Jan Rogozinski, A Brief History of the Caribbean



Jan Rogozinski, A Brief History of the Caribbean

Chapter One: The enduring environment and the first islanders

Identify the following terms:

Aedes Aegypti

Anopheles

Cacique

Cannibal

Cassava

Conuco

Endemic diseases

Plasmodium falciparum

Plasmodium vivax

Yuca

Zemi

Know the following facts and figures

The four major geographical groups of islands in the Caribbean. Be able to place any particular island in its proper group.

The approximate size in sq. miles of the five largest nations/territories in the Caribbean. The age of the mountains of Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico.

The name and height of the highest mountain in the Greater Antilles.

The total number of islands in the Bahamas and the number inhabited.

The name and height of the highest point in the Bahamas?

The average temperatures in the region.

The typical temperature difference between hottest and coldest months.

The average temperature differences between day and night

The months in which most hurricanes hit.

The name and date of what was probably the most destructive hurricane in the recorded history of the Caribbean?

The number of natural environments there are in the Caribbean (you need not know them by heart). and what is the principal determinant of the type that will appear in a region?

The highest and lowest annual rainfall regimes in the region.

Be able to answer briefly the following questions

How does orographically generated rainfall differ from convection generated rainfall? Which type of rainfall accounts for the desert like conditions in the southwest of many islands? At what time of day is convection likely to produce rainfall, and why? Why does big Cuba get less rainfall than smaller Jamaica? Why do small, flat islands receive virtually no rainfall? Which months are the dry season, which the wet season?

Why is the soil in the Caribbean vulnerable to easy depletion?

What was the direction of the migration of plant, animal, and human life before the arrival of steamships? Why were there few wild terrestrial mammals available for protein on the islands? What mammals were domesticated on small scale by Amerindian groups?

Who were the three distinct Amerindian cultural groups recognized by the Spaniards? Which correspond to our “Mesolithic” category?

What is a conuco? What was the major root crop grown on the island? What other root crops were grown? What are the ecological and economic advantages of root crops? What seed crops were grown? What was the relative importance of root crops vs. seed crops?

What were the sources of protein? What was the relative importance of terrestrial vs. maritime protein? What was the most important sea mammal? What was the most important amphibian in terms of protein?

What was the role of gold in the island economy? Where was it acquired? What problems did it eventually cause?

What was the role of alcohol and tobacco among the Arawaks?

What was the political organization of the Arawak islands? What role did religious belief supposedly play?

How did Carib family structure differ from that of the Arawak? Was human flesh an important source of protein in the Carib diet? Were they as warlike as often depicted?

Why are childhood diseases like measles and mumps so adaptive? What were the diseases to which Europeans and/or Africans had immunity, but which killed the Amerindians on contact? To which diseases were Africans but not Europeans immune?

What were the two types of malaria brought by outsiders to the islands? Why was there more likelihood of malaria on the larger than the smaller islands? What illness most devastated European armies?

When and why did the islands finally become safe for foreign tourists?

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