Download or read book Comparative Arawakan Histories written by Jonathan D. Hill and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2002-08-07 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Before they were largely decimated and dispersed by the effects of European colonization, Arawak-speaking peoples were the most widespread language family in Latin America and the Caribbean, and they were the first people Columbus encountered in the Americas. Comparative Arawakan Histories, in paperback for the first time, examines social structures, political hierarchies, rituals, religious movements, gender relations, and linguistic variations through historical perspectives to document sociocultural diversity across the diffused Arawakan diaspora.