Irving Rouse

Heritage Studies Book 6

I will start this review by saying that I did NOT read the entire book, so I cannot give it a fair rating. As the other reviews on GR mention, this work was at times incredibly dry.

Rouse goes into very detailed explanations about the peopling of the Caribbean, Pre-Columbus. This was the study of the Pre-Taino era in which natives that came from North, Central and South America came to populate the Greater and Lesser Antilles. As the years went on other groups came to show more supplant those already there, most likely by genocide and war. By the time Columbus came around, the Taino were the dominate group.

Different ethnic groups came to live around the islands. I thought this was interesting because I thought that the Caribbean was under one umbrella of Taino. This wasn't the case; different races with different cultures and languages populated the different islands. It was not one race.

I did read in full the last two chapters where Rouse details the Columbus' voyages and the after effects of European colonization. There is also a short bit at the end about the Columbian Exchange, but the book by Alfred W. Crosby will be read for further reading.

I recommend this for serious students only. Even though Rouse states in the beginning that this was written for both academic and the laymen crowd, I felt it was certainly leaning more towards the former. Maybe I will revisit this one in the future. show less

Great book by an anthropologist. This book tells the story of the Tainos and how they decline after been in contact with the Spanish explorers.