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116-562: Taíno is a term referring to a historic Indigenous people of the Caribbean , whose culture has been continued today by their descendants and Taíno revivalist communities. Indigenous people in the Greater Antilles did not refer to themselves as Taínos , as the term was coined by the anthropologist Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1836. The Indigenous peoples of the Greater Antilles are sometimes referred to as Island Arawaks . At

232-644: A chieftain , known as cacique , or cacica if the ruler was a woman. Many women whom the Spaniards called cacicas were not always rulers in their own right, but were mistakenly acknowledged as such because they were the wives of caciques . Chiefs were chosen from the nitaínos and generally obtained power from their maternal line. A male ruler was more likely to be succeeded by his sister's children than his own unless their mother's lineage allowed them to succeed in their own right. The chiefs had both temporal and spiritual functions. They were expected to ensure

348-503: A bird, a frog , or a reptile, depending on the interpretation of the myth . Zemí was also the name the people gave to physical representations of Zemis, which could be objects or drawings. They took many forms and were made of many materials and were found in a variety of settings. The majority of zemís were crafted from wood, but stone, bone , shell , pottery , and cotton were used as well. Zemí petroglyphs were carved on rocks in streams, ball courts, and stalagmites in caves, such as

464-460: A chief was succeeded by a son of a sister. Las Casas was not specific as to which son of a sister would succeed, but d'Anghiera stated that the order of succession was the oldest son of the oldest sister, then the oldest son of the next oldest sister. Post-marital residence was avunculocal , meaning a newly married couple lived in the household of the maternal uncle. He was more important in the lives of his niece's children than their biological father;

580-471: A complex culture. There is also evidence that they modified the soil using various techniques such as adding charcoal to transform it into black earth , which even today is famed for its agricultural productivity. Maize and sweet potatoes were their main crops, though they also grew cassava and yautia. The Arawaks fished using nets made of fibers, bones, hooks, and harpoons. According to Heckenberger, pottery and other cultural traits show these people belonged to

696-576: A confusion of the reality: despite the name, the Island Carib language was Arawakan , not Cariban . Irving Rouse suggests that small numbers of Caribs may have conquered the Igneri without displacing them, and could have gradually adopted their language while retaining the Carib identity, but there is no evidence to prove this. Though they were Arawaks, the Igneri language appears to be as distinct from

812-707: A dialect known as Ciboney or Western Taíno. The Western Taíno of the Bahamas were known as the Lucayans , they were wiped out by Spanish slave raids by 1520. Western Taíno living in Cuba were known as the Ciboney . They had no chiefdoms or organized political structure beyond individual villages, but by the time of Spanish conquest many were under the control of the Cuban Taíno in eastern Cuba. According to oral history,

928-624: A dialect of the Arawakan language group. They lived in agricultural societies ruled by caciques with fixed settlements and a matrilineal system of kinship and inheritance. Taíno religion centered on the worship of zemis . Some anthropologists and historians have argued that the Taíno were no longer extant centuries ago, or that they gradually merged into a common identity with African and Hispanic cultures. However, many people today identify as Taíno or have Taíno descent, most notably in subsections of

1044-649: A group of Indigenous peoples of northern South America and of the Caribbean . The term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to different Indigenous groups, from the Lokono of South America to the Taíno (Island Arawaks), who lived in the Greater Antilles and northern Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean. All these groups spoke related Arawakan languages . Early Spanish explorers and administrators used

1160-417: A receptacle for hallucinogenic snuff called cohoba , prepared from the beans of a species of Piptadenia tree. These trays have been found with ornately carved snuff tubes. Before certain ceremonies, Taínos would purify themselves, either by inducing vomiting (with a swallowing stick) or by fasting . After communal bread was served, first to the zemí, then to the cacique, and then to the common people,

1276-455: A sacred mountain on present-day Hispaniola. In Puerto Rico, 21st-century studies have shown that a high proportion of people have Amerindian mtDNA . Of the two major haplotypes found, one does not exist in the Taíno ancestral group, so other Native people are also among the genetic ancestors. DNA studies changed some of the traditional beliefs about pre-Columbian Indigenous history. According to National Geographic , "studies confirm that

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1392-424: A solid rubber ball. Normally, the teams were composed of men, but occasionally women played the game as well. The Classic Taíno played in the village's center plaza or on especially designed rectangular ball courts called batey . Games on the batey are believed to have been used for conflict resolution between communities. The most elaborate ball courts are found at chiefdom boundaries. Often, chiefs made wagers on

1508-511: A tenuous continuum of nations, linked by some shared vocabulary, ethnic links, agricultural practices, reinforced by bride abduction, and continuous exogamy. After the violence of the Spanish conquest , and subsequent events of African slavery and rebellion, nations and cultures with diverse amounts of Arawak ethnicity, culture, and/or traditions transmuted and arose. Some of these nations had mixed or even predominantly African roots, which include

1624-497: A typical village was a central plaza, used for various social activities, such as games, festivals, religious rituals , and public ceremonies. These plazas had many shapes, including oval, rectangular, narrow, and elongated. Ceremonies where the deeds of the ancestors were celebrated, called areitos , were performed here. Often, the general population lived in large circular buildings ( bohios ), constructed with wooden poles, woven straw, and palm leaves. These houses, built surrounding

1740-414: A wave of pottery-making farmers—known as Ceramic Age people—set out in canoes from the north-eastern coast of South America starting some 2,500 years ago and island-hopped across the Caribbean. They were not, however, the first colonizers. On many islands, they encountered foraging people who arrived some 6,000 or 7,000 years ago...The ceramicists, who are related to today's Arawak-speaking peoples, supplanted

1856-468: A wide variety of germplasm, including maize , peanuts , tomato , squash , and beans plus a vast array of tree fruits. Tubers in most frequent use were yuca ( Manihot esculenta ) a crop with perhaps 10,000 years of development in the Americas; boniato (the " sweet potato " — Ipomoea batatas), and malanga ( Xanthosoma sp.) As with all Arawak (Schultes, Raffault. 1990) and similar cultures there

1972-517: Is considered to have belonged to the Arawak language family , the languages of which were historically present throughout the Caribbean, and much of Central and South America. In 1871, early ethnohistorian Daniel Garrison Brinton referred to the Taíno people as the Island Arawak , expressing their connection to the continental peoples. Since then, numerous scholars and writers have referred to

2088-753: Is in the Dominican Republic . According to las Casas, their language was unintelligible for the Taínos, but may have been similar to the Ciguayo language.(Wilson, 1990) "There were three distinct languages in this island, unintelligible to each other; one was the people we called of lower Macorix, and the other were the neighbors from upper Macorix" ( Tres lenguas habia en esta Isla distintas, que la una á la otra no se entendia; la una era de la gente que llamábamos del Macoríx de abajo, y la otra de los vecinos del Macoríx de arriba ). Recent studies show that

2204-758: The Ciboney , but no regional or island-wide political structure had developed on the island at the time of Spanish colonization of the Americas . The Eastern Taíno inhabited the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles , from the Virgin Islands to Montserrat . They had less sophisticated societies than the Classic Taíno. The Western Taíno lived in The Bahamas , central Cuba , westernmost Hispaniola , and Jamaica . They spoke

2320-686: The Colombian Andes connected to the Arhuaco people , while the Amazonian model supports an origin in the Amazon basin, where the Arawakan languages developed. The Taíno were among the first American people to encounter Europeans. Christopher Columbus visited multiple islands and chiefdoms on his first voyage in 1492, which was followed by the establishment of La Navidad that same year on

2436-626: The Igneri were the original Arawak inhabitants of the Windward Islands in the Lesser Antilles before being conquered by the Caribs who are thought to have arrived from South America. Contemporary sources like to suggest that the Caribs took Igneri women as their wives while killing the men, resulting in the two sexes speaking different languages. This is not proven, and there appears to be

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2552-568: The Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean. Noteworthy Kalinago descendants live on within the Garifuna people, known as the Black Caribs who descend from St. Vincent in the Lesser Antilles . A separate ethnic identity from far western Cuba. They were an archaic hunter-gatherer people who spoke a language distinct from Taíno , and appear to have predated the agricultural, Taíno-speaking Ciboney . A separate ethnic people that inhabited

2668-620: The Peninsula of Samaná and part of the northern coast toward Nagua in what today is the Dominican Republic, and, by most contemporary accounts, differed in language and customs from the classical or high Taíno who lived on the eastern part of the island of Hispaniola then known. According to Eustaquio Fernandez de Navarrete, they were "warriors and spirited people," ("gente animosa y guerrera"). The Cronista de Indias, Pedro Martir accused them of cannibalism: "when they descend from

2784-522: The Puerto Rican , Cuban , and Dominican nationalities. Many Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Dominicans have Caribbean-Indigenous mitochondrial DNA , suggesting Taíno descent through the direct female line. While some communities describe an unbroken cultural heritage passed down from the old Taíno peoples, often in secret, others are revivalist communities who seek to incorporate Taíno culture into their lives. Scholars have faced difficulties researching

2900-524: The Taíno language as it was from the mainland Arawak language of South America. By the contact period, the Kalinago, also known as Island Caribs, inhabited the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles . "Caribbean" derives from the name "Carib", by which the Kalinago were formerly known. They self-identified with the Kalina or mainland Carib people of South America. Contemporary accounts asserted that

3016-507: The Virgin Islands to Montserrat . Modern groups with Caribbean-Indigenous heritage have reclaimed the exonym Taíno as a self-descriptor, although terms such as Neo-Taino or Indio are also used. Two schools of thought have emerged regarding the origin of the Indigenous Caribbean people. Taíno culture as documented is believed to have developed in the Caribbean. The Taíno creation story says they emerged from caves in

3132-446: The cacique , social organization was composed of two tiers: The nitaínos at the top and the naborias at the bottom. The nitaínos were considered the nobles of the tribes. They were made up of warriors and the family of the cacique. Advisors who assisted in operational matters such as assigning and supervising communal work, planting and harvesting crops, and keeping peace among the village's inhabitants, were selected from among

3248-399: The nitaínos . The naborias were the more numerous working peasants of the lower class. The bohíques were priests who represented religious beliefs. Bohíques dealt with negotiating with angry or indifferent gods as the accepted lords of the spiritual world. The bohíques were expected to communicate with the gods , soothe them when they were angry, and intercede on the tribe's behalf. It

3364-469: The paper genocide . The paper genocide and the myth of extinction spread throughout colonial empires, Taíno people still continued to practice their culture and teachings passing it down from generation to generation. Much of this was done in secret or disguised through Catholicism in fear for their survival and of discrimination. With the modern invention of DNA testing, many Caribbean people have discovered they have Indigenous heritage. This has supported

3480-475: The tribe began to occupy the hierarchical position that would give way to the cacicazgo . The Taíno founded settlements around villages and organized their chiefdoms, or cacicazgos , into a confederation. The Taíno society, as described by the Spanish chroniclers, was composed of four social classes: the cacique , the nitaínos , the bohíques , and the naborias . According to archeological evidence,

3596-494: The "good men", as opposed to the Caribs. According to Peter Hulme, most translators appear to agree that the word taíno was used by Columbus's sailors, not by the islanders who greeted them, although there is room for interpretation. The sailors may have been saying the only word they knew in a native Caribbean tongue, or perhaps they were indicating to the "commoners" on the shore that they were taíno , i.e., important people, from elsewhere and thus entitled to deference. If taíno

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3712-507: The 16th century. In the early 17th century, they allied with the Spanish against the neighbouring Kalina (Caribs), who allied with the English and Dutch. The Lokono benefited from trade with European powers into the early 19th century, but suffered thereafter from economic and social changes in their region, including the end of the plantation economy. Their population declined until the 20th century, when it began to increase again. Most of

3828-460: The Americas for centuries before 1492. Christopher Columbus in his journal described how Indigenous people used tobacco by lighting dried herbs wrapped in a leaf and inhaling the smoke. Tobacco, derived from the Taino word "tabaco", was used in medicine and in religious rituals. The Taino people utilized dried tobacco leaves, which they smoked using pipes and cigars. Alternatively, they finely crushed

3944-554: The Arawak legend explains the origin of the Caribs as offspring of a putrid serpent. The social classes of the neo-Taíno, generalized from Bartolomé de las Casas , appeared to have been loosely feudal with the following Taíno classes: naboría (common people), nitaíno' (sub-chiefs, or nobles), bohique, ( shamans priests/ healers ), and the cacique (chieftains, or princes). However, the neo-Taíno seem to have been more relaxed in this respect. The Spanish found that most Cuban peoples for

4060-555: The Arawak of the Antilles died out or intermarried after the Spanish conquest. In South America, Arawakan-speaking groups are widespread, from southwest Brazil to the Guianas in the north, representing a wide range of cultures. They are found mostly in the tropical forest areas north of the Amazon. As with all Amazonian native peoples, contact with European settlement has led to culture change and depopulation among these groups. During

4176-554: The Arawakan language family, a group that included the Tainos, the first Native Americans Columbus encountered. It was the largest language group that ever existed in the pre-Columbian Americas. At some point, the Arawakan-speaking Taíno culture emerged in the Caribbean. Two major models have been presented to account for the arrival of Taíno ancestors in the islands; the "Circum-Caribbean" model suggests an origin in

4292-527: The Bahamas grew root crops that originated in South America. It is possible that a few Lucayas reached Florida shortly before the first European contacts in the area, but the northwestern Bahamas had remained uninhabited until approximately 1200, and the long established presence of the existing tribes in Florida would have likely prevented any pioneering settlements by people who had only just reached

4408-520: The Carib territory, killing a majority of the Yellow Caribs. After the eruption, 130 Yellow Caribs and 59 Black Caribs survived on St. Vincent . Unable to recover from the damage caused by the eruption, 120 of the Yellow Caribs, under Captain Baptiste, emigrated to Trinidad. In 1830, the Carib population numbered less than 100. The population made a remarkable recovery after that, although almost

4524-573: The Caribbean, they captured and ate small animals such as hutias , other mammals, earthworms , lizards , turtles , and birds . Manatees were speared and fish were caught in nets, speared, trapped in weirs , or caught with hook and line. Wild parrots were decoyed with domesticated birds, and iguanas were taken from trees and other vegetation . The Taíno stored live animals until they were ready to be consumed: fish and turtles were stored in weirs, hutias and dogs were stored in corrals. The Taíno people became very skilled fishermen . One method used

4640-525: The Caribbean. Their culture was divided into three main groups, the Western Taíno, the Classic Taíno, and the Eastern Taíno, with other variations within the islands. The Classic Taíno lived in eastern Cuba , Hispaniola , and Puerto Rico . They spoke a dialect called Classic Taíno. Compared to their neighbors, the Classic Taíno had substantially developed agricultural societies. Puerto Rico

4756-422: The Caribbean. They were not, however, the first colonizers. On many islands they encountered a foraging people who arrived some 6,000 or 7,000 years ago...The ceramicists, who are related to today's Arawak-speaking peoples, supplanted the earlier foraging inhabitants—presumably through disease or violence—as they settled new islands." The Taíno, an Arawak people, were the major population group throughout most of

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4872-522: The Cimarrón of Cuba and the Maroons of Jamaica and Guyana. http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1993/2/93.02.12.x.html#top https://web.archive.org/web/20040818183442/http://www.banrep.gov.co/blaavirtual/credencial/hamerica.htm translated '.. the women go naked and are libidinous, lewd, and lustful but despite this their bodies are beautiful and clean...." Arawak The Arawak are

4988-462: The DNA confirmation in the scientific community, Taíno peoples within the Caribbean and its diasporas had started a movement around the late 1980s and early 1990s calling for the protection, revival or restoration of Taíno culture. By coming together and sharing individual knowledge passed down by either oral history or maintained practice, these groups were able to use that knowledge and cross-reference

5104-468: The Europeans. Others survived in isolated communities with escaped and free Black people, called Maroons. Many of the explorers and early colonists also raped Indigenous women they came across, resulting in children who were considered mestizo . Some of these mestizo groups retained Indigenous culture and customs over many generations, especially among rural communities such as the jíbaro . In time,

5220-533: The Greater Antilles as Taíno (except the western tip of Cuba and small pockets of Hispaniola), as well as those of the Lucayan Archipelago and the northern Lesser Antilles . He subdivides the Taíno into three main groups: Classic Taíno , from most of Hispaniola and all of Puerto Rico; Western Taíno , or sub-Taíno , from Jamaica, most of Cuba, and the Lucayan archipelago; and Eastern Taíno , from

5336-547: The Greater Antilles. The word tayno or taíno , with the meaning "good" or "prudent", was mentioned twice in an account of Columbus's second voyage by his physician, Diego Álvarez Chanca , while in Guadeloupe . José R. Oliver writes that the Natives of Borinquén, who had been captured by the Caribs of Guadeloupe and who wanted to escape on Spanish ships to return home to Puerto Rico, used the term to indicate that they were

5452-476: The Indigenous group as Arawaks or Island Arawaks . However, contemporary scholars (such as Irving Rouse and Basil Reid) concluded that the Taíno developed a distinct language and culture from the Arawak of South America. Taíno and Arawak have been used with numerous and contradictory meanings by writers, travelers, historians, linguists, and anthropologists. Often they were used interchangeably: Taíno

5568-691: The Island Caribs had conquered the Windward Islands from their previous inhabitants, the Igneri . However, the Kalinago language was Arawakan, not Cariban . Irving Rouse suggests that small numbers of South American Caribs invaded the Windwards and conquered the Igneri without displacing them; they gradually adopted the local language while maintaining the Carib identity. The Kalinago outlasted their Taíno neighbors, and continue to live in

5684-781: The Lokono population is growing. The Spaniards who arrived in the Bahamas , Cuba, Hispaniola (today Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and the Virgin Islands in 1492, and later in Puerto Rico in 1493, first met the Indigenous peoples now known as the Taíno , and then the Kalinago and other groups. Some of these groups—most notably the Kalinago—were able to survive despite warfare, disease and slavery brought by

5800-457: The Macorix people coexisted with the Taínos on Hispaniola. The names San Francisco de Macorix and San Pedro de Macorix in the Dominican Republic are indirect references to the political divisions of the cacicazgo . The Spaniards wrongly assumed that the names given to the different territories were a reference "to what they called a Cacicazgo: a region dominated by a cacique. Cacique comes from

5916-741: The Orinoco and Amazonian rivers and their tributaries. The group that self-identified as the Arawak, also known as the Lokono , settled the coastal areas of what is now Guyana , Suriname , Grenada , Bahamas , Jamaica and parts of the islands of Trinidad and Tobago . Michael Heckenberger , an anthropologist at the University of Florida who helped found the Central Amazon Project, and his team found elaborate pottery, ringed villages, raised fields, large mounds, and evidence for regional trade networks that are all indicators of

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6032-422: The Spanish colonists over the now-subjugated Taíno. Over the next decade, the Spanish colonists presided over a genocide of the remaining Taíno on Hispaniola, who suffered enslavement, massacres, or exposure to diseases. The population of Hispaniola at the point of first European contact is estimated at between several hundred thousand to over a million people, but by 1514, it had dropped to a mere 35,000. By 1509,

6148-448: The Spanish had successfully conquered Puerto Rico and subjugated the approximately 30,000 Taíno inhabitants. By 1530, there were 1,148 Taíno left alive in Puerto Rico. Taíno influence has survived even until today, though, as can be seen in the religions, languages, and music of Caribbean cultures. The Lokono and other South American groups resisted colonization for a longer period, and the Spanish remained unable to subdue them throughout

6264-442: The Taíno islands were able to support a high number of people for approximately 1,500 years. Every individual living in the Taíno society had a task to do. The Taíno believed that everyone living on their islands should eat properly. They followed a very efficient nature harvesting and agricultural production system. Either people were hunting, searching for food, or doing other productive tasks. Tribal groups settled in villages under

6380-428: The Taíno permission to engage in important tasks. The Taíno had a matrilineal system of kinship , descent, and inheritance. Spanish accounts of the rules of succession for a chief are not consistent, and the rules of succession may have changed as a result of the disruptions to Taíno society that followed the Spanish intrusion. Two early chroniclers, Bartolomé de las Casas and Peter Martyr d'Anghiera , reported that

6496-499: The Taíno word kassiquan, meaning 'to keep house,' or meaning: 'a lord, dominating a great territory.' The different names given by the five regions in reality was given by the Indigenous people based on the various Indigenous groups living on those areas. The Tequesta of the southeast coast of the Florida peninsula were once considered to be related to the Taíno, but most anthropologists now doubt this. The Tequesta had been present in

6612-486: The Taínos as a physically tall, well-proportioned people, with noble and kind personalities. In his diary , Columbus wrote: They traded with us and gave us everything they had, with good will ... they took great delight in pleasing us ... They are very gentle and without knowledge of what is evil; nor do they murder or steal...Your highness may believe that in all the world there can be no better people ... They love their neighbors as themselves, and they have

6728-766: The area for at least 2,000 years at the time of first European contact, and are believed to have built the Miami Stone Circle . Carl O. Sauer called the Florida Straits "one of the most strongly marked cultural boundaries in the New World", noting that the Straits were also a boundary between agricultural systems, with Florida Indians growing seed crops that originated in Mexico , while the Lucayans of

6844-405: The back, and they occasionally wore gold jewelry, paint, and/or shells. Taíno men and unmarried women usually went naked. After marriage, women wore a small cotton apron, called a nagua . The Taíno lived in settlements called yucayeques , which varied in size depending on the location. Those in Puerto Rico and Hispaniola were the largest and those in the Bahamas were the smallest. In the center of

6960-909: The beginning of the eighteenth century, the Island Carib population in St. Vincent was greater than that in Dominica. Both the Island Caribs (Yellow Caribs) and the Black Caribs ( Garifuna ) fought against the British during the Second Carib War . After the end of the war, the British deported the Garifuna (a population of 4,338) to Roatan Island , while the Island Caribs (whose population consisted of 80 people) were allowed to stay on St. Vincent. The 1812 eruption of La Soufrière destroyed

7076-401: The cacicazgo of Baracoa as Classical or High Taíno. Cuban cacicazgos including Bayaquitiri, Macaca, Bayamo, Camagüey, Jagua, Habana y Haniguanica are considered neo-Taíno. These principalities are considered to have various affinities to contemporary Taíno and neo-Taíno cultures from Puerto Rico and Hispaniola, but are generally believed to have been somewhat different. The common name given to

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7192-579: The cacicazgos. Granberry and Vescelius (2004) and other contemporary authors only consider the cazicazgo of Baracoa as classical or high Taíno. Cuban cacicazgos including Bayaquitiri, Macaca, Bayamo, Camagüey, Jagua, Habana y Haniguanica are treated here as "neo-Taíno". Hispaniolan principalities at about 1500 included Maguá (Cacique Guarionex); Xaraguá (Behecchio); Maguana ( Caonabo ); Higüey also called Iguayagua (Higüayo); Cigüayo (Mayobanex), and unnamed region under Cacique Guanacagarí (Wilson, 1990). These principalities are considered to have various affinities to

7308-468: The central plaza, could hold 10–15 families each. The cacique and their family lived in rectangular buildings ( caney ) of similar construction, with wooden porches. Taíno home furnishings included cotton hammocks ( hamaca ), sleeping and sitting mats made of palms, wooden chairs (dujo or duho) with woven seats and platforms, and cradles for children. The Taíno played a ceremonial ball game called batey . Opposing teams had 10 to 30 players per team and used

7424-746: The claims of individuals and communities with Taíno heritage living today, particularly in rural areas such as "campos" (meaning small villages/towns in the country side). Though many communities and individuals across the Caribbean have some amount of Indigenous DNA, not all of them identify as Indigenous or Taíno. Those who do identify as Indigenous Caribbean may also use other terms to describe themselves as well as or in addition to Taíno . There has been increasing scholarly attention paid to Taíno practices and culture, including communities with full or partial Taíno identities. Because of this, Taíno people started to become more open about sharing their identities, passed down Indigenous culture, and beliefs. Even before

7540-671: The contemporary Taíno and neo-Taíno cultures from what is now known as Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic and Haiti , but are generally believed somewhat different. The adroit farming and fishing skills of the neo-Taíno nations should not be underestimated; the names of fauna and flora that survive today are testimony of their continued use. Neo-Taíno fishing technologies were most inventive, including harpoons and fishnets and traps. Neo-Taíno common names of fish are still used today (DeSola, 1932 ; Erdman, 1983; Florida Fish and Wild Life Commission (Division of Marine Fisheries) 2002; Puerto Rico, Commonwealth, 1998). Agriculture included

7656-401: The earlier foraging inhabitants—presumably through disease or violence—as they settled new islands." Taíno society was divided into two classes: naborias (commoners) and nitaínos (nobles). They were governed by male and female chiefs known as caciques , who inherited their position through their mother's noble line. (This was a matrilineal kinship system, with social status passed through

7772-554: The entire tribe died out during the 1902 eruption of La Soufrière . As of 2008, a small population of around 3,400 Kalinago survived in the Kalinago Territory in northeast Dominica. The Kalinago of Dominica maintained their independence for many years by taking advantage of the island's rugged terrain. The island's east coast includes a 3,700-acre (15 km ) territory formerly known as the Carib Territory that

7888-416: The establishment of a second settlement, La Isabella, and the discovery of gold deposits on the island, the Spanish settler population on Hispaniola started to grow substantially, while disease and conflict with the Spanish began to kill tens of thousands of Taíno every year. By 1504, the Spanish had overthrown the last of the Taíno cacique chiefdoms on Hispaniola, and firmly established the supreme authority of

8004-499: The female lines.) The nitaínos functioned as sub-caciques in villages, overseeing the work of naborias. Caciques were advised by priests/healers known as bohíques . Caciques enjoyed the privilege of wearing golden pendants called guanín , living in square bohíos, instead of the round ones of ordinary villagers, and sitting on wooden stools to be above the guests they received. Bohíques were extolled for their healing powers and ability to speak with deities. They were consulted and granted

8120-468: The first Taíno mythical cacique Anacacuya, whose name means "star of the center", or "central spirit". In addition to the guanín, the cacique used other artifacts and adornments to serve to identify his role. Some examples are tunics of cotton and rare feathers , crowns, and masks or "guaizas" of cotton with feathers; colored stones, shells, or gold; cotton woven belts; and necklaces of snail beads or stones, with small masks of gold or other material. Under

8236-563: The fish would be stunned and ready for collection. These practices did not render fish inedible. The Taíno also collected mussels and oysters in exposed mangrove roots found in shallow waters. Some young boys hunted waterfowl from flocks that "darkened the sun", according to Christopher Columbus. Taíno groups located on islands that had experienced relatively high development, such as Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, and Jamaica, relied more on agriculture (farming and other jobs) than did groups living elsewhere. Fields for important root crops , such as

8352-401: The goddess Jagua. Strangely enough the god Teju Jagua is a major demon of Indigenous Paraguayan mythology. Still these groups plus the high Taíno are considered Island Arawak, part of a widely diffused assimilating culture, a circumstance witnessed even today by names of places in the New World; for example localities or rivers called Guamá are found in Cuba, Venezuela and Brazil . Guamá

8468-553: The gourd broke, an accident caused by Deminán Caracaracol, and all the water of the world came pouring out. Taínos believed that Jupias, the souls of the dead, would go to Coaybay, the underworld, and there they rest by day. At night they would assume the form of bats and eat the guava fruit. Columbus and the crew of his ship were the first Europeans to encounter the Taíno people, as they landed in The Bahamas on October 12, 1492. After their first interaction, Columbus described

8584-524: The island and mainland groups. In the 20th century, scholars such as Irving Rouse resumed using " Taíno " for the Caribbean group to emphasize their distinct culture and language. The Arawakan languages may have emerged in the Orinoco River valley in present-day Venezuela. They subsequently spread widely, becoming by far the most extensive language family in South America at the time of European contact , with speakers located in various areas along

8700-424: The leaves and inhaled them through a hollow tube. The natives employed uncomplicated yet efficient tools for planting and caring for their crops. Their primary tool was a planting stick, referred to as a "coa" among the Taino, which measured around five feet in length and featured a sharp point that had been hardened through fire. Contrary to mainland practices, corn was not ground into flour and baked into bread, but

8816-481: The men made wooden war clubs, which they called macanas . It was about one inch thick and was similar to the coco macaque. The Taínos decorated and applied war paint to their face to appear fierce toward their enemies. They ingested substances at religious ceremonies and invoked zemis. The Taíno were the most culturally advanced of the Arawak group to settle in what is now Puerto Rico . Individuals and kinship groups that previously had some prestige and rank in

8932-566: The most part, living peacefully in tidy towns and villages grouped into numerous principalities called Cacicazgos with an almost feudal social structure (see Bartolomé de las Casas ). They were ruled by leaders called Caciques . Cuba was divided into Guanahatabey, Ciboney-Taíno (here neo-Taíno), and Classical (High) Taíno. Some of western Cuba was Guanahatabey and some Siboney (see below). Taíno-like cultures controlled most of Cuba, dividing it into cacicazgos or principalities. Granberry, Vescelius (2004), and other contemporary authors only consider

9048-484: The mountains to wage war on their neighbors, they kill and eat some of them" ("trae[n] origen de los caníbales, pues cuando de las montañas bajan a lo llano para hacer guerra á sus vecinos, si matan á algunos se los comen"). Fray Ramón Pané, often dubbed as the first anthropologist of the Caribbean, distinguished the Ciguayo language from the rest of those spoken on Hispaniola. Bartolomé de las Casas, who studied them and

9164-401: The native inhabitants of the Caribbean islands to which Columbus voyaged in 1492, since European accounts cannot be read as objective evidence of a native Caribbean social reality . The people who inhabited most of the Greater Antilles when Europeans arrived have been called Taínos , a term coined by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1836. Taíno is not a universally accepted denomination—it

9280-408: The neighboring islands. Analysis of ocean currents and weather patterns indicates that people traveling by canoe from the Bahamas to Florida were likely to land in northern Florida rather than closer to the Bahamas. A single 'Antillean axe head' found near Gainesville, Florida may support some limited contacts. Due to the same ocean currents, direct travel in canoes from southern Florida to the Bahamas

9396-468: The northeast coast of Hispaniola , the first Spanish settlement in the Americas. Relationships between the Spaniards and the Taíno would ultimately sour. Some of the lower-level chiefs of the Taíno appeared to have assigned a supernatural origin to the explorers. When Columbus returned to La Navidad on his second voyage, he found the settlement burned down and the 39 men he had left there killed. With

9512-485: The number of recorded Taíno was greatly diminished through forced labor, disease and warfare, but also through changes to how Indio groups were recorded in the Spanish Caribbean. For example, the 1787 census in Puerto Rico lists 2,300 "pure" Indios in the population, but on the next census, in 1802, not a single Indio is listed. This created the enduring belief that the Taíno people went extinct, also known as

9628-428: The part living peacefully in tidy towns and villages grouped into numerous principalities called cacicazgos or principalities with an almost feudal social structure. They were ruled by leaders or princes, called Caciques. Cuba was then divided into Guanahatabey , Ciboney , and Classical Taíno . Then some of Western Cuba was Guanahatabey. and some Ciboney. Taíno-like cultures controlled most of Cuba dividing it into

9744-408: The people depended on. The men also fished and hunted, making fishing nets and ropes from cotton and palm . Their dugout canoes ( kanoa ) were of various sizes and could hold from 2 to 150 people; an average-sized canoe would hold 15–20. They used bows and arrows for hunting and developed the use of poisons on their arrowheads. Taíno women commonly wore their hair with bangs in front and longer in

9860-507: The people would sing the village epic to the accompaniment of maraca and other instruments. One Taíno oral tradition explains that the Sun and Moon came out of caves. Another story tells of the first people, who once lived in caves and only came out at night because it was believed that the Sun would transform them; a sentry became a giant stone at the mouth of the cave, and others became birds or trees. The Taíno believed they were descended from

9976-414: The place of copper and is surmised to have been a site of pre-Columbian mining. DNA studies changed some of the traditional beliefs about pre-Columbian Indigenous history. According to National Geographic , "studies confirm that a wave of pottery-making farmers—known as Ceramic Age people—set out in canoes from the northeastern coast of South America starting some 2,500 years ago and island-hopped across

10092-491: The possible outcome of a game. Taíno spoke an Arawakan language and used an early form of proto-writing in the form of petroglyph , as found in Taíno archeological sites in the West Indies . Some words they used, such as barbacoa ("barbecue"), hamaca ("hammock"), kanoa ("canoe"), tabaco ("tobacco"), sabana (savanna), and juracán ("hurricane"), have been incorporated into other languages. For warfare,

10208-524: The rich traditions of the popular music of the Caribbean, but is believed to continue to exist in its purest form and associated spirituality among the Warao of Venezuela. The art of the neo-Taínos demonstrates that these nations had metallurgical skills, and it has been postulated by some e.g. Paul Sidney Martin , that the inhabitants of these islands mined and exported metals such as copper (Martin et al. 1947). The Cuban town of (San Ramón de) Guaninao means

10324-696: The rural inhabitants of Cuba is guajiros. Del Campo implies that quajiros are "native-born whites" and states that in Puerto Rico "the influence of the Indigenous population is more marked than that of the native populations in Cuba". The term Guajira / Guajiro , also refers to Indigenous Arawak nation of the Guajira Peninsula between Venezuela and Colombia. For a small compendium of myths of this Nation please see: de Cora, Maria Manuela 1972. Kuai-Mare. Mitos Aborígenes de Venezuela. Monte Avila Editores Caracas. The Arawak, Carib, other Mesoamerican coast, and Amazonian cultures can be considered as part of

10440-451: The sea and the mountains". He was considered the spirit of cassava, the zemi of cassava – the Taínos' main crop – and the sea. Guabancex was the non-nurturing aspect of the zemi Atabey who was believed to have control over natural disasters. She is identified as the goddess of hurricanes or as the zemi of storms. Guabancex had twin sons: Guataubá, a messenger who created hurricane winds, and Coatrisquie, who created floodwaters . Iguanaboína

10556-442: The staple crop yuca , were prepared by heaping up mounds of soil, called conucos . This improved soil drainage and fertility as well as delayed erosion while allowing for the longer storage of crops in the ground. Less important crops such as corn were cultivated in clearings made using the slash-and-burn technique. Typically, conucos were three feet high, nine feet in circumference, and were arranged in rows. The primary root crop

10672-682: The sweetest talk in the world, and are gentle and always laughing. Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean Some scholars consider it important to distinguish the Taíno from the neo-Taíno nations of Cuba , Puerto Rico , and Hispaniola , and the Lucayan of the Bahamas and Jamaica . Linguistically or culturally these differences extended from various cognates or types of canoe: canoa, piragua, cayuco to distinct languages. Languages diverged even over short distances. Previously these groups often had distinctly non-Taíno deities such as

10788-495: The term Taíno should refer to all the Taíno/Arawak nations except the Caribs , who are not seen as belonging to the same people. Linguists continue to debate whether the Carib language was an Arawakan dialect or a Creole language . They also speculate that it was an independent language isolate, with an Arawakan pidgin used for communication purposes with other peoples, as in trading. Rouse classifies all inhabitants of

10904-479: The terms Arawak and Caribs to distinguish the peoples of the Caribbean, with Carib reserved for Indigenous groups that they considered hostile and Arawak for groups that they considered friendly. In 1871, ethnologist Daniel Garrison Brinton proposed calling the Caribbean populace "Island Arawak" because of their cultural and linguistic similarities with the mainland Arawak. Subsequent scholars shortened this convention to "Arawak", creating confusion between

11020-487: The time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of what is now Cuba , the Dominican Republic , Jamaica , Haiti , Puerto Rico , the Bahamas , and the northern Lesser Antilles . The Lucayan branch of the Taíno were the first New World peoples encountered by Christopher Columbus , in the Bahama Archipelago on October 12, 1492. The Taíno historically spoke

11136-483: The uncle introduced the boys to men's societies in his sister and his family's clan. Some Taíno practiced polygamy . Men might have multiple wives. Ramón Pané, a Catholic friar who traveled with Columbus on his second voyage and was tasked with learning the Indigenous people's language and customs, wrote in the 16th century that caciques tended to have two or three spouses and the principal ones had as many as 10, 15, or 20. The Taíno women were skilled in agriculture, which

11252-412: The union of the cultural hero Deminán Caracaracol and a female turtle (who was born of the former's back after being afflicted with a blister). The origin of the oceans is described in the story of a huge flood that occurred when the great spirit Yaya murdered his son Yayael (who was about to murder his father). The father put his son's bones into a gourd or calabash . When the bones turned into fish,

11368-538: The unity of the Indigenous communities in a territory; they would band together as a defensive strategy to face external threats, such as the attacks by the Caribs on communities in Puerto Rico. The practice of polygamy enabled the cacique to have women and create family alliances in different localities, thus extending his power. As a symbol of his status , the cacique carried a guanín of South American origin, made of an alloy of gold and copper. This symbolized

11484-408: The welfare of the tribe and to protect it from harm from both natural and supernatural forces. They were also expected to direct and manage the food production process. The cacique's power came from the number of villages he controlled and was based on a network of alliances related to family , matrimonial, and ceremonial ties. According to an early 20th-century Smithsonian study, these alliances showed

11600-428: The wild. Taíno spirituality centered on the worship of zemis (spirits or ancestors). Major Taíno zemis included Atabey and her son, Yúcahu . Atabey was thought to be the zemi of the moon , fresh waters, and fertility. Other names for her included Atabei, Atabeyra, Atabex, and Guimazoa. The Taínos of Kiskeya (Hispaniola) called her son, "Yúcahu|Yucahú Bagua Maorocotí", which meant "White Yuca, great and powerful as

11716-672: The zemi carved into a stalagmite in a cave in La Patana, Cuba. Cemí pictographs were found on secular objects such as pottery, and tattoos . Yucahú, the zemi of cassava, was represented with a three-pointed zemí, which could be found in conucos to increase the yield of cassava. Wood and stone zemís have been found in caves in Hispaniola and Jamaica. Cemís are sometimes represented by toads , turtles, fish, snakes , and various abstract and human-like faces. Some zemís were accompanied by small tables or trays, which are believed to be

11832-628: Was applied to the Greater Antillean natives only, but could include the Bahamian or the Leeward Islands natives, excluding the Puerto Rican and Leeward nations. Similarly, Island Taíno has been used to refer only to those living in the Windward Islands , or to the northern Caribbean inhabitants, as well as to the Indigenous population of all the Caribbean islands. Many modern historians, linguists, and anthropologists now hold that

11948-419: Was being used here to denote ethnicity, then it was used by the Spanish sailors to indicate that they were "not Carib", and gives no evidence of self-identification by the native people. According to José Barreiro , a direct translation of the word Taíno signified "men of the good". The Taíno people, or Taíno culture, have been classified by some authorities as belonging to the Arawak peoples. Their language

12064-742: Was considerable use of natural pharmacopoeia (Robineau, 1991). Taíno studies are in a state of both vigorous revival and conflict (Haslip-Viera, 2001). In this conflict deeply embedded cultural mores, senses of nationality and ethnicity struggle with each other. The Syboneistas undertook studies and wrote of neo-Taínos as part and cover for independence struggles against Spain (Fajardo, 1829 - c.  1862 ; Gautier Benítez, 1873). Taíno and related art has been celebrated in several significant exhibitions (Alegria, and Arrom 1998; Bercht, et al. 1997; Bullen, Dacal et al.; Kerchache, 1994, most notably in Paris. Neo-Taíno music (areíto) survives as echoes in

12180-450: Was cooked and eaten off the cob. Corn bread becomes moldy faster than cassava bread in the high humidity of the Caribbean. Corn also was used to make an alcoholic beverage known as chicha . The Taíno grew squash , beans , peppers , peanuts , and pineapples . Tobacco , calabashes (bottle gourds), and cotton were grown around the houses. Other fruits and vegetables, such as palm nuts , guavas , and Zamia roots, were collected from

12296-547: Was divided into twenty chiefdoms which were organized into one united kingdom or confederation, Borinquen. Hispaniola was divided into roughly 45 chiefdoms, which were organized into five kingdoms under the leadership of the chief of each area's premier chiefdom. Beginning around 1450, Classic Taíno from Hispaniola began migrating to eastern Cuba; they are conventionally known as the Cuban Taíno . The Cuban Taíno gained power over some of Cuba's earlier Western Taíno inhabitants,

12412-591: Was granted to the people by the British government in 1903. The Dominican Kalinago elect their own chief. In July 2003, the Kalinago observed 100 Years of Territory, and in July 2014, Charles Williams was elected Kalinago Chief, succeeding Chief Garnette Joseph. In the 21st century, about 10,000 Lokono live primarily in Guyana, with smaller numbers present in Venezuela, Suriname, and French Guiana. Despite colonization,

12528-399: Was not the name this people called themselves originally, and there is still uncertainty about their attributes and the boundaries of the territory they occupied. The term nitaino or nitayno , from which Taíno derived, referred to an elite social class, not to an ethnic group. No 16th-century Spanish documents use this word to refer to the tribal affiliation or ethnicity of the natives of

12644-487: Was one of the few who read Ramón Pané's original work in Spanish, provided most of the documentation about this group. Linguists Granberry and Gary Vescelius believe that the Cigüayos emigrated from Central America. Wilson (1990) states that c.  1500 this was the kingdom Cacicazgo of Cacique Guacangarí. Another separate ethnic group that lived on the eastern side of the island of Hispaniola. Their region today

12760-480: Was the goddess of good weather. She also had twin sons: Boinayel, the messenger of rain, and Marohu, the spirit of clear skies. Minor Taíno zemis are related to the growing of cassava, the process of life, creation, and death. Baibrama was a minor zemi worshiped for his assistance in growing cassava and curing people of its poisonous juice. Boinayel and his twin brother Márohu were the zemis of rain and fair weather, respectively. Maquetaurie Guayaba or Maketaori Guayaba

12876-453: Was the name of famous Taíno who fought the Spanish. Thus, since the neo-Taíno had far more diverse cultural input and a greater societal and ethnic heterogeneity than the true high Taíno (Rouse, 1992). Boriquen (Puerto Rico) is presented in a separate section. A broader language group is Arawakan languages . The term Arawak (Aruaco) is said to be derived from an insulting term meaning "eaters of meal" given to them by mainland Caribs. In turn

12992-408: Was the zemi of Coaybay or Coabey, the land of the dead. Opiyelguabirán', a dog-shaped zemi, watched over the dead. Deminán Caracaracol, a male cultural hero from whom the Taíno believed themselves to be descended, was worshipped as a zemí. Macocael was a cultural hero worshipped as a zemi, who had failed to guard the mountain from which human beings arose. He was punished by being turned into stone, or

13108-419: Was their duty to cure the sick, heal the wounded, and interpret the will of the gods in ways that would satisfy the expectations of the tribe. Before carrying out these functions, the bohíques performed certain cleansing and purifying rituals , such as fasting for several days and inhaling sacred tobacco snuff. Taíno staples included vegetables, fruit, meat, and fish. Though there were no large animals native to

13224-408: Was to hook a remora , also known as a suckerfish, to a line secured to a canoe and wait for the fish to attach itself to a larger fish or even a sea turtle. Once this happened, someone would dive into the water to retrieve the catch. Another method used by the Taínos involved shredding the stems and roots of poisonous senna plants and throwing them into nearby streams or rivers. After eating the bait,

13340-531: Was unlikely. Ciboney (also Siboney) is a term preferred in Cuban historic contexts for the neo-Taíno nations of Cuba. Our knowledge of the Cuban Indigenous cultures which are often, but less precisely, lumped into a category called Taíno (Caribbean Island Arawak) comes from early Spanish sources, oral traditions and considerable archeological evidence. The Spanish found that most Cuban peoples were, for

13456-420: Was yuca or cassava , a woody shrub cultivated for its edible and starchy tuberous root . It was planted using a coa , a kind of hoe made completely from wood. Women processed the poisonous variety of cassava by squeezing it to extract its toxic juices. Roots were then ground into flour for bread. Batata ( sweet potato ) was the next most important root crop. Tobacco was grown by pre-Columbian peoples in

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