Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

Frameworks for Caribbean Prehistory / 45
together, to form another kind of “mixed” people. They were then expelled from
St. Vincent by the British in 1796–1797 and they settled in Honduras and Belize,
where they currently occupy some 60 fishing villages. Their language today
is overwhelmingly Arawakan, hence the close similarity between it and Lokono
and what we know of the extinct Taíno language.
As we have seen, these are really dialects of the same language. What about
Taíno as a designation for the native inhabitants of the Greater Antilles? In this
regard, Arie Boomert has apposite things to say, in his chapter in Volume 1 of
the UNESCO General History of the Caribbean ( Sued- Badillo 2003:189, note
18). As he remarks, much confusion has arisen because of the inability of
scholars to differentiate between linguistic, cultural, and ethnic units. “Both
the names Taino and Arawak were bestowed upon the now extinct natives of
the Greater Antilles by nineteenth century linguists.” Linguistic affiliation does
not equate with ethnicity (the feeling of belonging to a particular group of
people); hence, in his view the use of the term Arawak is ill advised, and on balance
he opts for Taíno. But, as he says, it must be realized that this term also
does “not represent the original name which the Indians of the Greater Antilles
gave to themselves.” “As they were organised in sociopolitical chiefdoms,
they probably lacked such an overall name but, instead, called themselves after
the chiefdom to which they belonged.” Hence there would be numerous local
names, and, if only to avoid fruitless argument, it would be well to bear this
in mind.