeological work (esp. with radiocarbon dating) in the Windwards.
Much of our
ability to place groups in regions during certain historical time periods
lies in studying carefully unearthed artifacts, including tools and ceramic
items. The earliest ceramic styles do show up in Grenada, so it’s possible
the Saladoid people were here from the beginning. However, the earliest
radiocarbon dates are at Pearls, St. Andrews, around 100 AD (CE).
Lesson
objectives
SWBAT identify the entry points into the Caribbean and
identify the places of origin of these early settlers.
● Students will list reasons why
prehistoric groups migrated, and trace their general pattern into the
Americas
● Students will explain how archaic
peoples survived and populated the Central and South Americas and, later, the
Caribbean
● Students will understand the concept
of nonrenewable or “limited” natural resources and how this led a shift from migratory,
hunter-gatherer cultures to agricultural, sedentary cultures
Pre-Visit Lesson-Part I (30 minutes)
Procedure
1. Give the students a few minutes to think about this
scenario:
The time is 3500 BCE, over 5,500 years ago.
Pretend you are part of an ancient prehistoric tribe living in a dense
jungle. The jungle has lots of lush vegetation and plant life, beautiful
waterfalls, cool rivers, mountains and valleys. The jungle is your home. It
is very dense and has a lot of wildlife and plants, but there is no one else
around you except for your tribe of 11 other people—4 men, 3 women, and 4
small children and babies. You and these 11 people know you must have food
and water to survive. Create a list of tasks and things you would need in
order to live.
Have the students write answers to these questions either as
individuals or in small groups (5 minutes):
·
What will you
eat?
·
What tools can
you make out of things found in the jungle?
·
Where can you
find water?
·
What else do
you need to do in order to survive?
2. Review
these questions and student answers as a class. Probe for answers relating
to hunting, picking/ gathering fruits and other plants to eat, collecting
fresh water, making tools (spears, arrows, and axes made of stone, rope, baskets,
ceramics, nets, etc.) for survival and hunting, and creating shelter from
jungle vegetation, mud, wood, and other materials. Write down major items
and jobs/tasks as they relate to hunter-gatherer cultures (hunting, picking
fruits/seeds/vegetation, finding water, exploring, making tools, starting fires,
finding shelter, etc.) on the blackboard as students name them.
3. Did students name agriculture/ farming? Domestication of animals? Better
tools for hunting such as the bow and arrow? (Note: bow and arrow was a
relatively “late” invention) Bones and animal hides for tools, clothing,
and protection? Explain that all of these advances started to come around at
this time, but in different places depending on where the people were
living in the world. This development marks the beginning of sedentary, agricultural
societies.
4. Explain
that sometimes, hunter-gatherer groups left their territories in search of
new lands. Pre-Clovis (Paleoindian) cultures from as long as 11,000 to
14,000 BCE (or longer) are believed to have settled the Americas from Asia
via a land bridge across the Bering Strait (Beringia). As ice regions of
North America started to melt away, larger migrations occurred, with groups
populating downward along the western coastline and deeper mainland in
present-day Canada and USA, gradually extending into Central and South
America. Using a map (if possible), trace these routes and have
students note the time periods of each major migration area (See Migrations
handout).
Ask why people
might leave their territories where they hunted and roamed. Probe for
responses like running out of animals to hunt or fruit/vegetation to eat, following
seasonal game, exploration and discovery of new, fertile lands to accompany
advances in agriculture (e.g., river basins and valleys), population growth
and competition with neighboring groups over hunting grounds, etc.
Debriefing
Use this discussion to introduce the concept of “limited natural
resources” and the transition to agriculture. Walk them through these
details to help them construct meaning:
·
When you harvest a
patch of forest for specific plants, seeds, fruits, etc., you eventually have
to move to another patch.
·
Likewise, in parts
of the world with four seasons, animals migrate as the temperature changes.
If you depend on those animals, you must move with the animals.
·
Thus, early humans
in the New World (Paleoindians) were migratory and did not create big
villages or towns, living rather in family clans.
·
When you hunt a wild
animal for food, that animal can no longer produce offspring. In fact, very
large animals cannot produce more than 1-2 offspring a year, just like
humans.
·
The more people
focused on specific animals, the less those animals could mate and grow their
own population.
·
With more and more
people raising children, more food was needed. Thus, more animals and plants
needed to be harvested, and in places where the animal population was small
to begin with, human hunting could have caused animals to disappear entirely (go
extinct).
·
No matter where
you are, however, if there are enough humans (like today), animals can be
hunted faster than they reproduce, causing extinction and creating scarcity.
·
Thus, hunter-gatherer
groups migrated to where plants and animals were more plentiful. Unlike
animals, however, plants have the opposite effect to being harvested: their
seeds are dispersed.
·
The plants people
like to eat were therefore thriving! (And other plants that might naturally
be more plentiful were struggling. Basically, people were dropping fruit pits and
seeds all over the place, dispersing their favorite plants everywhere they
went.)
·
Whenever someone
made the connection and started intentionally planting these seeds (which
appears to have started and stopped at different points and places in
history), the plants that sprouted were born into an already “domesticated”
landscape as opposed to pristine/wild nature.
·
People realized
they could simply plant the seeds of their favorite plants and stop
migrating. In the New World, this appears to have happened in the Brazilian
Amazon before moving across northern South America. Seasonal campsites became
permanent villages and towns. As long as people produced enough plants, their
populations continued to grow. Some people made useful tools, pottery, and
art and traded with people that were farming (bartering). Thus, people began to
specialize in different jobs (the basis for modern society). The first
agricultural people to migrate into the Caribbean, the Saladoids, lived like
this.
Bring
students back to the scenario: Ask them, as members of their “tribe”, what
would they have to do if their jungle started running out of fruit to pick or
animals to hunt? Relate their responses to migrating groups covered in this
lesson. Also have them think about how an island environment might cause
further stress on animal populations (e.g. smaller area for both to coexist,
environmental changes by humans, focus on fishing/marine resources could
affect those animals, etc.).
In preparation for Part II, ask them to think about
limited resources on an island vs. mainland. How does that affect group
migration?
Pre-Visit Lesson-Part II (20 Minutes)
Use Part
II to build on the concepts of migration and limited resources for
hunter-gatherer groups and explain how groups from the Central and South
Americas expanded outward and along the coastal regions of their land before
eventually entering the Caribbean. Tie migration patterns in with the
gradual advancement of cultures (agriculture, population growth, development
of canoes and maritime culture).
Ask students
to remember and think about some of the discussion from Part I, especially
the reasons why some groups may need to travel great distances to survive and
the concept of limited natural resources.
5. After living
deep in the jungle for a long time, tell students that a member of their
tribe has discovered a beach and ocean several kilometers east, with a
shallow area full of shelled creatures, strange rocks, and very foul-tasting
water. Have students discuss how this new beach/coastal land might affect
their survival—what recourses might they find there? Use this scenario to explain
how groups left the main lands of South and Central America for fertile river
valleys and eventually coastal regions, before they ever entered into the Caribbean.
6. Explain
that, after living on the coast for a time, these people became a maritime
culture (‘sea culture’) and learned to craft canoes in order to explore and
navigate the sea around them. Build on topics covered in Part I, including
how people migrated and explored lands far around them in search of more
resources, after exhausting many of the animals and vegetation they relied
on. Pair this migration concept with advances in technology, including
the ability to craft boats, which helped expand their reach into the
Caribbean.
7. Explain
also that population growth created competition and wars with other groups
and tribes in neighboring regions, who also traveled and salvaged for
food. This threat was sometimes enough to drive groups to risk their lives
crossing the sea in search of new lands.
Describe the
Casimiroid people and their travels by small canoe from Central America to
Cuba in search of additional hunting-gathering grounds and resources. Trace
their migration patterns to Cuba and Hispaniola using a map of the Caribbean
(if available). Ask students what they think the people found once they
arrived in Cuba. Was it populated with other people? Ask students what else
they may have found in Cuba. Probe for undisturbed/unsettled jungle, fertile
land and vegetation, lots of wild animals for hunting, etc. Remind them of
the period 3500 BCE, and that archaeologists believe they were the first to
arrive, based on archaeological sites and evidence of their settlements
dating back to that time period.
Next,
describe a similar push for people to explore away from the northeastern
regions of South America and north into the Caribbean. Similar competition
with neighboring tribes along the Amazon and coastal region may have helped
drive the Saladoids from the Orinoco River Basin in Venezuela into the
Caribbean, but not until thousands of years later, in 500 BCE.
Debriefing
Use these final questions to assess students’ understanding of
reasons why ancient civilizations needed to migrate in order to survive.
Alternatively, this may be given as a written assignment.
·
What are some of
the limited resources that people needed to survive when living in a jungle?
·
Why do these resources
eventually run out over time?
·
Why did people go
through such trouble of moving around so much, including crossing the ocean
to reach Cuba in the Caribbean?
·
Identify on a map
(or name) some of the areas of origins of the people who settled the
Caribbean. Why did they leave these lands?
Summarize the lesson by recounting some of the major themes and topics you
discussed, and conclude that migration patterns eventually changed because
people became more “settled” thanks to advances in farming and domestication
of animals.
The second theme, depletion of resources, ties into topics concerning limited
resources and the need to migrate. Explain how human growth in population
affects the resources around them, sometimes causing animal species to go
extinct. However, not all extinction is caused by humans: other causes
include the introduction of new species (predator) and the extinction of
plant species (food) due to climate change.
Extension Questions (Secondary)
How did geographical challenges affect migration patterns of
ancient civilizations from the Americas? What major advances were needed to
overcome these challenges?
Describe ocean currents and the counter-current mentioned in Background,
which enabled the Casimiroid people to cross from the west.
Compare and contrast the concept of “nonrenewable resources” as they
concerned ancient cultures with our own, present-day culture. How do limited
natural resources affect human lifestyle choices and society? What
challenges do present-day civilizations face, which ancient civilizations may
not have faced?
Adaptations for Struggling Students
● Rather than focus on specific groups
and time periods, much of this lesson can focus on the major distinction
between hunter-gatherer groups and agricultural groups (migrating vs.
sedentary).
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