An arc begining in southern Central America, then running across the nothern sectors of modern Colombian and Venezuela, and continuing from Trinidad to Cuba and the Bahamas supported a diverse group of Indian societies before Europeans arrived. Some had advanced cultures. Though not as complex as those of the Incas and Maya, they were nevertheless based on intensive agriculture, substantial villages, and elaborate religions, and were organized politically into chiefdoms.
| Wooden lip disks, stained red, marked married
men among the SUYAS, a small, bellicose society reduced by half after first
contact.
Painting from a photograph by Robin Hanbury-Tenison |
See the Great Plains
|
Painting from a photograph by Betty J. Meggers |
The COLORADOS of western Andean
lowlands covered themselves with red berry paste for decoration and possibly
for mosquito protection. The men matted their hair with the paste
until it resembled a helmet.
Painting from a photographs by
M.Woodbridge Williams and Fed. Patellani.
| Pottery made from clay coils
was a major product of the YAGUAS, a group that passively avoided European
influence.
Painting from photographs, Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. |