The Ciboney were a nomadic band of hunters and gatherers who most likely migrated from South America. Historians believed that they represented perhaps the oldest of the tropical forest belt-islanders; the warlike Carib arrived last in the Caribbean. By 1500, their military conquest absorbed all the Arawakan communities of the eastern Caribbean islands. Because they traditionally obtained wives from the Arawak their foodways are similar to the Arawak. The Arawak, whose communities extended from the Bahamas to the coast of Venezuela, were the most advanced of the tropical forest belt-islanders. The greatest concentration of the Arawak inhabited the larger Caribbean Islands of Cuba and Hispaniola. Arawak women planted and harvested potatoes, cassava (also called yucca), corn, peanuts, peppers, beans, and arrowroot. Their diet also included fruit, and fish. They seasoned their food with generous amounts of chili and allspice and they also used annatto seeds to color and flavor oils and sauces.
