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Further south were the Caribs in the Windward islnads. The Ciboney southern Cuba and south west peninsula of Hispaniola disappeared shortly after the Arawaks develop their culture and evolved into the Tainos.

Living close to the sea which provided them with great bounty, they developed an efficeint way for fishing and navigatting..The closeness of the islands favored sight navigation so they did'nt embark in long sea faring expeditions.

The Arawaks were "animists", which means that they belived in the inner connection of the two worlds ( the visable and the invisable one) and in the existence and survival of the soul in the environment (tress, rivers, tec.) They warship the sun, the moon, the stars and believed in eternal life for the virtuous. In the Hispaniola they situated their "heaven" in a remote part of the island, where the elected would go to rest and eat.

Caribis, the name that was given to them by the Spanish, means cannibal. In spite fo that peculiarity, all reports agree that they were a rather appealing people. Of an over-average height, well-proportioned, they dressed much like the Arawaks. They dyed their body with a red dye called roucou. The Spaniards, believing that this was their natural color started the legend of a red-skinned race.

Caribs families lived in rounded dwellings called marouina, made of two rooms which often had an additional recess for jewels, tools and/or weapons.The Ajupa, was a shelter in the field used temporarily during the harvest. The Carbets were huge oval-shaped community houses used for social events.

Caribs made very good baskets and basket-type objects, but their pottery was less evolved than the one made by Arawaks'. Their weaving techniques have been perpetuated, to this day, in Martinique and Guadeloupe where Carib baskets are in great demand. 

Since cassava and fish were the foundation of their diet, their methods of obtaining food and cultivating were the same as the Arawakds'. They fished in the rivers wit their hands, with nets, or wit herb that anesthetized the fish. They also fished in the ocean, where they showed great courage in their pirogues or in their "kanoahs" which were very large boats that could carry up to fifty men. The square sail they used is identical to the on used on today's gomiers.

The Caribs fought with boutous, (heavy, sharp-edged-clubs), and bows and arrows which they knew how to render poisonous by dipping into the sap of trees such as the Mancelinier. The Caribs believed in a remote supreme God but they had more relations with their deities. They were said to praise the bad ones in order to win their mercy. Like the Arawaks, they had their traditional healers and priests, the Boyas. They believed in immortality of the soul, and situated their heaven above the sun and their "hell" under the earth. This belief gave great importance to funerals for bodies were buried in the very ground of their house, while their possessions were burned, and their slaves were killed, at least those who did not succeed in running away. 

The Caribs put up a fierce resistance to all invaders and this delayed their destruction by Europeans. The Spanish left them alone, but they had to fight the English and French when by the 17th century they became interested in the Lesser Antilles. They finally were forced to accept peace, under the condition that they would be given full possession of Dominca and St. Vincent. 

Fishing and hunting were common among all three tribes, but the Tainos had a sophisticated agriculture system, which was perfectly adapted to conditions of island environment. There were fields of knee high mounds, called conucas, planted with yuca (manioc), batata (sweet potato), and various squashes and beans. Taino agriculture gave the highest returns of food in continuous supply by the simplest methods and modest labor. 

Culture 

To their people the word Tainos meant good or noble. The Taino tribe was said to have had a Arawakan type of language and had been related to the Arawak people in South American mainland. Tainos lived in permanent villages and their houses were made of wood and thatch. There were two types of houses, the round common or public structure (caney) and a square or rectangular structure. These houses had conical roofs made of branches and vines that were then covered with heavy palm leaves. The houses were spacious and clean, hand earthen floors, rope hammocks for sleeping, and baskets for storage. Tainos were known for their traveling canoes, 90 feet long, accommodating 150 people, and crafted with "unsurpassed beauty". The hamoca or hammock was also popular of their tribe and was described as being "like nets of cotton". The talented craftsmen produced bracelets and necklaces of coral, shells, bone and stone as well as, embroidered cotton belts, woven baskets, carved statues and chairs, wooden and shell utensils and decorated pottery . Their villages were governed by chieftains or "caciques" who enjoyed some distinctions of rank but received tribute only in times of crisis. There was little violence in their system. They seem to have been a society without war and with evidence of war relicts or signals or artifacts or intertribal combats. They enjoyed leisure time of dancing, singing and ball games. They played ceremonial ball games, possibly as a substitute for warfare and as an outlet for competition between villages and chiefdoms.

People and Family Roles 

In the Taino tribe, related families lived together in large houses built of poles, mats, and thatch. Their simple clothing consisted of a cotton loin for men and skirts for the women. Men wore their hair long in the back and short in the front. Women’s hair was usually braided and unmarried women wore headbands. Tainos practiced a form of cranial modification and pierced their ears, lips, and septums. They wore waist and neck belts as well as necklaces. For the Tainos, it was fashionable to flatten the forehead by hanging a hard object against it in childhood, before the skull was fully formed. Most men obtained wives in or near their villages, but chiefs sometimes arranged long distance marriage for political purposes. Polygamy was prevalent, but usually only a chief could afford many wives. Tainos had a monogamous society. Both men and women were eligible to serve as chiefs. These people ate a variety of foods consisting of sweet potato, maize, squash, beans, peanuts, guanabana, pineapple and bread made of yuca, known as casaba. Which was baked on griddles. They also had a diet of fish, iguana, turtles and manatee. The men hunted and foraged for food, while the women were responsible for planting and harvesting. The sexes enjoy greater equality than existed in other societies. 

Social Classes 

The Tainos consisted of a feudal society of chieftains (caciques), nobility (nitaino) and commoners (naboria). Land was partitioned into chiefdoms (cacicazqos) which had loose political and economic .

Religion and Rituals 

The Tainos people worshipped deities or Zemis and the two supreme deities were Yucahu, lord of cassava and sea and Atabey, his mother, goddess of freshwater and fertility. There were also many other deities, mostly those of nature. Taino people decorated their pottery, ornaments and other artifacts as well as their bodies with the figures of Zemis. Before communicating with Zemis, owners purified themselves by fasting or inserting a stick into their throat to cause vomiting. One of their rituals included the annual homages to the chief’s Zemis that took place on the central dance ground or court. There were other rituals performed there before and after battles and upon marriage or death of a chief. The dancers were accompanied by singing, drumming, and rattling. Most of these rituals incorporated the use of tobacco and a hallucinogenic snuff called cohoba.