Taíno

The Taíno are pre-Colombian indigenous Amerindian inhabitants of the Greater Antilles islands, which include Cuba, Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Puerto Rico, Jamaica and the Bahamas. The seafaring Taíno are relatives of the Arawakan peoples of South America. Taíno of the Bahamas were known as Lucayan. Their language is a distant member of the Arawakan linguistic family, also found in South America.

At the time of Columbus's arrival in 1492, there were five Taíno "kingdoms," , Cazigazgos or territories on Hispaniola, each led by a principal Cacique (chieftain), to whom tribute was paid. Another indigenous group called the Carib lived in the islands. This group is said to be another Arawakan related people originally from South America. The Tainos and the Carib would sometimes battle each other.

At the time of the Spanish Conquest, the largest Taíno population centers may have contained around 3,000 people or more.

Cuba was first visited by Europeans when Christopher Columbus arrived on October 28, 1492 e.g. [1]. In 1511 Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar conquered the Island and became the first Spaniard to govern Cuba.

By the time the Spanish arrived, the indigenous peoples were semi-unified by the culture and assimilating language of the widespread seafaring polygamous, sexually open, commonly pacific and assimilating Taíno (Island Arawak) culture Template:Mn. Each island and often local areas within the larger islands maintained different social characters and their vocabulary varied due to inputs of the original settlers.

Our knowledge of the Cuban indigenous cultures which are often, but less precisely lumped into a category called Taíno (Caribbean Island Arawak) comes from these invaders’ written language we know as Spanish, oral traditions and considerable archeological evidence. The Spanish found that most Cuban peoples for the part living peacefully in tidy towns and villages grouped into numerous principalities called Cacigazgos with an almost feudal social structure Bartelome de las Casas. They were ruled by leaders or princes, called Caciques. Cuba was then divided into Guanahatabey, Ciboney-Taíno, and Classical Taíno Template:Mn. Then some of Western Cuba was Guanahatabey. [[2]] and some Siboney (see below). Taíno-like cultures controlled most of Cuba dividing it into the Cacigazgos of Baracoa (Classical Taíno), Bayaquitiri, Macaca, Bayamo, Camagüey, Jagua, Habana y Haniguanica [[3]]. These principalities are considered to have various affinities to the contemporary Taíno cultures from what is now known as Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic and Haiti, but are generally believed somewhat different Template:Mn.

Before 1492 Cuba had been long settled by many once distinct peoples such as the Guanahatabeys [[4]], or the Ciboney (pronounced with a soft C and also written Siboney)) [5], (Lalueza-Fox et al. Am. J. Phys. Anthro. 121(2) 97-108)). These indigenous cultures which were advanced enough to have calendars [[6]], and originally spoke different languages in each island or region of the larger island [[7]] Template:Mn. Although they wove cloth from cotton and other fibers, they commonly went naked or almost nude, and bathed often, frequently twice a day which horrified the Spanish who thinking this would weaken them tried to forbid the practice. The Taíno made elaborately worked gold (caona) ornaments and also used dark violet copper containing alloys they called guanín hammered out from the abundant metallic deposits of Cuba. The Taíno, who were trading with the Maya [[8]], and having metals were clearly transitioning out of the neolithic age. The Taíno in Cuba are even said by some to have used some copper or even bronze tools –[[9]], [[10]] possibly but not certainly of Mayan origins and except for cave symbols not yet understood were preliterate much the same way as were the classical period Celts [[11]]. The Taíno dug out enormous tree trunks hollowed with the help of fire (guatú) controlled by mud “dams” to built great canoes, a word derived in English from a Spanish transliteration. They used many kinds of ceramic (e.g. múcara) and woven containers (e.g. java), shell and stone (ciba) tools, such as hand daggers (manaya). The Taíno had a settled and very diverse agriculture; but also fished and hunted with inventive devices notably using harpoons (arpón is a Taíno word) and tethered remora sucker fish [[12]], [[13]] and made adroit use of natural products. Complex beliefs included great mysticism and a complicated and variable pantheon of diverse gods and belief in an almost Ancient Greek style afterlife as ghost hupía. They held complicated, but not lethal, batu ball games held in plazas called bateys, and in sacred ritual smoked tobacco said mixed with mild doses of dangerous hallucinogens (cohoba) [[14]]. Their swords macanas were stone tipped wood; and their atlatl launched, yaya hefted, azagaya spears, and weakly poisoned arrows tipped with ciba stone or manta ray stingers so lethal against bare flesh, were useless against steel armor.

The Taínos (Island Arawak) are part of a cultural group commonly called the Arawak Template:Mn which extends far into South America. The wide diffusion of this culture is witnessed even today by names of places in the New World; for example localities or rivers called Guamá (the Taíno name for 'Lonchocarpus domingensis' a leguminous tree wide spread in the Caribbean [[15]], the designation of a chief [[16]], Guamá was also the name of famous Taíno [[17]]who fought the Spanish) are found in Cuba, Venezuela and Brazil. The Arawaks incorporated readily into the successive invading groups and are now acculturated almost to the point of disappearance. Residues of Taíno poetry, songs, sculpture, and art are found today throughout the Antilles [[18]], Template:Mn. The Arawak and other such cultural groups are responsible for the development of perhaps 60% of crops in common use today and some major industrial materials such as rubber. Taínos taught the Spanish to grow tobacco and make cigars.

Approximately 16 to 60 thousand or more, for some estimates are far higher, Taínos inhabited Cuba before colonization. During the Spanish subjugation the indigenous populations of Cuba were forced from their minor princedoms or Cazigazgos into encomiendas, where they were used for lethal gold mining forced labor. The daughters of the Caciques were considered nobility and became wives of Spanish leaders; other women were incorporated into hareems of the conquerors. Vasco de Porcaya, who married Taína Princess Taníma of Sagua, is reputed to also have three hundred such women for his pleasure; until after surviving the failure of the Ponce de Leon expedition to Florida he became a priest. Encomiendas included Guanabacoa, today a city near Havana, Jiguaní and Guisa in the east. Many Native Cubans died due to the brutality of Spanish conquistadores and the measles and smallpox etc that they brought with them, diseases previously unknown to Indians. On the other hand the introduction of smoking and most probably syphilis into Europe as a result of this contact caused uncounted deaths in Europe.

Shakespeare's character Caliban is taken by many to represent a Caribbean Shaman. Sir Walter Raleigh's execution is said witnessed by his Caribbean servant. A number of Taíno words, transliterated into Spanish, have found English usage; such words include canoe, savanna, and tobacco. By 1550, most indigenous civil organization had disappeared. Many Conquistadors intermarried with Indigenous women. Their children were called mestizo, but the Native Cubans called them Güajiro, which translates as "one of us". Yet today, some descendants maintain their heritage. Population recovery, albeit mixed of the Taíno indicates that they in the Caribbean, as other Native Americans, are a vital part of today's human biological landscape in the western hemisphere (Larsen, C.S. 1994 Am. J. Physical Anthro. 37 (S19) 109-154).

The Taíno culture was nearly destroyed in the 16th century, decimated by genocide, introduced disease, and forced assimilation into the plantation economy that Spain imposed in its Caribbean colonies, with its subsequent importation of African slave workers. There was substantial mestizage as well as several Indian pueblos that survived into the 19th Century (Cuba). The Spaniards who first arrived in the Bahamas, Cuba and Hispaniola in 1492, and later in Puerto Rico in 1508, did not bring women. They took Taína women and had children in casual intercourse, common law or religious marriages. However, given the complexity of the Taíno pharmacopoeia, and present day customs of similar nations in the Amazon, these Taína women most probably had access to birth control Taíno Pharmacopoeia.

Taíno Pharmacopoeia

Robineau, Lionel (editor) 1991. Towards a Caribbean Pharmacopoeia. End-Caribe, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Schultes, Richard Evans and Robert F. Raffault. 1990. "The Healing Forest: Medicinal and Toxic Plants from the northwest Amazonia." Dioscorides Press, Portland Oregon. ISBN 0-931146-14-3

Culture and Lifestyle

In the center of a typical Taíno village (yucayeque) was a flat court (batey) used for various social activities such as games, various festivals and public ceremonies. Houses would surround this court. The Taíno played a ceremonial ball game called "Batu" between opposing teams (of 10 to 30 players per team) using a solid rubber ball. Batu was also used for conflict resolution between communities. As in preliterate Ireland telling stories and legends was an art [[19]].

Taíno Art

Taíno art has been celebrated in several significant exhibitions [[20]], most notably in Paris [[21]]

Alegria, Jose, and Ricardo Arrom 1998 Taino: Pre-Columbian Art and Culture from the Caribbean (Paperback) Monacelli, New York (February 1, 1998) ISBN: 1885254822

Bercht, Fatima, Estrellita Brodsky, John Alan Farmer, and Dicey Taylor, 1997 TAINO: Pre-Columbian Art and Culture from the Caribbean The Monacelli Press, New York,

Kerchache, Jacques 1994 L'Art Taïno. Paris-Musèes, Paris

Other citations can be found in the Bullen Bibliography of Caribbean Archaeology [[22]]

Social structure

Social classes Bartolome de las Casas

naboria (common people)
nitaíno (sub-chiefs)
bohique (priests/healers)
cacique (chieftains)

Domestic life

Often, the general population lived in rectangular or in more easily constructed and more hurricane resistant circular buildings (bohio), constructed with wooden poles (cujes), very large wide royal palm petioles used as boards (yaguas), tied with lianas (bejucos) or fan palm frond leaflets (yarey) and thatched with palm fronds (pencas). It is not clear whether the large circular multifamily dwellings called maloja in South America existed in Cuba, however, the term maloja as applied to corn (Zea mais L.) stovings did exist in the Taíno volcabulary (Zayas, 1914) The caciques and his family would live in larger rectangular buildings (caney) of similar construction, with wooden porches. These caneys could hold 10-15 families.

Taíno home furnishings included cotton hammocks (hamaca), mats made of palms, wooden chairs (dujo) with woven seats, platforms, and cradles for children.

The Taíno practised a mainly agrarian lifestyle but also fished and hunted. A frequently worn hair style featured bangs in front and longer hair in back. They sometimes wore gold jewellery, paint, and/or, shells. Taíno men sometimes wore short skirts. Taino women wore a similar garment (nagua) after marriage.

The Taíno spoke a highly modified form of Arawak and used the words: barbacoa (barbecue), hamaca (hammock), canoa (canoe), tabaco (tobacco), yuca (yucca) and Huracan (hurricane) which have been incorporated from the Spanish transliterations into the English language.

Sexual relationships were relazed, some Taíno practiced polygamy. Men, and sometimes women, might have 2 or 3 spouses, and the caciques would marry as many as 30. Women, such as the notable Anacaona, could also be Caciques.

The Taínos are generally believe to have originally arrived in the "New World" as part of a general migration(s) from Asia, through North and Central America to what is today Venezuela (they called it Zunia) and moved through the Caribbean and into parts of Florida.

Food and Agriculture

The Taíno diet was centered around vegetables, meat and fish. There never were many large wild animals to hunt on the islands except the large Cuban rodents known as jutias and the sea mammal manati, but small animals such as rodents, bats, worms, ducks, turtles (jicoteas), and birds were utilized.

Taíno groups in the interior of the islands relied more on agriculture. Their crops were raised in a conuco, a large mound, which was packed with leaves to prevent erosion and then planted with a variety of crops to assure that something would grow, no matter what the weather conditions. They used a coa, an early kind of hoe made completely out of wood.

One of the primary crops cultivated by the Taíno was cassava, which they ate as a flat bread similar to a burrito or pizza shell. Generally Taíno settlements were surrounded by diverse fruit trees, such as guanabana, guava. mamey etc/. The Taíno also grew maize, squash, beans, peppers, sweet potatoes, yams, peanuts as well as tobacco.

Technology

The Taíno used cotton, hemp and palm extensively for fishing nets and ropes. Their dugout canoes (Kanoa) were made in various sizes, which could hold from 2 to 150 people. An average sized Kanoa would hold about 15 - 20 persons. They used bows and arrows, and sometimes put various poisons on their arrowheads. They used spears for fishing. For warfare, they employed the use of a wooden war club, which they called a macana, that was about one inch thick and was similar to the cocomaque.

Religion

The Taíno respected all forms of life and recognized the importance of giving thanks, as well as honoring ancestors and spiritual beings whom they called Cemi or Zemi. (meaning) Many stone carvings of Cemi have survived. Some of the stalagmites of the Caves of Dondon were carved into the figures of Cemi. The Cemi are sometimes represented by toads, turtles, snakes, caiman and various abstract and human-like faces.

Some of the carved Cemi include a small table or tray which is believed to be a receptacle for hallucinogenic snuff called Cohoba prepared from the beans of a species of Anadenanthera tree. These trays have been found with ornately carved snuff tubes.

During certain ceremonies, the Taíno would induce vomiting with a swallowing stick. This was to purge the body of impurities, both a literal physical purging and a symbolic spiritual purging. After the serving of communal bread, first to the Cemi, then to the cacique, and then to the common people; the village epic would be sung and accompanied by maraca and other instruments.

Taíno oral tradition explains that the sun and moon come out of caves. Another story tells that people once lived in caves and only came out at night, because it was believed that the Sun would transform them. The origin of the oceans is described in the story of a huge flood which occurred when a father murdered his son (who was about to murder the father), and then put his bones into a gourd or calabash. These bones then turned to fish and the gourd broke and all the water of the world came pouring out.

The Supreme God was called "Yucahú", which means "white yuca", or "the spirit of the yuca", for the yuca was the main source of food of the Taínos, and as such it was revered. The Taínos of Quisqueya (Dominican Republic) called him "Yucahú Bagua Maorocotí", which means "White Yuca, great and powerful as the sea and the mountains". "Yucahú" was also the invisible spirit of the sky, whose mother was "Atabey", the mother of the gods and spirit of the waters. Other names for this goddess include "Guabancex", "Atabei", "Atabeyra", "Atabex", and "Guimazoa". "Huracán" was the evil god of storms, although some historians claim this was only the Taíno term for "storm", and the real goddess of storms was "Guabancex". Other minor gods or "cemíes" include "Boinayel" (god of rain, in other sources the Sun god), the messenger "Guataubá", "Deminán Caracaracol" (who broke the gourd and caused the flooding of the world and the spreading of the waters), "Opiyelguabirán" (a dog-shaped god), and "Maketaori Guayaba" (the ruler of the Coaybay, the underworld).

The Taínos believed that the souls of the dead go to Coaybay, the underworld, and there they rest by day, and when night comes they assume the form of bats and eat the fruit "guayaba".

Some anthropologists assert that some or all of the Petwo Voodoo rites may have their origins in Taíno religion.

Columbus and the Taíno

Columbus and his crew, landing in the Bahamas on October 12th, 1492 were the first Europeans to encounter the Taino people. It was Columbus who called the Taino "Indians", an identification that was grown to encompass all the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere.

There is debate as to how many Taíno inhabited Hispaniola when Columbus landed in 1492. The Catholic priest and contemporary historian Bartolome de Las Casas wrote (1561) in his multivolume History of the Indies:

"There were 60,000 people living on this island [when I arrived in 1508], including the Indians; so that from 1494 to 1508, over three million people had perished from war, slavery and the mines. Who in future generations will believe this?"

It is proposed by some historians today that Las Casas's figures for the pre-contact levels of the Taino population were an exaggeration and that a figure closer to one million is more likely. The Taino population estimates range all over, from a few hundred thousand up to 8,000,000. They were not immune to European diseases, notably smallpox, but many of them were worked to death in the mines and fields, put to death in harsh put-downs of revolts or committed suicide to escape their cruel new masters. Some academics have suggested that the numbers the population had shrunk to 60,000 and by 1531 to 3000 in Hispanola.

On Columbus' 2nd voyage, he began to require tribute from the Taíno in Hispanola. Each adult over 14 years of age, was expected to deliver a certain quantity of gold. In the earlier days of the conquest, if this tribute was not observed, the Taino were either mutilated or executed. Later on, fearing a loss of labor forces, they were ordered to bring 25lbs of cotton. This also gave way to a service requirement called "encomienda". Under this system, Taino were required to work for a Spanish land owner for most of the year, which left little time to tend to their own commuity affairs.

Taino opposition

In 1511, several caciques in Puerto Rico allied with the Caribs and tried to oust the Spaniards. The revolt was pacified by the forces of Governor Juan Ponce de León. In Hispanola, a Taino Chieftain named Enriquillo also mobilized over 3000 remaining Taino in a rebellion in the 1530s.

Taíno Heritage in Modern Times

Many people still claim to be decendants of the Taíno, most notably among Puerto Ricans, both on the island and US mainland. Taíno decendants have been active in trying to assert a call for recognition of their tribe. Recently, a few Taíno organizations, such as The United Confederation of Taíno People [23] and The Jatibonicù Taíno Tribal Nation of Boriken (Puerto Rico) [24], have been established to put forth these claims.

Lambda Sigma Upsilon, Latino Fraternity, Incorporated adapted the Taíno Indian as their symbol in 1979.

Notes

Template:Mnb Rouse, Irving. 1992. The Tainos : Rise and Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus. Yale University Press ISBN 0300051816

Template:Mnb Granberry, Julian and Gary Vescelius. 2004. Languages of the Pre-Columbian Antilles. University of Alabama Press. ISBN 0817314164

Template:Mnb Hill, Jonathan D. and Fernando Santos-Granero. 2002. Comparative Arawakan Histories. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0252027582

Template:MnbAlegria, Ricardo and Jose Arrom. 1998. Taino : Pre-Columbian Art and Culture from the Caribbean. Monacelli. ISBN 1885254822

References

United Confederation of Taino People http://www.uctp.org/
The Jatibonicù Taino Tribal Band of New Jersey (A Tribal Government Affairs website)
The Jatibonicù Taino Tribal Nation of Boriken (Puerto Rico Tribal Government website)
DeRLAS. Some important research contributions of Genetics to the study of Population History and Anthropology in Puerto Rico. Newark, Delaware: Delaware Review of Latin American Studies. August 15, 2000.
The Role of Cohoba in Taino Shamanism Constantino M. Torres in Eleusis No. 1 (1998)
Shamanic Inebriants in South American Archaeology: Recent lnvestigations Constantino M. Torres in Eleusis No. 5 (2001)