The Arauquinoid domination on the western coast of the Guianas began to decrease at the beginning of the second millennium AD. The Hertenrits and Kwatta cultures disappeared gradually in the west, while in the east, the Barbakoeba and Themire cultures received and integrated new cultural features from inland Koriabo groups. At the same time, the Late Ariste people dominated the eastern coast.
A final blow was given by the arrival of the European in 1499, which provoked a complete destabilization of the Indian world. The changes in Ariste culture are understood as the result of the arrival of new groups. Indians fled some areas to avoid the European wars and slave hunts. Communities migrated from the west and refugees arrived from the lower Orinoco and Trinidad during the seventeenth century—for instance the Yayo from Trinidad about 1590. Other refugees arrived from the lower Amazon during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These immigrations probably disturbed the stability of Ariste groups. The “old” population and the “new” immigrants influenced each other, which resulted in
Hybrid communities. Groups, some linked to the Arauquinoid Tradition that dominated the lower Orinoco in this period, immigrated, bringing the Arauquinoid ceramic characteristics that can be seen in modern Palikur pottery. These groups probably introduced the raised field technique that the Palikur employed during the eighteenth century when the population became too large to be supported by slash-and-burn agriculture.
After the sixteenth century, the cultural map of the Guianas was severely disorganized and the picture of the Indian world was changed forever.
World History
