ARAWAK

American Indians of the Greater Antilles and South America who spoke languages of the Arawakan linguistic group. The Antillean Arawak, or Taino, were agriculturists who lived in villages, some with as many as 3,000 inhabitants, and practiced slash-and-burn cultivation of cassava and corn (maize). The people were arranged in social ranks and gave great deference to theocratic chiefs. Religious belief centred on a hierarchy of nature spirits and ancestors, paralleling somewhat the hierarchies of chiefs. Despite the complex social organization, the Antillean Arawak were not given to warfare. They were driven out of the Lesser Antilles by the Carib shortly before the appearance of the Spanish. The South American Arawak inhabited northern and western areas of the Amazon basin, where they shared the means of livelihood and social organization of other tribes of the tropical forest. They were sedentary farmers who hunted and fished, lived in small autonomous settlements, and had little hierarchical organization. The Arawak were found as far west as the foothills of the Andes. These Campa Arawak, however, remained isolated from influences of the Andean civilizations.