Caribbean Origins | History, Migrations & DNA

In 1492 AD, Christopher Columbus famously sailed across the Atlantic and landed in the Americas. He and his men were the first Europeans to wash up in the Bahamas, Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti) and eastern Cuba. On his return to Spain, the controversial explorer reported that the Caribbean was a land of gold laden islands. His brother, Bartholomew, later returned to the Americas and identified Hispaniola’s land and indigenous people as potentially profitable for the Spanish crown. Bartholomew estimated about 1.1 million people lived on Hispaniola, but modern scholars have generally used the range of 250,000 to a million people. However, the actual Caribbean aboriginal population is now known based on a new Caribbean DNA study published in the journal Nature, which fuses decades of archaeological work with cutting edge genetic technology. This breakthrough study shows that the local population before the arrival of the Spanish was much lower and far less heterogenous than thought.

Archaeologists and anthropologists know that the Caribbean was one of the last parts of the Americas settled by humans, but a new study of DNA has revealed when, how, and where the original Caribbean inhabitants came from.

Professor David Reich of the Harvard Medical School led a team of researchers who analyzed “the genomes of 263 individuals,” representing the largest ever study of ancient human DNA in the Americas. The Caribbean DNA study concluded that the Caribbean had been settled by two major migratory waves of highly mobile people, separated by thousands of years. However, according to an article by the Florida Museum of Natural History , on their way to this conclusion, the researchers developed a new genetic technique for estimating the island’s past population size, prior to the first Spanish landings.

A new paper studying ancient DNA from the Caribbean, posted this week on bioRxiv, explains that the Caribbean has one of the most culturally diverse mixes of human beings on the planet, but it was one of the last places in the Americas to be occupied by people between 8000 and 5000 years ago. Where these early migrants came from has always been a mystery until this study of ancient DNA probed into the deep history of the Caribbean and the story discovered by the researchers is one of “migration and cultural mingling” revealing how descendants of the first inhabitants interacted with new waves of migrants who arrived about 2800 years ago.

Links to original articles.

DNA Study Rewrites Caribbean Population History

DNA Studies Reveals True Origins of First Inhabitants of the Caribbean

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[samslow]

Shout to all my taino brothers and sisters out there! We are one 🇯🇲🇵🇷🇭🇹🇩🇴 and more

[djoseph]

Dominica🇩🇲 and St. Vincent and the Grenadines 🇻🇨 still have carib ethnic groups alive and well today, full blooded. Caribbean history is very rich and they're all more connected than they realize.

[collpolp]

As Caribbean’s we get left out of history a lot and have to figure a lot out for ourselves

Thanks everybody this is my most liked comment ever !!!

[jjt]

The time of the Tainos and Caribs is a fascinating, but seldomly discussed topic. Thank you for this video.

[sergiolabathe]

The Caribbean islanders are blessed with a rich history that was truly affected by contact from the Europeans.

[hazardman]

I’m from St.Croix we have Taino line from my grandmother side.. her mom from Puerto Rico was native blood line. Her dad traces back to Canary Islands of west Africa.. 🙏🏾🙌🏾

[Stoicsaiyan]

Fun fact : there’s actually a ancient large idol founded in a cave in eastern Cuba called the “idol of patana” which was used by the Cuban taínos to understand the universe and cosmology

[RenaldoMckenzie]

I will share this with the college class I teach in Caribbean Thought at Jamaica Theological Seminary. This was good. well done. Thank you.

[zerofifty]

My parents are both from Puerto Rico born and raised and just within our families we have quite a variety of complexions from dark to light everything in between 🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷

[thedirty]

I am so thankful for Youtube creators like this! You guys put in so much work to pull all this together in one place... The respect I have for putting sources into a video that is still fascinating knowing how much work that is just really makes me happy to watch. Thank you! Instant sub!

[gabrielcorrea]

I am Dominican and my family on my mother's side is from some unique mountains in my northern part, where the people of that town have studied and go out with Taino ADN. My mother is an Indian with straight hair and light honey-colored eyes and my father was a white mulatto.

[clararichardson]

I appreciate the content!! It bothers me that some folks in America would want to keep these types of history and information buried!!

[edwardbisono]

My father is Dominican my mother is Puerto Rican my brothers are Jamaican… love the fact we are all intertwined!

[MateoQuixote]

Really fascinating. I'd argue this is the region of the americas that's least talked about in terms of pre-european contact. We discuss so little about them and yet they're so fascinating

[joeshmoe]

Another fascinating post from y’all. Thanks and keep up the great work!

[rijnatoantonie]

I always felt like i were missing a puzzle of my history and caribbean roots, after watching this video it now make sense what i was missing about my history. I'm from aruba🇦🇼 but mixed with sint maarten🇸🇽 and bonaire🇧🇶

[prgary]

Love learning as much as I can about ancestors Tainos

[FGPRBrunoCauz]

About 2, 500-3, 000 years ago, farmers and potters related to the Arawak-speakers of northeast of actual Venezuela established a second pathway into the Caribbean. Using the delta fingers of Orinoco River Basin like highways, they travelled from the interior to coastal Venezuela and pushed north into the Antilles islands of the Caribbean Sea, settling Puerto Rico and eventually moving westward. Their arrival ushered in the region’s Ceramic Age, marked by agriculture and the widespread production and use of pottery.

Over time, nearly all genetic traces of Archaic Age people vanished, except for a holdout community in western Cuba that persisted as late as European arrival. Intermarriage between the two groups was rare, with only three individuals in the study showing mixed ancestry.

Many present-day Cubans, Dominicans and Puerto Ricans are the descendants of ancient people from Venezuela, as well as European immigrants and enslaved Africans. But researchers noted only marginal evidence of Archaic Age ancestry in modern individuals.

[johndahlia]

i'm 52 and from a young age at school we were taught about the migration of Arawaks, Caribs and Mayas from central and south America