ARAWAK ("

See also:

• MEAL

meal-eaters," in reference to

See also:

• CASSAVA

cassava, their

See also:

• STAPLE

staple

See also:

• FOOD
• FOOD (like the verb " to feed," from a Teutonic root, whence O. Eng. foda; cf. " fodder "; connected with Gr. lrareicOae, to feed)

food)  , a tribe of South American Indians of Dutch and British Guiana . The Arawaks have given their name to a linguistic stock of South America, the Arawakan, which includes many once powerful tribes . The Arawakans were once numerous, their tribes stretching from southern Brazil and Bolivia to Central America, occupying the whole of the West Indies and having settlements on the Florida seaboard . They were found by the Spaniards in Haiti and possibly in the Bahamas, but the Caribs had expelled them from most of the islands . The Arawaks proper were physically an undersized, weakly people, peaceable agriculturists, by far the most civilized of all Guiana peoples, being skilful weavers and workers in stone and gold . The chief tribes which may be called Arawakan are the Anti, Arawak, Barre, Goajiro, Guana, Manaos, Maneteneri, Maipuri, Maranho, Moxo, Passe, Piro and Taruma . See Everard F. im Thurn, Among the Indians of Guiana (London, 1883) .