Indigenous navigation in the Caribbean Basin: a historical, ethnoarchaeological and experimental approach to the Caribbean-Guyanese kanawa

Abstract

The early human occupation of the Antilles was based on the manufacture and use of expanded and extended dugout canoes named kanawa. The same boat type is also associated with the Carib linguistic family groups precolonial expansion along the coasts from Brazil to Venezuela. This paper describes this type of boat and its construction process in a comparative approach to archaeological and ethnohistorical data related to the Antillean archipelago and an ethnoarchaeological study of the contemporary construction process of the kanawa by the Kali'na Amerindians of Guiana (French Guiana/Suriname). Lastly, an experimental maritime archaeology programme carried out in the Antilles over several years allows us to discuss the nature of navigation permitted by this type of boat.