Professional Documents
Culture Documents
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms
This content downloaded from 132.174.251.61 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 00:29:10 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
THE CIRCUM-CARIBBEAN THEORY, AN ARCHEOLOGICAL TEST
By IRVING ROUSE
A SIGNIFICANT by-product
American Indians of the 1946-50)
(Steward, publication
hasof the the
been Handbook of South
development of a
new theory of South American culture history. Based upon the four-fold classi-
fication of Marginal Tribes, Andean Civilizations, Tropical Forest Tribes, and
Circum-Caribbean Tribes according to which the ethnographic volumes of the
Handbook are organized, this theory conceives of the following sequence of
events (Steward, 1947):
1. South America was first settled by Indians on a Marginal level of development,
i.e., by hunters and gatherers with a relatively simple social organization and religion.
2. In the central part of the Andes, these Indians developed agriculture, pottery, a
territorial form of government, a class systegi, a priest-temple-idol cult, and other ele-
ments of what Steward calls "Formative culture."
3. Formative culture spread northward into the Caribbean area-whether by mi
gration or by diffusion to the Marginal tribes of that area is not specified-and th
it is known as the Circum-Caribbean type of culture.
4. Back in the Central Andes, the various Formative cultures evolved into civiliz
tions. The Circum-Caribbean cultures, on the other hand, remained on a Formativ
level of development or, in one place, disappeared.
5. The place of disappearance was in northeastern Venezuela and the Less
Antilles, around the mouth of the Orinoco River (Fig. 1).' Here, the social and religi
elements of Circum-Caribbean culture died out-perhaps as the result of conquest
degeneration in a relatively unfavorable environment-leaving only agriculture, po
tery. and the other technological traits common to both Tropical Forest and Circu
Caribbean cultures.
6. These traits spread southward into the Guianas and Amazonia, where their ap-
pearance raised the local tribes from the Marginal to the Tropical Forest level of devel-
opment. Only the Indians of southern South America, the headwaters of the Amazon,
and a few peripheral districts in the Greater Antilles then remained on the Marginal
level.
This content downloaded from 132.174.251.61 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 00:29:10 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
ROUSE] CIRCUM-CARIBBEA N THEORY TEST 189
This content downloaded from 132.174.251.61 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 00:29:10 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
190 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [55, 1953
A0
<0lp
1?02 Qp
I N T. L" "
c
"', : o LJF
~t ~, Pr 3(/
4 aANV
2
.(+ -? 4 c
5 1
:o
(CI
0
1,
E C 0 As
FIG. 1. Map of
locations of
i.e., that it is
mark signifie
Profile 1, for
concentration o
the rest of th
1951a),5 it need
Profile 2, refe
pean archeolog
statius and sev
Martinique. Sin
ically, we are
the stylistic re
This content downloaded from 132.174.251.61 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 00:29:10 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
ROUSE] CIRCUM-CARIBBEAN THEORY TEST 191
b A YA///AC/1White-on-red
lSBOCA,
IV OABAJUR?d OP UONTkAlk
S .ONi - . 1 ::
"' IUMAA)y MON
VENEZUELA
PERIODS Western BRITISH
Centrol Estern TRINIDAD GUIANA
Nrthest VENEZUELA
Pmern Demerero Western Lr PERIODS
b B A / COTUAN //,' (K / N b
( RGu 0 AS) M ANIC (COCAL):: (
! ARUBA
PE OSVENEZUELA
C entr alVENEZUEL A
Valeecia Lan af Ll
VALER T N)ATABAPO IV
f//// .ERIN ? _
A.. ................
....- ? - SALADERO.,_-:-"
X/MM/1
r cqcnlOCAL: II
Profile 5 Profile 6
This content downloaded from 132.174.251.61 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 00:29:10 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
192 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [55, 1953
The six profiles are tied together by the existence of a number of horizon
complexes, each consisting of a series of ceramic traits which extend from area
to area and appear to have been more or less contemporaneous wherever they
occur. For the sake of simplicity, we have omitted these from Figure 2 except
for the earliest, White-on-red Complex, which has some bearing on the Circum-
This content downloaded from 132.174.251.61 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 00:29:10 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
ROUSE] CIRCUM-CARIBBEAN THEORY TEST 193
This content downloaded from 132.174.251.61 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 00:29:10 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
194 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [55, 1953
This content downloaded from 132.174.251.61 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 00:29:10 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
ROUSE] CIRCUM-CARIBBEAN THEORY TEST 195
This content downloaded from 132.174.251.61 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 00:29:10 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
196 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [55, 1953
CONCLUSIONS
This content downloaded from 132.174.251.61 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 00:29:10 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
ROUSE] CIRCUM-CARIBBEAN THEORY TEST 197
This content downloaded from 132.174.251.61 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 00:29:10 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
198 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [55, 1953
YALE UNIVERSITY
NEw HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
NOTES
This content downloaded from 132.174.251.61 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 00:29:10 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
ROUSE] CIRCUM-CARIBBEAN THEORY TEST 199
1950, Map 7). In this case, too, we would suggest that it may b
where it is known to be present, in the Andes to the west.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ALEGRfA, RICARDO E., 1951. The Ball Game played by the Aborigines of the Antil
Antiquity, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp. 348-52. Menasha.
BENNETT, WENDELL C., 1937. Excavations at La Mata, Maracay, Venezuela. Ant
Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. 36, Pt. 2. New York.
, 1952. New World Culture History: South America. In Anthropology Today, p
Chicago.
BULLBROOK, J. A., n.d. On the Excavation of a Shell Mound at Palo Seco, Trinidad, B.W.I. Manu-
script in the Yale Peabody Museum, New Haven.
CRUXENT, JosE M., 1950. Archaeology of Cotua Island, Amazonas Territory, Venezuela. American
Antiquity, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 10-16. Menasha.
-- , 1951. Venezuela: a Strategic Center for Caribbean Archaeology. In The Caribbean at
Mid-Century, series one, Vol. 1, pp. 149-56. Gainesville.
- , 1952. Notes on Venezuelan Archaeology. In Indian Tribes of Aboriginal America:
Selected Papers of the XXIXth International Congress of Americanists, pp. 280-94. Chicago.
- -, n.d. Prehistoric Venezuelan Pottery. Manuscript in the Yale Peabody Museum, New
Haven.
- , and others, 1946. Breve reconocimiento arqueol6gico en Tocor6n, Estado Arag
Memorias de la Sociedad de Ciencias Naturales La Salle, Afio 6, No. 15, pp. 23-41. Caracas
EVANS, CLIFFORD, JR., and BETTY J. MEGGERS, 1950. Preliminary Results of Archaeologi
Investigations at the Mouth of the Amazon. American Antiquity, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 1-9
Menasha.
FEWKES, JESSE WALTER, 1914. Relations of Aboriginal Culture and Environment in the Lesser
Antilles. Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, Vol. 46, No. 9, pp. 662-78. New York.
FORD, J. A., and GORDON R. WILLEY, 1941. An Interpretation of the Prehistory of the Eastern
United States. American Anthropologist, n.s., Vol. 43, No. 3, pp. 325-63. Menasha.
HosTos, ADOLFO DE, 1941. Notes on West Indian Hydrography in its Relation to Prehistoric
Migrations. In his Anthropological Papers, based principally on Studies of the Prehistoric
Archaeology and Ethnology of the Greater Antilles, pp. 30-53. San Juan.
HOWARD, GEORGE D., 1943. Excavations at Ronquin, Venezuela. Yale University Publications in
Anthropology, No. 28. New Haven.
, 1947. Prehistoric Ceramic Styles of Lowland South America, their Distribution and
History. Yale University Publications in Anthropology, No. 37. New Haven.
JOSSELIN DE JONG, J. P. B. DE, 1947. Archeological Material from Saba and St. Eustatius, Lesser
Antilles. Leiden.
KIDDER, ALFRED, II, 1944. Archaeology of Northwestern Venezuela. Papers of the Peabody
Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Vol. 26. No. 1. Cam-
bridge.
, 1948. The Archeology of Venezuela. In "Handbook of South American Indians," Bulletin,
Bureau of American Ethnology, No. 143, Vol. 4, pp. 413-38. Washington.
LOVEN, SVEN, 1935. Origins of the Tainan Culture, West Indies. Giteberg.
OSGOOD, CORNELIUS, 1943. Excavations at Tocor6n, Venezuela. Yale University Publications in
Anthropology, No. 29. New Haven.
, 1946. British Guiana Archeology to 1945. Yale University Publications in Anthropology,
No. 36. New Haven.
, and GEORGE D. HOWARD, 1943. An Archeological Survey of Venezuela. Yale Universit
Publications in Anthropology, No. 27. New Haven.
This content downloaded from 132.174.251.61 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 00:29:10 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
200 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [55, 1953
STERN, THEODORE, 1950. The Rubber-Ball Games of the Americas. Monographs of the Ame
Ethnological Society, No. 17. New York.
STEWARD, JULIAN H., 1942. The Direct Historical Approach to Archaeology. American Antiqu
Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 337-43. Menasha.
-- , (editor), 1946-50. Handbook of South American Indians. Bulletin, Bureau of Ame
Ethnology, No. 143, Vols. 1-6. Washington.
-y, 1947. American Culture History. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, Vol. 3, N
pp. 85-107. Albuquerque.
STRONG, WILLIAM DUNCAN, 1933. Plains Culture in the Light of Archaeology. American Ant
pologist, n.s., Vol. 35, No. 2, pp. 271-87. Menasha.
This content downloaded from 132.174.251.61 on Sun, 19 Jan 2020 00:29:10 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms