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Taíno Indians, a subgroup of the Arawakan Indians (a group of
American Indians in northeastern South America), inhabited the
Greater Antilles (comprising Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola [Haiti and the
Dominican Republic], and Puerto Rico) in the Caribbean Sea at the
time when Christopher Columbus' arrived to the New World.
The Taíno culture impressed both the Spanish (who observed it) and
modern sociologists. The Arawakan achievements included construction of
ceremonial ball parks whose boundaries were marked by upright stone
dolmens, development of a universal language, and creation of a
complicated religious cosmology. There was a hierarchy of deities who
inhabited the sky; Yocahu was the supreme Creator. Another god,
Jurakán, was perpetually angry and ruled the power of the
hurricane. Other mythological figures were the gods Zemi and
Maboya. The zemis, a god of both es, were represented by icons in the
form of human and animal figures, and collars made of wood, stone, bones, and
human remains. Taíno Indians believed that being in the good graces of
their zemis protected them from disease, hurricanes, or disaster in war. They
therefore served cassava (manioc) bread as well as beverages and tobacco to
their zemis as propitiatory offerings. Maboyas, on the other hand, was a
nocturnal deity who destroyed the crops and was feared by all the natives, to
the extent that elaborate sacrifices were offered to placate him.
Myths and traditions were perpetuated through ceremonial
dances (areytos), drumbeats, oral traditions, and a ceremonial
ball game played between opposing teams (of 10 to 30 players per team)
with a rubber ball; winning this game was thought to bring a good harvest
and strong, healthy children.
The Taíno Indians lived in theocratic kingdoms and had a
hierarchically arranged chiefs or caciques. The Taínos
were divided in three social classes: the naborias (work class), the
nitaínos or sub-chiefs and noblemen which includes the
bohiques or priests and medicine men and the caciques or chiefs,
each village or yucayeque had one.
At the time Juan Ponce de León took possession of the Island,
there were about twenty villages or yucayeques, Cacique
Agüeybana, was chief of the Taínos. He lived at Guánica,
the largest Indian village in the island, on the Guayanilla River. The rank of
each cacique apparently was established along democratic lines; his importance
in the tribe being determined by the size of his clan, rather than its
war-making strength. There was no aristocracy of lineage, nor were their
titles other than those given to individuals to distinguish their services to
the clan.
Their complexion were bronze-colored, average stature, dark,
flowing, coarse hair, and large and slightly oblique dark eyes. Men
generally went naked or wore a breech cloth, called nagua, single women walked
around naked and married women an apron to over their genitals, made of cotton or
palm fibers. The length of which was a sign of rank. Both es painted
themselves on special occasions; they wore earrings, nose rings, and necklaces,
which were sometimes made of gold. Taíno crafts were few; some pottery
and baskets were made, and stone, marble and wood were worked skillfully.
Skilled at agriculture and hunting, then Taínos were also
good sailors, fishermen, canoe makers, and navigators. Their main crops were
cassava, garlic, potatoes, yautías, mamey,
guava, and anón. They had no calendar or writing system,
and could count only up to twenty, using their hands and feet. Their personal
possessions consisted of wooden stools with four legs and carved backs,
hammocks made of cotton cloth or string for sleeping, clay and wooden bowls for
mixing and serving food, calabashes or gourds for drinking water and bailing out
boats, and their most prized possessions, large dugout canoes,
for transportation, fishing, and water sports.
Caciques lived in rectangular huts, called caneyes, located in the
center of the village facing the batey. The naborias lived in round
huts, called bohios. The construction of both types of building was
the same: wooden frames, topped by straw, with earthen floor, and scant
interior furnishing. But the buildings were strong enough to resist
hurricanes. Its believed that Taíno settlements ranged from single
families to groups of 3,000 people.
About 100 years before the Spanish invasion, the Taínos were
challenged by an invading South American tribe - the Caribs
![[Glos.]](http://welcome.topuertorico.org/reference/taino.shtml/../images/glos.gif)
. Fierce, warlike, sadistic, and adept at
using poison-tipped arrows, they raided Taíno settlements for slaves
(especially females) and bodies for the completion of their rites of
cannibalism. Some ethnologists argue that the preeminence of the
Taínos, shaken by the attacks of the Caribs, was already jeopardized by
the time of the Spanish occupation. In fact, it was Caribs who fought the most
effectively against the Europeans, their behavior probably led the
Europeans to unfairly attribute warlike tendencies to all of the island's
tribes. A dynamic tension between the Taínos and the Caribs certainly
existed when the Christopher Columbus landed on Puerto Rico.
When the Spanish settlers first came in 1508, since there is no reliable
documentation, anthropologists estimate their numbers to have been between
20,000 and 50,000, but maltreatment, disease, flight, and unsuccessful
rebellion had diminished their number to 4,000 by 1515; in 1544 a bishop
counted only 60, but these too were soon lost.
At their arrival the Spaniards expected the Taíno Indians to
acknowledge the sovereignty of the king of Spain by payment of gold tribute,
to work and supply provisions of food and to observe Christian ways. The
Taínos rebelled most notably in 1511, when several caciques (Indian
leaders) conspired to oust the Spaniards. They were joined in this uprising by
their traditional enemies, the Caribs. Their weapons, however, were no match
against Spanish horses and firearms and the revolt was soon ended brutally by
the Spanish forces of Governor Juan Ponce de León.
In order to understand Puerto Rico's prehistoric era, it is
important to know that the Taínos, far more than the Caribs,
contributed greatly to the everyday life and language that evolved during
the Spanish occupation. Taíno place names are still used for such
towns as Utuado,
Mayagüez,
Caguas,
and
Humacao, among others.
Many Taíno implements and techniques were copied directly by
the Europeans, including the bohío (straw hut) and the
hamaca (hammock), the musical instrument known as the
maracas, and the method of making cassava bread. Many Taino words
persist in the Puerto Rican vocabulary of today. Names of plants, trees
and fruits includes: maní, leren, ají, yuca, mamey, pajuil,
pitajaya, cupey, tabonuco and ceiba. Names of fish, animals and birds
includes: mucaro, guaraguao, iguana, cobo, carey, jicotea, guabina,
manati, buruquena and juey. As well as other objects and instruments:
güiro, bohío, batey, caney, hamaca, nasa, petate, coy, barbacoa,
batea, cabuya, casabe and canoa. Other words were passed not only into
Spanish, but also into English, such as huracan (hurricane) and hamaca
(hammock). Also, many Taíno superstitions and legends were adopted and
adapted by the Spanish and still influence the Puerto Rican imagination.
Books
The
Indigenous People of the Caribbean
In Defense of the Indians : The Defense of the Most
Reverend Lord, Don Fray Bartolome de las Casas, of
the Order of Preachers, Late Bishop of Chiapas
The
Tainos: Rise & Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus
Other Resources
Arawaks
Cacicazgos del Siglo 16
Caciques,
Nobles, and their Regalia
Indigenous Puerto Rico: DNA evidence upsets established
history
The
Jatibonicu Taino Tribal Nation
The New Old World - Antilles: Living Beyond the Myth.
Tainos
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