NOTE – KALINAGOS: SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
Caribbean History
Arima North Secondary School
Teacher: Ms. M. Seaton
Term I
Form: 4:3
TOPIC:
KALINAGOS: SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF THE KALINAGOS
APPEARANCE
The Kalinagos were brown-skinned people who flattened their foreheads, and
usually went naked, with a loin-cloth for women.
They decorated their bodies with a dye called roucou. This was made from vegetable
dye and oil which the Kalinagos felt toughened their skin and protected them from
insect bites.
The Kalinagos were a very clean people, who built their villages beside a stream so
that they could wash daily.
Many men among the Kalinagos were maimed, but instead of being pitied, these
men were respected, for it was honourable among them to have suffered wounds in
battle.
Only beards were considered a deformity, and these were plucked out.
Although the Kalinagos wore no clothing, they decorated themselves in many ways.
The warriors wore caracole.
Women wore bracelets, called rassada, on their arms and legs, and men sometimes
wore necklaces made of their enemies’ teeth strung on cotton.
Both men and women wore bracelets and necklaces of amber, shell, agouti teeth,
seeds and coral, and bore holes in their lips, ear lobes into which they inserted
smooth fishbones and other ornaments.
Around their necks, also, were worn small idols representing the powerful and
frightening MABOYA.
For very special occasions the men wore feathered cloaks and head-dresses of
heron and macaw feathers, and at all times they took great care of their long hair. It
was the women’s duty to comb and oil their hair daily.
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VILLAGE AND HOUSING
A Kalinago village was made up of a small number of houses, with a carbet in the
midst of the dwellings.
The carbet, or big meeting house, was where the men assembled. It was usually 60
to 90 feet long and could hold 120 hammocks. There were stout posts supporting the
roof, and from these posts the hammock were slung.
The roof was thatched with palm fronds or cachibou leaves, which were tied down by
mahoe cords. Mahoe was the name of the tree from which the cord was made. The
carbet was entered by means of a small door.
Kalinagos houses were large (60ft x 20 ft) and some were rectangular in shape,
others were oval. The houses were smaller than the carbet.
There was only one room, and the walls were made of reeds.
The families lived in these houses. They included the father, wives and unmarried
children.
However, it was also observed that women lived in their own houses with their
children until the boys were four (4) or five (5) years old, when they were taken by
their fathers to live in the carbet with the men.
In addition to hammocks, Kalinagos sometimes slept on an amais which consisted
of a piece of cotton folded at both ends, hung from the roof.
The hammocks had a small packet of ash placed at each end, which it was thought
would make them last longer.
Other furniture included stools made from red or yellow wood, highly polished, and a
four-legged table made from latanier rushes- four-legged tables of basket work
called matoutou.
In every home was found an idol of the family maboya.
At night the homes were lighted by candles made of a sweet smelling gum.
Outside the Kalinagos built a small storehouse in which, they kept their warclubs,
their household utensils, their stone tools, and extra beds and hammocks.
There was also a hut for cooking. In the kitchens were utensils such as pottery and
calabashes, known as couris.
WHAT THE KALINAGOS ATE?
The Kalinagos ate a great quantity of sea food and pepper, but they ate neither salt,
eggs nor pig nor turtle. Nor did they eat much fat.
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They thought that eating turtle would make them slow and stupid. They believed
that eating pig would give them small, beady eyes and that eating crab before a
voyage would bring storms.
They also did not eat manatee, for fear of becoming slow.
Sometimes they made a soup from agouti bones and other left-overs which they
seasoned with pepper sauce, cassava flour and oysters; sometimes they ate grilled
fish which they cooked slowly on a wooden grid, served with a sauce called couii,
and eaten with sweet potato and yam.
Their favourite dish, however, was a stew made with crab and cassava, and
seasoned with taumalin sauce. This was made with lemon juice, pepper, and the
green meat of the crab near the shell.
With this they drank a kind of cassava beer called ouicou, which was very
intoxicating.
Like the Tainos, manioc (cassava) was a very important food to the the Kalinagos.
Women washed and grated manioc (cassava) on small boards covered with sharp,
chipped stones. Then the grated cassava was squeezed in a long tube of basketwork called a couleuve.
The juice was put aside for use later and the manioc (cassava) flour was heaped up
in wooden containers shaped like canoes.
The juice was called tomali, and it was mixed into a stew with pimentos and other
vegetables and put on the fire to boil. The tomali was the sauce for their food. The
Kalinagos families sat around a big pot of stew and dipped their cassava bread into it
as they ate.
The women also prepared a type of manioc (cassava) beer called ouicou, for
drinking at feasts. They chewed the cassava, spat it out and let it ferment.
This beer made the Kalinagos quite drunk at their feasts and often it excited them to
fight and prepare for war.
Sweet potatoes and sweet manioc were roasted over the fire. Yam and maize were
also roasted, but the latter was often pounded into a meal. Peas from wild vines
were made into soup.
Agouti, birds and fish were smoked over fires on a grill made of sticks. They
barbecued human meat and ate it from the bone. They also boiled it.
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CUSTOMS:

MEN AND WOMEN
The rights of Kalinagos men and women were strictly divided.
The men gathered around their chief in the carbet and made plans for war or for
organising the settlement.
They usually ate apart from the women and spoke their own language among
themselves.
The women’s place was to plant, prepare and cook food. They also spun thread,
wove hammocks and made the clay vessels for holding food and liquid.
At a son’s birth there was a special ceremony during which the father was cut with
agouti teeth and expected to bear the pain without flinching so that his son would
grow up to be brave.
The boys were periodically rubbed with the fat of slaughtered Tainos so that he
might absorb their courage.

KALINAGO BOYS
When the boys were four (4) or five (5) years old, when they were taken by their
fathers to live in the carbet with the men.
The Kalinago believed that women were soft and weak and if boys were to become
warriors they need to be moved away from the influence of women, except for a few
who were to be trained as priests.
Kalinago boys were trained to use weapons which were considerably better than
those of the Taino.
They were taught to use the bow and arrow and to apply poison to the arrowhead.
The poison was deadly and the victim died in great pain.
Courage was considered the greatest virtue by the Kalinagos and boys were taught
to take pain without flinching.
When Kalinago boys were about fourteen (14) or fifteen (15) years old, they had to
take part in initiation rites before joining the men of the tribe. Boys had to pass this
initiation test to become warriors.
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Part of the test was to endure pain by being scratched with agouti claws and having
salt rubbed into the wound without crying out.
Another test was to shoot a bird off the top of a tree with a bow and arrow.
Kalinago warriors were good swimmers and Columbus mentioned seeing a warrior
fire his bow while swimming in the sea.
This ceremony changed him from a boy to a man.
Now he had a new name, and was taught the war language.
After this the youths were able to take part in the war parties and meetings of the
Ouboutou. From their earliest years they were trained to be warriors.

DANCE, MUSIC AND STORYTELLING
Kalinago festivities were very lively dancing and singing.
Birth, the first cutting of a child’s hair, manhood initiation ceremonies and burial were
all cause for celebration which could last several days and included eating, drinking
and smoking.
Kalinago drums were more advanced than those of the Taino.
The Kalinago also had oral traditions and many of their stories were religious.
Stories of the afterlife included rewards for a warrior who had died honourably.

ART FORMS
Kalinago art was simple. Houses were made of wood with thatched roofs. The carbet
was built with foundation pillars, which made it strong, and also had a thatched roof,
oval or rectangular in shape.
Like the Taino the Kalinago made pottery. It was intricate and made of terracotta.
Vines and stalks and leaves from the cocorite palm were used to make baskets,
ropes and nets.
Cotton was used to make loin cloths.
Body paint and dyes were very important to the Kalinago. They used roucou, red and
orange dyes from the annatto plant.
Dye was not used only in pottery and weaving but also for body decoration,
protection against the sun and for camouflage. The last was useful in war and
hunting, to avoid detection. It was considered a disgrace not to wear body paints.
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The Kalinago knew the art of making cassava and sweet potato beer. A hanging
basket called matapis was used to squeeze the juice out of cassava and sweet
potato. This was left to ferment to create an intoxicating beer.
The art of war was well developed by the Kalinago. From puberty boys were put
through gruelling training in pain endurance and fighting in preparation for battle.

OTHER CUSTOMS
The Kalinago had great respect for the ocean over which they so frequently
travelled, and they took great care not to offend the spirits of the water for fear they
would be harmed.
They would not eat crab or lizard while they were at sea, nor drink any water, for fear
the spirits would be displeased and prevent them from reaching land.
If they were carrying fresh water in the canoe, they took care not to spill any into the
sea, as it might cause a storm.
On the other hand, if had to sail over a place where Kalinagos had drowned, they
were careful to throw food into the water, so that the drowned men would not reach
up to the boat and capsize it.
When they were approaching land, they made sure not to call its name, nor to point
to it, in case any evil spirit was watching and tried to prevent their getting ashore.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Norman, Alma. The people who came Book 1 Trinidad and Tobago ; Kingston ;
London : Longman Caribbean, 1986, 1968.
Claypole, W. and Robottom, J. Caribbean History Foundation Book 1 Harlow, Essex:
Longman, 2009.
Lennox Honychurch; Karl Watson (contrib.); James Rose (contrib.); Veta Dawson
(contrib.); Caribbean Examinations Council. CXC Study Guide Caribbean History for
CSEC OUP Oxford; August 2018
Honychurch, Lennox. Caribbean People Book 1 [Kingston]: Nelson Caribbean,
cop.1979.
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