Tainos

By Nashia Graneau-Barrie
Why should Indigenous culture be
explored?
• The indigenous peoples of the Caribbean were not only the original settlers of the region, but they
are a groups which have contributed to what can be considered as the Caribbean’s Kaleidoscope of
cultures.
• They share history that binds them together such as their presence in the Caribbean; their
establishment of settlements; and the encounter with Europeans.
Before settling in the Americas

• The first human beings to arrive in the Americas entered from Asia
approximately 50 000 years ago. 
• They crossed by means of the land and ice bridge which connected
Siberia and Alaska at the time, in the area of what is now the Bering
Strait. 
• The very first settlers who arrived in the island Caribbean from
either Central or South America, around 5000 BC or slightly later
Reasons for choosing the Americas to settle

• The Natural Environment :

• The conditions and resources found by those who settled in what is called
Mesoamerica, that is the area between central Mexico and the northern part
of Honduras, were very pivotal in allowing these people to decide to settle. 
• There is evidence of the domestication of plants and animals in that part of
Central America from around 7000 BCE (Before the Current Era). 
• About 5000 BC, the sea levels were approximately 2.5 to 5 meters
higher than today. This meant that the coastal mangrove areas
provided an environment which allowed oysters, other shellfish and
to some extent the manatee, to thrive. This could have contributed to
settlement patterns. 
• The arrival of people in the West Indies, the first Amerindians to
settle in the Caribbean islands seem to have been primitive groups
who lived by gathering plants and hunting animals for food.
•  Evidence of their presence, dating back to no earlier than 5000
BCE, has been recovered from sites in Trinidad, Antigua,
Hispaniola and Cuba.
• The tropical lowlands of South America, which encompass
Venezuela, the Guianas and the Amazon basin, conditions were
inconducive for settlement.
Taino People of the Americas

• In about 250 BCE, yet more Amerindians from South America

launched themselves into the Caribbean via Trinidad. 
• They came from the Orinoco region and were much more advanced
than the hunter and gatherers they soon replaced. 
• The people associated with these complex societies are known collectively as
Taıno, a label derived from their language and meaning specifically “good” or
“noble”. Although the people used the word to identify themselves to the first
European invaders of the region at the end of the fifteenth century – and this is
how the terminology entered the historic record – there is little to suggest that
the people thought of themselves as a language community that could be
identified by the term Ta´ıno. Rather, they thought of themselves as inhabitants
of particular islands or groups of islands, for which they had names, or as
members of specific polities. 
• In the Greater Antilles there was much more space for their
settlements, more room for hunting and agriculture, and far greater
scope for development. 
• Once the populations of these islands had had time to grow to a
reasonable size, new systems of government and more complex
types of religious belief began to evolve. 
• The culture that developed became the most advanced in the
Caribbean. It developed around the coast of each island but reached
its highest level in Hispaniola, the most populous of the four. There
the Taino Arawaks developed a society which was comparable with
the early neolithic cultures of Europe.
• Interior river valleys were preferred but settlement spread almost everywhere
in Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. These valleys were particularly fruitful and
came to support dense agricultural populations. Only the steepest slopes,
those that could not be terraced, and the wettest of the poorly drained
lowlands remained unoccupied. In Hispaniola, settlement was most intense
and population most dense in regions such as the basin of Maguana, the
northern coastal plain of Marien, and the elevated limestone zone of Higuey.
• Regular contact with the Greater Antilles was maintained by the
Arawaks who lived in the Lesser Antilles and the Bahamas, mostly
through trading voyages.
• As a result, the influence of the classic Taino culture came to be felt
to a greater or lesser extent throughout the rest of the West Indies.
Appearance

• The Arawaks were of short to middle height, well-shaped, but

slightly built, except in Hispaniola where they were plump. 
• According to Columbus their skin colour was 'olive', that is smooth
and brown. The Spanish considered the Arawaks were naturally
good looking but distorted their features by artificial means.
• Their heads were flattened at the forehead by the use of boards or
bandages when they were babies. This made the skull slope up to a
peak which the Arawaks thought was a mark of beauty. • The
Arawaks had broad noses and their nostrils were probably widely
flared. Their hair was black and straight, but coarse, and was usually
worn long. In Guanahani (San Salvador), the first island that
Columbus visited, the Arawaks were completely naked. In
Hispaniolaand Cuba the married women wore a piece of cotton
cloth (a nagua) over their loins. 
• Their heads were flattened at the forehead by the use of boards or
bandages when they were babies. This made the skull slope up to a peak
which the Arawaks thought was a mark of beauty. 
• The Tainos had broad noses and their nostrils were probably widely flared.
Their hair was black and straight, but coarse, and was usually worn long.
In Guanahani (San Salvador), the first island that Columbus visited, the
Arawaks were completely naked. In Hispaniola and Cuba, the married
women wore a piece of cotton cloth (a nagua) over their loins. 
• Sometimes, in Jamaica and Cuba, the woven cloth was not used as clothing,
but for cotton bands around the arms and legs.
• Printing the body in black, white and other colours was a common custom,
especially in Hispaniola.
• Sometimes, the Arawaks had gold in their noses as plugs or hanging
ornaments. The caciques (chiefs) had more ornaments than the others, made
of gold or an alloy of gold and copper called guanine by the Arawaks. 
Lifestyle

• As the most important food plant introduced intentionally before

1492, cassava represented a new attitude to Taino life in the islands.
Rather than hunting and gathering whatever might be found on land
and sea, the Tainos used cassava to manipulate the landscape, a
willingness to transform natural land and water resources to extract
a living. 
• Not only did cassava play a large role in the food culture and food security
of the people, it also facilitated sedentary settlement in many new
ecological niches, underpinned greater population densities, and enabled the
emergence of complex societies.
• It is the only staple crop, anywhere in the world, to be highly poisonous. The part of
the plant eaten is its starchy roots or tubers and in the preferred variety of the
species, known as bitter cassava, these contain toxic cyanide and must be processed
carefully to be made safe for consumption. Both cultivation and processing made
heavy demands on labour. The roots had to be peeled with a seashell, grated, and
then placed in a woven container to squeeze out the poisonous juice using a weight.
The juice might then be boiled to make a sauce capable of preserving both plant and
animal foods, though the relative absence of land animals made this practice less
common in the islands than it had been in South America. The pulp was dried and
cooked on a buren or griddle (the ceramic remnants of which are common.
• Fruit was abundant, including many that are now highly valued and
continue to have an important place in Caribbean gardens and
orchards (squash, peppers, pawpaw, guava, soursop, sweetsop,
custard apple, sapodilla, mamey apple, star apple, cashew, guinep,
pineapple, and passionfruit.)
• As the hunting of wild land animals ceased to be an option in the
islands of the eastern Caribbean, reef-fishing and the catching of
shellfish and crabs became increasingly important contributors to
the diet. Birds and the now-extinct rice-rat, opossum, Agouti, guinea
pig was more successfully domesticated but apparently bred only in
small numbers. Domestic dogs also were introduced but the
evidence of burials suggests that they were not primarily regarded
as a food resource; hut´ıa, a small rodent, as a captive animal. It was
native to both Hispaniola and Jamaica, where it is called coney. It
prospered in the absence of predators, or was managed, to enable
extensive exploitation, particularly at inland sites lacking access to
marine resources.
• Large mammals, such as the monk seal, and turtles, were important
at first but the few larger land animals, such as the tortoise and
iguana, were quickly hunted to extinction. Reef fish became
predominant, along with conch and other shellfish. For fishing,
large canoes were cut from local trees and plant fibres were used to
make nets and baskets.
• The first people to settle in Jamaica turned initially to exploit the island’s
large and defenseless animals, such as flightless birds, bats, sloths,
monkeys and rodents. Many of these species became extinct.
• Fishing was done by nets made of fibres, bone hooks and harpoons. The
Arawak method of catching the turtle was interesting: a remora (sucker-
fish) was caught and tied on a long line to a canoe. The remora would dive
for the turtle and attach itself to the back with its sucker. The turtle would
then be pulled into the canoe by the fishermen.
• In growing vegetables, they showed their agricultural skill. They cultivated maize
by soaking the seeds in water and planting them in rows.
• The Arawaks' food was carefully prepared and they knew about stewing, baking
and roasting. Iguana meat was stewed, cassava cakes were baked and fish was
smoked. Seasoning with salt and pepper, especially the latter, was common, as
was a sauce called cassareep, made of cassava juice, salt and pepper. The favourite
dish of the Arawaks was pepperpot, a great stew or soup into which went meat,
vegetables, nuts and, of course, pepper. This dish often served a whole family for
several days.
• The Arawaks could also make intoxicating drinks out of cassava and
maize, but drunkenness was uncommon except on some ceremonial
occasions. In comparison with millions of people in the poor parts
of the world today, the Arawaks enjoyed a varied and well-balanced
diet and food was plentiful.
Community

• Ta´ıno culture each commanded tens of thousands of people in 100

or more associated nucleated settlements or villages. A single
village might contain up to 1,000 houses and 5,000 people.
• Tainos often chose sites on the top of hills as a precaution against
surprise attack. In the village houses of wood and thatch were
arranged around a central plaza called a batey.
• The two largest buildings were the bohio, which was the dwelling
place of the cacique, and the caney, which was the village meeting-
place used for public activities and ceremonies. 
• The houses were strongly built and sometimes withstood hurricanes.
They had little furniture except for hammocks made of cotton in
which the inhabitants slept. Hammocks were especially common in
Jamaica and Cuba. 
• There would always be a small statue of a zemi (idol) made of
wood, stone or cotton, or a basket of bones serving as a zemi.
• Outside the houses were the cultivated plots or conucos of the
Arawaks. Here maize, cassava, groundnuts, sweet potatoes, yautia
(especially in Puerto Rico) and other crops were grown. Cotton and
tobacco were grown elsewhere
• Typically, men hunted, fished, and cleared the land, whereas women
were responsible for cultivation, harvesting, cooking, basketry,
and cloth making.
Politics

• In these highly stratified communities, large villages were governed

by caciques or chiefs. Women could and did take the role. The
realms over which they held sway were cacicazgos or chiefdoms. 
•  The caciques combined a number of roles – political, symbolic, and
ritual – and mediated between the human and supernatural realms of
existence. It was their duty to distribute tasks and resources, and to
protect and direct their communities.
• Beneath the caciques were lower social classes identified as the
nitaınos ´ (nobles or elite), behiques (shamans), and naborıas ´
(commoners, servants). By 1492, there were, at least in Hispaniola
and Puerto Rico, first and second order cacicazgos over which the
most powerful of the caciques had paramountcy. 
• The role of the nitaınos ´ was to gather information for the cacique
regarding their community and to execute orders. It was also their
responsibility to organize the labour of the naborıas ´ in all
activities, including voyages and warfare. The nitaıno ´ elite,
including the caciques, were entitled to special foods, elaborate
costumes, and ornament. These were the symbolic trappings of
hierarchy
• Cacique was a hereditary title which was passed from father to son.
• In Hispaniola and Cuba, they ruled large provinces, while in other
islands they were little more than village headmen. It was unlikely
that a cacique would have no heir as he was allowed many wives,
although the Arawaks were monogamous by custom. If he died
without a son, the title passed to the eldest son of his eldest sister. 
• His house, which was larger than the other houses, was built for
him. His canoe was also built for him by his tribesmen. He was
given the best food and carried in a litter. He was buried in a marked
cave (a common burial place for Arawaks) or grave, and some of his
wives were buried with him. He had a special ceremonial stool
called a duho which was carved out of wood or stone in the shape of
an animal. 
Religion

• Over time, the significance of the ceremonial plazas changed in response to

growing competition among the elite lineages and chiefdoms. After about AD
1200, the nitaınos ´ found it increasingly necessary to maintain their status and
power through the performance of their genealogy, to demonstrate the superior
character of their lineage’s connection with those who had gone before. To
achieve this, it was necessary to establish links between the world of the living
and the world of the dead, and to connect with the supernatural beings who
occupied the spirit world. Ritual objects known as cemıs´ or zemis, moulded from
natural materials or pottery, were used to enable this link, and it was the cult of
the cemıs´ that formed the most distinctive element of Taıno religious cosmology.
• The ceremonial plazas, previously used largely for the physically
competitive ball game, became sacred sites. The ornamented
standing stones that marked the boundaries of the plazas became
more closely associated with the cemıs´ and the plazas became sites
for the performance of song and dance known as the areyto. 
• Such performances provided connections with the spirit world and
appear to have been the most significant of all the ceremonies
performed at the central plazas.
• Hundreds of people performed together, moving in unison. Drumming,
oral performance and the use of hallucinogenic drugs, particularly by
the elites, facilitated altered states of consciousness and enabled an
easy communication between the living and the dead. The areyto was
not merely entertainment or even spiritual performance but often a
praise song, a central element in the glorification of the cacique and his
or her kin, living and dead, and intended to reinforce their power and
position.
• Connection with the spirit world was placed in the hands of shamans
or “medicinemen”, known as behiques, bohıte ´ , or buhuittihu, who
were members of the elites specialized in rituals of divination.
• The behiques bridged the gap between the natural world and the
world of spirits, bringing together magic and religion in curing
rituals. In these rituals, the behique might suck on various parts of
the sick person’s body, then spit out some object indicating that he
had got rid of the cause of the illness. Curing rituals were often
conducted with the help of tobacco and hallucinogenic substances.
The evening primrose, a mild narcotic, occurs in archaeological sites
associated with ceremonial centres, particularly in Puerto Rico, and
the psychoactive properties of its seeds may have been used for
ritual or medicinal purposes. 
• Smaller idols or amulets, made of hard stone (such as alabaster),
coral, shell, bone, wood, or pottery, were portable and worn on the
body. Many of these represented features of the human body, from
ears to genitals, and naturalistic or abstracted animals, such as
birds. 
• The Arawaks buried their dead and believed in life after death in
coyaba (heaven), a peaceful place which was free from natural
calamities like sickness and hurricanes. There they thought they
would meet their ancestors.
• Ordinary people could not communicate with gods or ancestors
through the zemis so the priests had to pray to cure sickness, or
bring good weather, or make the crops grow, or keep away enemies.
In religious ceremonies the priests often used tobacco or cohoba
(powdered tobacco) which they inhaled directly into their nostrils to
induce unconsciousness, the best state for communication with the
zemis. If the priest failed to have his prayer answered by the zemi, it
was felt that the power of the zemi was too strong.
• For an important religious ceremony, the village would be summoned by
blowing a conch shell and the cacique would lead a procession of the
whole village. The priests would make themselves vomit by tickling their
throats to clear away all impurity before communicating with the zemis. 
• The Arawaks' religious beliefs were very deep, especially their belief in
coyaba, which explains why so many committed suicide rather than
enduring life under the cruelty of the Spaniards
 Culture
• The Arawaks had ample leisure time which they occupied with singing, dancing and reciting epic poems
called areytos.
• On these occasions the pleasure of drinking was added. 
• They also had a ball game, known as batos. Whatever the spiritual or ritual significance of the
ceremonial plazas of the Ta´ınos, the best known activity associated with them was the ball game. It was
played only in the core zones of Ta´ıno culture in the Greater Antilles. In the ceremonial plazas,
the outlined spaces marked playing fields. The game was played between two teams, each of twenty or
thirty people, sometimes men and sometimes women. They lined up at the ends of the enclosure and one
player threw a rubber ball to the competing team who then attempted to get the ball back to the other end
without it touching the ground. They did this by bouncing the ball off prescribed parts of the body, using
shoulders, buttocks, knees, and closed fists. As well as exciting entertainment, the ball game may have
served to stage competitions between the different chiefdoms or cacicazgos, and the plazas similarly
performed double duty as meeting grounds for trade and perhaps intermarriage ceremonies
• The most well-known of the Arawaks' pleasures was that of
smoking. The Arawaks called the tobacco plant cohiba, and tabaco
referred to the pipe in which the leaves were smoked.
• The Arawaks liked tobacco for peace and contentment, and for
helping them to meditate. They made cigars, chewed tobacco and
smoked it in pipes, which was the method they enjoyed most of all. 
• The Arawaks made a considerable contribution to the outside world,
particularly by the crops they grew. Maize and cassava have become the
staple food of many people in Africa. Next in importance come
groundnuts, sweet potatoes and pineapples.
•  Arawak dishes are still served, mostly in the West Indies, but they also
appear in world-wide cookery books, for example pepperpot soup and
cassareep. Barbecuing meat is a very famous contribution from the
Arawaks. The use of tobacco is now also worldwide. 
• Many Arawak words have come into English. The names of some
vegetables are so common that their Arawak derivation is forgotten:
maize, potato, cassava and tobacco are four examples. Other words
commonly used are hammock, hurricane, barbecue, buccaneer and
canoe
• Hundreds of Taino words are used in Spanish, and a handful have
been adopted into English 
•  Barbacoa - barbecue 
• Canoa - canoe 
• Hamaca - hammock 
• Huracán - hurricane 
• Manatí - manatee 
• Yuca - yucca plant 
• Some of the island-names have persisted to the present, as for
example Cuba and Jamaica (Xamayca),