able conservatism of the natives which has preserved this culture in spite of two hundred years of contact with civilization, may be due to this culture being the only one that can successfully cope with the forests.[1]
15. The Antilles. Finally, we have the Antillean insular area, properly discussed here because it has more affinities with the Amazon area than with any other. Unfortunately, the native life of the more important islands was so completely stamped out by the Spanish conquerors that a comprehensive view of native culture is impossible. Yet, from the narratives of the period, some significant data can be gleaned.[2] So far as we know the pre-Columbian population was first pure Arawak, but later over-run by Carib. This at once connects the island culture with the canoe culture of the Amazon-Orinoco drainage. Among the distinctive traits are manioc culture, raising of cotton, use of the hammock, tobacco taken as snuiif and inhalation, ceremonial emetics, fish poisons, cigars instead of pipes, all of which remind one of the Amazon area.
CULTURE CENTERS
Such a résumé as we have just made shows how the cultures of the various social units grade into each other. This intergradation has often been cited as an insurmountable obstacle to classification, but it is not necessarily so, for we see that this condition arises from the existence of culture centers, from which culture influences seem to radiate. While it is true that a culture area as marked off on the map is in the main an arbitrary division, it has within its borders a culture center whose geographical positon is coincident with the habitats of the most typical tribes. Between two contiguous culture centers will be found many other social units with intermediate cultures. These relations are so consistent that one can almost predict the culture of a given unit when its geographical position with respect to the established centers is known.
Hence, the culture areas we have designated serve to differentiate culture centers. This is why we have used straight and angular boundaries for our maps instead of more
