Carib Myths

The Kalinago people are well known for being cannibals. According to Christopher Columbus, everyone who heard of these people were greatly afraid of them because of their cannibalism. But was this really true? Newly done research suggests differently about the island natives. There were never any real sighting of the Kalinagos ever consuming human flesh and all records of them were written by the European colonists who were settling on the Islands at that time.

They discovered bones and skulls in the houses and grounds of the Kalinago people, then instantly jumped to the conclusion that they must have been cannibals. The probability that these bones were being used for rituals or other religious practices, was completely dismissed, and the Kalinagos have been accused as cannibals ever since.

It is said that calling them cannibals was the only way the Europeans could bypass the law which protected them. But why would their be a european law to protect these warlike caribs, if they wanted to get rid of them in the first place? Well, in the year 1503, Queen Isabella of Spain implemented this law because she did not want any of her newly discovered people to be harmed. This law became a hinderance to Christopher Columbus as he needed the Carib people gone so that colonising and gold mining would take place. After all, what good were the kalinagos to them if not as slaves? However, the law would not allow it. After discovering human bones on Carib terrain, this law would soon be abolished if the Queen was convinced that they were leftover bones from the Carib's human meals. Cannibalism was the perfect solution which would make legal, Carib enslavement. All those who would resist the Spaniards were called Cannibals and therefore deserved to be enslaved for commiting this crime against God.

The Kalinagos were portrayed as cannibals in the movie Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, which came out in the year 2006. Different scenes were filmed in Dominica, and the Kalinagos were asked to play a part in the movie as well.