n.
American Indians of the Greater Antilles and South America who spoke languages of the Arawakan linguistic group.
The Taino were one Arawak group. The Arawak were apparently the people who Christopher Columbus first encountered in 1492. The South American Arawak inhabited northern and western areas of the Amazon River basin, where they farmed, hunted, and fished. Their society was relatively nonhierarchical. The Campa Arawak lived in the foothills of the Andes Mountains but remained isolated from influences of the Andean civilization s.