Carib, Island Carib, or Kalinago people, after whom the Caribbean Sea was named, live in the Lesser Antilles islands. They are an Amerindian people whose origins lie in the southern West Indies and the northern coast of South America. The people traditionally spoke either a Carib language or a pidgin. In the southern Caribbean, they co-existed with a related Cariban-speaking group, the Galibi. They lived in separate villages in Grenada and Tobago and are believed to have been mainland Caribs. The Carib word karibna meant "person". It became the origin of the English "cannibal". Although among the Carib, it was apparently associated with rituals related to the eating of war enemies, some Europeans believed the Carib practiced general cannibalism.
The Caribs are believed to have migrated from the Orinoco River area in South America to settle in the Caribbean islands about 1200 CE. Over the century leading up to Columbus' arrival in the Caribbean archipelago in 1492, the Caribs mostly displaced, by warfare, extermination and assimilation, the Maipurean-speaking Tainos, who settled the island chains earlier in history.
The Carib islanders traded with the Eastern Taíno of the Caribbean Islands. The Caribs produced the silver which Ponce de Leon found in Taino communities. None of the insular Amerindians mined for gold, but obtained it by trade from the mainland. The Caribs were skilled boatbuilders and sailors. They appeared to have owed their dominance in the Caribbean basin to their mastery of warfare.
The Caribs were displaced by the Europeans with a great loss of life; most fatalities resulting from Eurasian infectious diseases to which they had no immunity, as well as warfare. Others were assimilated during the colonial period; a few retained areas such as in Dominica. Small populations survive, specifically in the Carib Territory in northeast Dominica.
Because of Dominica's rugged area, Caribs were able to hide from European forces. The island's east coast includes a 3,700-acre (15 km2) territory granted to the people by the British Crown in 1903. There are only 3000 Caribs remaining. They elect their own chief. In July 2003, Caribs observed 100 Years of Territory. In July 2004, Charles Williams was elected as Carib Chief. It is said that they are the only remaining full-blood native Carib people, although some have intermarried with the non-Carib Dominican population.
The Carib are believed to have been polytheists. As the Spanish began to colonize the Caribbean area, they wanted to convert the natives to Catholicism.