Political organization

The Caribs had no such organization as the Arawaks with their caciques. In Peacetime they
had few laws, only those made by the tiubutuli bauthe (village headman) who was the head of
the family since each family lived in a separate village. However, in war the Caribs became
more strictly organized. Each piraga (canoe) was captained by its owner and one of the
captains was chosen as ubutu or ouboutou (commander-in-chief). If the raid was successful he
would keep his title for the rest of his life. The ubutu planned the raids, and chose the captains
and distributed the prizes. He was greatly feared among his men for his power.
Carib men lived together in a large, rectangular house called carbet, because they were
undergoing warrior training. The women carried food to the carbet but otherwise lived
separately. The Caribs slept in hammock, but they also had a kind of bed called amais. Their
utensils were not so well polished as those of the Arawaks.

Warrior training

At the age of four, Carib boys were taken from their mothers to live in the carbet. Caribs
believed that women were soft and weak and if the boy was to become a warrior he should be
moved away from the influence of women, except for the few who were to be trained as priests.
Caribs boys were trained to make and use weapons which were considerably better than those
of the Arawaks. They were taught to use the bow and arrow and to apply poison to the
arrowhead. The poison was deadly and the victim died in great pain.
Courage was considered the greatest virtue by the Caribs and the boys were taught to bear
pain without flinching. When they reached the age of fourteen or fifteen they had to pass an
initiation test to become warriors. Part of the test was to endure pain by being scratched with
aguoti claws and having salt rubbed into the wounds without crying out. Another test was to
shoot a bird off the top of a tree with a bow and arrow. Carib warriors were good swimmers and
Columbus mentions seeing a warrior fire his bow while swimming in the sea.
Carib raids were made in piragas. The Caribs often put to sea in bad weather and paddled for
long distances. Carib canoes probably reached Cuba which is a journey of at least three
hundred kilometres from the nearest Carib base. The women, too, knew how to fight and use a
bow and arrow. When Columbus concluded that Martinique was inhabited by a race of Amazon,
he must have visited the island when the men were away on a raid. Caribs liked to make
surprise attacks by sea in their canoes. Their raids were very vicious and destructive. Arawak
men who were not killed were taken away to be eaten later and the women were taken as wives
for young Carib warriors. This practice was so common that the women of the Caribs had an
entirely different language to that of the men. Caribs raided each other, but they preferred to raid
the Arawaksand found them easy prey.
After the Spanish, English and french had settled in the caribbean the Caribs were bold
enough to attack their settlements, and defended themselves fiercely against European invasion
of their islands; for example, Dominica was still a Carib island at the time of the Treaty of
Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. The Caribs of St Vincent were still resisting the European as late as
1796.
 Gradually they were wiped out but the muskets and cannons of the Europeans, or deported to
South America. Whereas the Arawaks in the West Indies were wiped out in just over fifty years,
the Caribs resisted the Europeans for 200 years and there are descendants of Caribs living
eastern Dominica to-day.

Religion

Caribs believed in evil spirits known as maboya ( or the word may be applied to idols which
represented these spirits). Troubles were attributed to angry maboya which could be appeased
by a more powerful maboya introduced by a priest. The boyez (priests) were very important and
underwent special training instead of becoming warriors. As they were held to be the only ones
who could avert evil, the boyez were summoned with ceremony and sacrifices. As with the
Arawaks, tobacco played a large part in these religious rites.