Cannibal Encounters: Europeans and Island Caribs, 1492–1763When the natives of Hispaniola first told Christopher Columbus of their feared enemies to the east - using the Arawak word caniba or carib - the admiral considered two possible explanations. Either these fierce warriors were soldiers of the nearby Great Khan (Spanish can) or they were cannibals. Europeans' dawning awareness of New World geography soon proved Columbus's first theory wrong. But the second has persisted for centuries. In Cannibal Encounters Philip Boucher analyzes the images - and the realities - of European relations with the people known as Island Caribs during the first three centuries after Columbus. Boucher begins by examining the current debate about the Caribs' ethnic origins and the controversy over their supposed cannibalism. Subsequent chapters show how French and English Caribbean policies evolved and how those policies were related to - and influenced by - literary and cultural images in the work of such thinkers as Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau. Although the French and the English developed similar plantation economies that meant harsh treatment for the Caribs, French relations with the islanders were usually less strained than those of the British. Among the reasons for this difference, Boucher argues, were the benevolent influence of French missionaries and merchants and the firm hand of French government, which restrained colonialists' worst excesses. Based on literary sources, travelers' observations, and missionary accounts, as well as on French and English colonial archives and administrative correspondence, Cannibal Encounters offers a vivid portrait of a troubled chapter in the history of European-Amerindian relations. |
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Page 8
... later period , when " rationalist calcula- tions came to play a preponderant role , " certainly seems compatible with the differing " Arawak " and " Carib " experiences with the Europeans . 26 The Island Caribs ' refusal to accept ...
... later period , when " rationalist calcula- tions came to play a preponderant role , " certainly seems compatible with the differing " Arawak " and " Carib " experiences with the Europeans . 26 The Island Caribs ' refusal to accept ...
Page 17
... later . 17 Fierce Carib resistance to Spanish slavers and their subsequent raids on Spanish islands such as Puerto Rico inevitably " confirmed " the validity of the first impressions . Although the aborigines were unable to prevent ...
... later . 17 Fierce Carib resistance to Spanish slavers and their subsequent raids on Spanish islands such as Puerto Rico inevitably " confirmed " the validity of the first impressions . Although the aborigines were unable to prevent ...
Page 45
... later 1630s , burgeoning European populations in the islands increased pressure for expansion . With perhaps as many as twenty thou- sand inhabitants in the English islands - more than half at Barbados 60- and upwards of seven thousand ...
... later 1630s , burgeoning European populations in the islands increased pressure for expansion . With perhaps as many as twenty thou- sand inhabitants in the English islands - more than half at Barbados 60- and upwards of seven thousand ...
Contents
Europeans and Island Caribs in | 13 |
EuroCarib Relations during | 31 |
The Island Carib Struggle | 61 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
A.N. Col aborigines accounts Acosta Allaire Amerindians Anthropology Antigua Arawaks Baas Barbados Black Caribs Blénac Brazilians Breton British British West Indies Caliban cannibals capesterre Caraïbes Carib Cannibalism Carib culture Carib islands Carib raids Caribbean Christopher civilization Clodoré Colbert colonists Columbus contemporary Council coureurs d'histoire despite Dominica Dominica Caribs Dutch edited England English especially Euro European evidence française France Fredi Chiapelli French Colonial French island governor governor-general Greater Antilles Grenada Guadeloupe Gullick Histoire générale History Hobbes hostile Hulme human Ibid Images of America impact Indian Island Caribs island officials Jesuit John l'Amérique Labat Leewards Léry Lesser Antilles London Lucia man-eating Martinique Martire missionaries Montaigne Myths natives natural noble savage numbers Paris peace pean Petitjean Roget Philip Warner Pierre pirogues readers relations Rochefort Rousseau settlement settlers seventeenth century ship slaves sources Spanish Stapleton Tertre tion Trade treaty Tupinambas University Press views Vincent vols West Indies William Willoughby World