The Native American Carib woman
The Carib woman shares many points in common with the Arawak woman, but the two civilizations were all the same very identifiable by their rites, their tools, the organization of society, their character, etc ...
Physical description and clothing
The Carib woman only wore a camisa, a strip of cotton tied around her back. She also wore a kind of leggings between her ankle and knee. She is adorned with jewelry: necklaces, bracelets made with a kind of enamel, the rassade, blue stone earrings, and other various jewelry made of worked conch shell. On holidays, they put on multicolored cotton belts on which are hung bells intended to give rhythm to their dances.
Cohabitation between Arawak and Carib women
The Caribs arrived in the West Indian archipelago around the 10th century. They were fierce warriors, bloodthirsty and cannibalistic. Human flesh was not food, it was only consumed during human sacrifices by eating his enemy to appropriate their strength. They take possession of the islands of the Greater Antilles, then the Lesser Antilles.
When the Caribs arrive, if the men are seen as simple game and are executed, the women are kept alive. They integrated the Carib family structure by becoming wives of Carib men and were treated the same way as the Carib women. So we cannot say that they were inferior to Carib women, but their equals. The Arawak women brought back as war trophies were to help Carib women with domestic chores and agricultural work.
Among themselves, they spoke their language but also had to learn some notions from their mistresses. The Carib women then learned the language of the Arawak women so that when Christopher Columbus arrived, the men and women did not speak the same language. They spoke the Arawak language while the men spoke the Carib language.
Daily tasks
Daily work was well segmented between men and women, with specific activities for one or another camp. Women had to tackle many daily tasks. So they took care of cooking, pottery, weaving cotton to make clothes, taking care of children, and sometimes husbands!
They were also responsible for the cassava harvest. The latter was very difficult and physical. Women sometimes had to travel far from their homes to find cassava and search the ground with rudimentary implements. They then carried it on their backs, sometimes taking rough roads, and after cleaning and preparing it, turned it into cassava and then cassava flour or moussache (another name for cassava flour). Thus, this essential act of daily Carib life was performed by women.
They also took care of weaving the hammock, which they used as a place to sleep. Day and night, they wove, they also maintained their garden, prepared the ouicou (low-alcoholic drink (3-5°) made from fermented cassava juice) which was consumed during the evenings of debauchery. They also made cotton boots for each other.
Women were also the ones who took care of the health of the family. They knew the remedies and oils to heal wounds, as wrote Jean-Baptiste Du Tertre (1610-1687), a Dominican priest and French botanist who visited Martinique: “they have a marvelous knowledge of the simple with which they heal an infinity of ailments."
Restricted rights
Women were completely devoted to their husbands and were not allowed to date without the permission of their husbands, who had full control over their actions. The young girls were freer, but they still had to go to the cassava harvest in the mountains. The little boys made small boats and canoes to learn how to do them during adulthood.
Carib women also devoted a lot of time to their beauty. They combed their hair three times a day and brushed their hair with achiote (a natural red dye still present and visible in the Martinican markets).
Many more "idle" men
The men themselves got down to activities such as fishing, working the land (clearing), basketwork, and net making in particular. In the morning, they were more "idle," devoting their morning to their bath in the streams, warming themselves near a fire where they discussed and played the flute until lunch (meat, fish, crabs seasoned with chili pepper, and cassava cake) prepared by their wives. At lunch, they first served their husbands and did not eat until they were full and finished eating. It was only after lunch that men would go about their daily chores until sunset.
The men were polygamous and could have up to 5 or 6 wives when they were captains. The others were limited to 2 or 3. The first wife lived in the house, and the others were separated in other villages where the husband visited them a few times. A married woman should not offer herself to a man other than her husband. Discovered, she was chastised by her lover.
Father Labat admired this society where the woman was totally devoted to her husband. He wrote in particular:
This custom, quite extraordinary as it seems at first, is not too savage. After a few thoughts, it seemed to me full of common sense and very specific to contain this superb sex within the limits of duty and respect that it owes to men. The Carib are not the only ones who use it this way; I will report ... some examples on which Europeans should regulate themselves to avoid a lot of grief.
When the Caribs saw the arrival of Europeans who wanted to take over their lands, they first tried to resist, but a great battle in 1658 got the better of them. They are killed or flee to the island of Dominica in the north of Martinique. It is the end of the Carib settlement in Martinique.