About Flower Pots

Before Europeans arrived in Jamaica the Amerindian Taino peoples made fine-walled hand built pottery fired black. There is some evidence that this was made by women as it continued into the period of Spanish settlement. However the pottery traditions that survived into the twentieth century appear to owe more to the West African traditions that came with the settlement of slaves. It is surprising that such low technology systems were not supplanted quite quickly in a society dominated by Europeans and in some places, such as Barbados, they were.

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