CROSSROADS IN THE CARIBBEAN - A SITE OF ENCOUNTER AND EXCHANGE ON DOMINICA

Dominica is the most mountainous of all the islands of the Lesser Anti lles which forms the eastern are of the Caribbean archipelago. It was the last island in the Caribbean to be colonized by Europeans. Its thi ck oceanic rain forests provided a refuge and ecological resources for the indigenous Carib people facing the Spanish, French, English and D utch advance into the Caribbean during the sixteenth century. Dominica also provided a strategic location on which to cultivate and process raw materials for trading with the European ships en route to other pa rts of the Caribbean and American mainland. It is argued that the prim ary Carib product in this exchange was tobacco and that the traditiona lly established view of total resistance by 'warlike Caribs' to the Eu ropean advance should be modified in the light of this trade. The rece nt discovery of a late Amerindian archaeological site at such an impor tant maritime crossroad provides a unique opportunity to re-evaluate t he relationship between Caribs and Europeans in the years immediately following contact and the effects which this had on Carib society.