Origin and Maintenance of Genetic Variation in Black Carib Populations
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ORIGIN AND MAINTENANCE OF GENETIC VARIATION IN BLACK CARm POPULATIONS OF ST. VINCENT AND CENTRAL AMERICA M.H.CRAWFORD Department of Anthropology, University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas, U.S.A. INTRODUCTION The Black Caribs of Central America (also known as the Gariftma) provide " tropical example of an evolutionarily successful colonising population. They .....,"eased from fewer than 2000 persons in the year 1800 to more than 80,000 in I"~l~; than 180 years. Primarily through popUlation fission, the five founding IIl1t(~k Carib communities established a total of 54 coastal towns and villages. rhis rapid geographical expansion from the Bay of Honduras to Guatemala, 11I'lt ish Honduras and Nicaragua extended over approximately 1000 kilometers of I "lIt,'al American coastline (Figure 1). The successful colonisation of the coast by the Black Caribs can be .,~plllined in part by: (1) an exceptional level of genetic variation contained in II,,· Irene pool of the founding group; (2) pre-eXisting genetic adaptation against III,dlll'ia; (3) a social organisation which maintained high level of fertility and 1""1\'1 i<~ variation; (4) a unique sequence of historical events. This recent I ~1'''lIsion of the Black Caribs provides an excellent opportunity to explore the IV"'"l1ics and population structure of tropical colonising populations. HmTOR~ALBACKGROUND The Black Caribs originated on St. Vincent Island of the Lesser Antilles as 1I" "lllItlgl1m between Carib/Arawak Amerindians and West Africans (Figure 1). h"I'"lly, St. Vincent Island was settled by Arawaks from South America in "1.1 )(llllul:ely 100 A.D. Between 1200 A.D. and the time of European contact, 1111,11 " I\merindian group, the Caribs, expanded from Venezuela and intermixed III, 111,· ,wilrinnl inhabitants of St. Vincent. Archaeological evidence suggested , ,It"" "II VI' illvllsion by the Caribs, exterminating- the Arawak males but hybrid \ 1"1", w,IIIIII,' 1\"llwlll, fC,lllfll0.s (!{ouse, 197(;), However, Gullick (1979) argued in I"v,,',,· III' 'I 1",,1111 IV"'y ~;III1c11 IIl1ll1hcl' of Cnr'ih-spl:nl<illr: 1\1r1l'T'illdillllS dirrllsinl~ inl0 158 Crawford Black Caribs of St. ViI-went & Central America 159 military force, the surviving Black Caribs were rounded up and transported to 60 sow 80 70 the adjoining island, Balliceaux. During their internment on this island, the Black Carib numbers were reduced from 4200 to 2026 by an epidemic, possibly Island Carib 'ON ~~ typhus (Gonzalez, 1984). In 1797, these survivors were shipped to Roatan (one Gar~ Q of the Bay Islands, off the coast of Honduras). From there the Spanish colonial ~, -:-s,\ -------1797 ,~' ";>;) 1890, government arranged for their resettlement in the Bay of Honduras. On St. Vincent Island, a small group of Black Caribs managed to avoid Nicarogua 'a capture and they were the founders of the contemporary Black Carib population. In 1805, this founding group numbered 16 males, 9 females and 20 children (GUllick, 1976). The population of Black Caribs on St. Vincent gradually grew over the succeeding 180 years with occasional genetic bottlenecks reSUlting from ~ emigrations and the high mortality associated with two eruptions of the Soufriere volcano. At present, Gullick (1984) estimates a total of 5000 Black CARIBS Homelands, Migrations Carib residents on the island. However, a recent government census enumer Ilted only 2000 Black Caribs located in the north Windward section of the island Figure 1: The migration patterns of the Carib Indians from South AmericlI to the Caribbean, followed by their hybridization with Africans (Figure 2). on St. Vincent Island', and their relocation to Roatan and Central America. (From Davidson, 1984.) The majority of Black Caribs that were transplanted to Honduras estab lished five Villages along the Bay of Honduras, near the present city of Trujillo. the Caribbean and hybridising with the Arawaks. The linguistic evidencl' III 1803-4, almost immediately after their arrival in Honduras some of the supports Gullick's position in that Island Carib (the language spoken by the Bla(~I, (;'lrifuna moved into an area east of Mosquitia (Davidson, 1984). In successive Caribs) consists primarily of Arawakan, but with Carib, French, English IiIHI IrJlr{rations the Black Caribs settled in British Honduras, Guatemala, Western Spanish loan words. Ilnnduras and even Nicaragua (Figure 3). Political intrigues, popUlation From 1517 to 1646, the African component was added to the Black Car'ill I"'rs.sures, and a scarcity of cultivable land rapidly dispersed the Black Caribs gene pool. A number of explanations have been proposed as to the source of till /c\nng 1000 kilometres of the coast of Centl'al America into the present 54 African admixture: (1) runaway slaves from Barbados, an adjoining island alld II distinct communities (Figure 4). centre of the Caribbean slave trade; (2) Amerindian raids of adjoining Europollli settlements, returning with African captives; (3) shipwreck of an 18th cent 1I1'V METHODS slave galleon that was heading for Barbados. This last explanation appears to I,,· During the summers of 1975, 1976 and 1979, the University of Kansas most unlikely because, if the slaver had sailed directly from Africa, thell 1111 Il\'ld "csearch team collected a total of 1044 blood specimens from Black Caribs culture of the survivors of this galleon should have been African orientateci; y.... I":dding in Central America and St. Vincent Island (Table 1). The blood the slaves had acquired Arawak culture and language with little or no evi(h'rll'" 1,,','ill1ens were sent to the Minneapolis War Memorial Blood Bank and the of significant African influence (Taylor, 1951). \lill'I'i(~f1" National Red Cross for analyses of blood groups, serum and red blood Followinl~ the TI'eaty of PlIl'is ill 17!i:1, tlw llr'itish 1\I1l1t'~x~d St. Vinl'lIlIl "e II pl'Ol'cin types llno the allele frequencies were computed by maximum Islund 1'1'0111 1h., F"l\lwh ( ;ulllid(, I ~JHt1). Ilow"vl'l' t 1\<: 111/11'10. ('/wills sidnd willi 1.I,.,lIltood. lilt' 1'1'1'11"11, ,,"d I"·.·ll:~t,.d Ilrili:,i1, .."1,,11\:>1,11,,,1 Ily 11111'111111', 1'llIlItlllillll:l 1I11c\ !c'/loIllW I'olillwinl': ")(lIll1illlll iOIl 01' 11'11'il' I;('ncl i(' vlIl'inl ion, 111(' rt('n~l ie' sl!'IJ('t1n'(' of 1111111'1111'01 11I:1I11·1·...·IIIlI'. 1\11['1' I'l'cdollllll'c\ W/II'I,II',' with IIIl' Ili'll,'llt "XI','dl111'"111 V Ii,,· lillII'll ('111'110:.. i'l' II", c'r,,,,, I \\1' I '('"ll'/t1 1\111"1';"" IIl1d IIIl' ('11,';1>1>",", w,t': 160 Crawford Rlack Caribs of St. Vincent & Central America 161 • Gor;'1 uno Vlliog e OPo,' . Bay of Honduras u 100 Kilomello ; = Oa. ,0" ---------....; d'" ~i"\(\~~o ,·.....JOul(o 1821'36 V ,-" / , .. / Puerto Rico o~' 0'. ~A"gUill: Barbuda ~" / Cope C7';'Y~iOI5. Honduras GrQcio, Jamaica esC;" / Dio~ ~ °Anllgua o ~ ~Mon$ella' GUadeIOUP~~~ C.)Dominlcll I" i{;ure 3: Migration patterns of the Black Caribs after their arrival on Fancy Owia ~Marl;rllqu(! the coast of Honduras. (From Davidson, 1984.) St. 'Sandy Bay Vincent OS\. LUcill ~ C> t 51. Vincent 8arbadQIj o Grenada • Garlfuna Settlement t:>Tobago o Urban Port [ ] Limits of Trade Area VTrinldad BELIZE o ~ ~ ~ I ' I , , I Venezuela o ~ 400m, ". V ~"?"~~ \>--.",'<.i / "'-"·0 Figure 2: A map locating St. Vincent Island in the Lesser Antilles and th.. 0~' /" <t Black Carib communities of Fancy, Owia and Sandy Bay. -''':-':'-°v' HONDURAS examined through a number of analytical techniques. These are: (1) R-matr'ix Bl;!~:r" Hond"(QI: Doogrigo 9 !"'a~(Q 22 Mont" Pobrc 34 Borronco BI::mco 46 Cocoliro of conditional kinship; (2) admixture estimates; (3) computation of absolull' HOFki,,~ 10 TrovC1oio 23 Ceroto! 35 Borro de Chopoguo 47 Tocomocho G<.'OrOC1own II Boio f-kJr 24 Sombo Cr<'''ek 36 Borro de Aq-JOn 48 Son Pedro heterozygosity; (4) the relationship between mean per locus heterozygosity (It.) Srin" BiUnl 12 Sorc:ij\}ino 25 Nuevo Anr.enio 37 Aguan 49 BolO)'O I PUllta Gordo 13 RIO rinlo '26 Solodo lis-li1 38 limen 50 Pueblo Nuevo Ilorronco 14 M'<Im' '27 Punlo Gorda 39 !too Zc;rco lkIeno Vi~to and rii (the genetic distance from the centroid of distribution). The R-matl'ill 15 Toroobe 28 RIo hlobon 40 Pr.:nla Piedra "52 Plopla)'O OI>OIl-:,-"""n, 16 Soil Juon 29 G\.-coolupe 4' CtI~uno 17 ll;l E...,,"nodo 31) Son Anlon'a ~2 Oriboyo NkorC91.1O: IUI'I I (~'f;II\"J.::I,,: method of analysis was first developed by Harpending and Jenkins (1973) and 18 Triunlo do; \g Cru; 315<Jnklfe 43 kiona Viejo (r:ol~OWTl) R l.l"ill'1~lo" 19 f'l".....o Go 32 CrI,lol." 44 Son Jc»e de 10 Punla 53 Orinoco been widely utilised to construct "genetic maps" of subdivided populations bllS,'d 20 Cnyo V..,nodo 33 RIo N.:gro 45 Sangreloyo 54 lo fe '1[ Rch,lo upon a least-squares approximation of a variance-covl1l'iAne0. 1l1atr'ix. 'I'll" I h 'III ·jl '1'1,,' l"I'j tI j, Iii "I' IIII' :,,1 1\ 11I1'k (','II' ill "d 1111111111 i1i I'~; <l (" ( '('1111':11 ,1\111"1'''''', (lil'PIIi 111\\fPltlljtl, I ~lll,1 j 162 Crawford Black Caribs of St. Vincent & Central America 163 Table 1: Sample sizes in this study Table 2: Polymorphic loci among the Black Caribs Population Sample size (n) Loci Alleles with an incidence of 1% or greater Mainland samples: BLOOD GROUPS Livingston 205 Stann Creek (Dangriga) 354 ABO AI, A2, B, 0 Punta Gorda 239 Rhesus CDE, CDe, cDE Total Caribs 798 MNSs MS, Ms, NS, Ns, SU, Mg a b S1.