5606nm+Ancient+Civ+Report

When people think about Native Americans, they picture people living in teepees, hunting buffalo, and riding horses. The Arawak of Central America, however, were fishers and farmers that lived in large circular buildings called “bohios” made of wooden poles, woven straw, and palm leaves. The Arawak lived in what is present day Western Cuba, Puerto Rico, and El Salvador

An important part of Arawak culture was its ability to obtain food. Hunting and harvest were important to the Arawak because they needed to hunt and harvest food to survive. We can learn more about this cultural aspect by looking at the Arawak's fishing, farming, and hunting.

Arawaks hunted for food they daily fished in the swamps, and along the coral reefs that surround the island. They used harpoons; bows; arrows; trap lines; spears; and nets.The fish that were caught were groupers; snappers; Jack; barracuda; and flying fish. When the Arawak went on fishing expeditions they used hungs to make canoes which were called, “hangouts.”

Arawaks were princely farmers. They planted many types of vegetable and fruit such as cassava, peppers, beans, corns, yams, sweet potato, gourds, peanuts, squash, guavas, and pineapples. They uses many tools such ax, picks, hammers, wedges, and others. They grew cotton which was use to make their hammock beds.

Arawaks also hunted to get food. They hunted little mammals, lizards, birds, iguanas, guty, and Indian gony, which gave the most of their meat. Hunters imitated birds sounds to trick the birds so they would go into their nets. They used three tools to hunt, which were sticks, stones, and nets. They also raised dogs, which they used for hunting and sometimes the uses as food.

By 1494 only one third of the 4 million Arawaks were left. Historians though they had extinct, but it was later found out that the Arawaks had moved to the mountains. Today, 2,000 Arawaks live in western Cuba but they are not full-blooded Arawaks. Even though many people don't know what the Arawaks left behind, they were the first Native Americans found by Christopher Columbus. A lesson that we have learn about the Arawaks is that even though they didn't have that complex tools they were creative and make them work.

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