The Tainos

The Taínos came from South America and inhabited the Caribbean islands. Prior to them other groups had inhabited the islands; the Arcaicos and Araucos. The Arcaicos might have come from North America in the year 40 A.D. The second wave came from South America, near the Orinoco River and were the Araucos, around the year 370 A.D. Between the VII and XI centuries the cultural phase known as the Pre-Taíno developed and later the Taínos flourished around the XIII century centralized in Puerto Rico. The third wave, the Caribs, came also from South America, around 1400 A.D.They extended from the island of Tobago to the island of Vieques and were fighting the Taínos in their efforts to go farther north at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards in 1493. At that time there were approximately 70-100 thousand indians in Boriken. The supreme cacique was Agueybana, residing in Guainía (now Guanica), in the Southwest. They called the island Borikén which meant "the great land of the valiant and noble Lord." The taínos were bronze-colored, median in stature and had dark, flowing, coarse hair. They had dark, large eyes, slightly oblique. Males and single women were naked while married women wore a cotton skirt called a nagua.

The Taínos were divided in three social classes: the naborias or workers, the nitaínos or chiefs and noblemen and the bohiques or priests and medicine men. The cacique or guare was the chief of a yucayeque or village.The caciques were under one supreme chief who at the time of the discovery lived in the Southwest of the island.

The Taínos lived in a defined place and in groups. The central plaza of the yucayeques was the batey where the areytos and the ball games were performed. The caciques house or caney was in front of the caney and the bujius of the nitaínos and naborias were around. The caney was rectangular and larger while the bujíus were smaller and circular in shape. The furniture were sparse- jamacas or hammocks, seats used by the chiefs, the dujos beds made of cane and called coy.

The taínos fished and hunted but their occupation was mainly agriculture. They had plantations near to the villages, called conucos.

They cultivated the yuca, aje (batata), maisis (corn), maní (peanuts), tabaco, yayama (pineapple). Cotton was abundant. From the yuca they made a bread called casabe and by fermenting it they obtained an intoxicating brew, the uiku. The Taínos believed in two spirits or Gods:Yukiyú(Yocahu), god of good and Juracán, god of evil. Yukiyú lived in a mountain in the northeast, (now El Yunque) and Juracán in Sibuqueira (Guadalupe), the land of its enemies, the Caribs.

The main entertainments of the Taínos were the dance, music and ballgames. The ball games were played in the bateyes or in big ceremonial centers lined with monoliths such as the ones in Caguana(Utuado) and Tibes. They enjoyed dances (araguaco). To accompany their dances and areytos they had instruments such as maracas, güiro and flutes made from cane or bones. The areytos were important happenings in the life of the yucayeque. Through them the history of the village and its heroes was preserved. The Taínos believed in in life after death and they buried their dead carefully placing food and water in the tombs so the spirit could use it in its journey. They would place in the tomb the cemi of the dead. The dead would be placed in a position with the knees at the level of the chest and the head in between. The caciques were buried with their possesions and treasures.

The number of Taíno words that persist in the vocabulary of the Puerto Rican people is extensive. Names of plants, trees and fruits include the maní, leren, ají, yuca, mamey, pajuil, pitajaya,cupey, tabonuco and ceiba. Names of fish,animals and birds include the mucaro, guaraguao, iguana, cobo, carey, jicotea, guabina, manati, buruquena and juey.

The Spaniards treated severely the Indian population, forcing their work in mines and construction as well as in agriculture. They did not address the rights of that race that was the owner of their land and that so cordially had received them. Despite their eventual rebellion against the Spaniards the disappearance of the Taínos turned out to be extreme and fast. Unused to slave labor conditions and exposed for the first time to European diseases for which they had no immunity, the Taíno population was rapidly decimated. By the late 1500's the Indian population as an ethnic group had disappeared although with extensive intermarriage with the Spanish and African populations the Taino became a permanent part of the island's racial heritage.

Precolumbian Civilizations
The recorded history of the Caribbean islands begins with the arrival of Christopher Columbus' fleet in 1492. Our knowledge of the native peoples who inhabited the islands before and at the time of his arrival is largely derived from the accounts of contemporary Spanish writers and from archaeological examinations as there is no evidence of indigenous written records.

The Amerindians encountered by Columbus in the Greater Antilles had no overall tribal name but organized themselves in a series of villages or local chief-doms, each of which had its own tribal name. The name now used, Arawak, was not in use then. The term Arawak was used by the Indians of the Guianas, a group of whom had spread into Trinidad, but their territory was not explored until nearly another century later. The use of the generic term, Arawak, to describe the Indians Columbus encountered, arose because of linguistic similarities with the Arawaks of the mainland. It is therefore surmised that migration took place many centuries before Columbus' arrival, but the two groups were not in contact at that time. The time of the latest migration from the mainland, and consequently the existence of the island Arawaks, is in dispute, with some academics tracing it to about the time of Christ (the arrival of the Saladoids) and others to AD 1000 (the Ostionoids). The inhabitants of the Bahamas were generally referred to as Lucayans, and those of the Greater Antilles as Tainos, but there were many sub-groupings. The inhabitants of the Lesser Antilles were, however, referred to as Carib and were described to Columbus as an aggressive tribe which sacrificed and sometimes ate the prisoners they captured in battle. It was from them that the Caribbean gets its name and from which the word cannibal is derived.

The earliest known inhabitants of the region, the Siboneys, migrated from Florida (some say Mexico) and spread throughout the Bahamas and the major islands. Most archaeological evidence of their settlements has been found near the shore, along bays or streams, where they lived in small groups. The largest discovered settlement has been one of 100 inhabitants in Cuba. They were hunters and gatherers, living on fish and other seafood, small rodents, iguanas, snakes and birds. They gathered roots and wild fruits, such as guava, guanabana and mamey, but did not cultivate plants. They worked with primitive tools made out of stone, shell, bone or wood, for hammering, chipping or scraping, but had no knowledge of pottery. The Siboneys were eventually absorbed by the advance of the Arawaks migrating from the S, who had made more technological advances in agriculture, arts and crafts.

The people now known as Arawaks migrated from the Guianas to Trinidad and on through the island arc to Cuba. Their population expanded because of the natural fertility of the islands and the abundance of fruit and seafood, helped by their agricultural skills in cultivating and improving wild plants and their excellent boatbuilding and fishing techniques. They were healthy, tall, good looking and lived to a ripe old age. It is estimated that up to 8 million may have lived on the island of Hispaniola alone, but there was always plenty of food for all.

Their society was essentially communal and organized around families. In the larger islands, where village communities of extended families numbered up to 500 people, there was an incipient class structure. Typically, each village had a headman, called a cacique, whose duty it was to represent the village when dealing with other tribes, to settle family disputes and organize defense. The position was largely hereditary, and women could and did become caciques also.

The division of labor was usually based on age and sex. The men would clear and prepare the land for agriculture and be responsible for defense of the village, while women cultivated the crops and were the major food producers, also making items such as mats, baskets, bowls and fishing nets. Women were in charge of raising the children, especially the girls, while the men taught the boys traditional customs, skills and rites. The Tainos hunted for some of their food, but fishing was more important and most of their settlements were close to the sea. Fish and shellfish were their main sources of protein and they had many different ways of catching them, from hands, baskets or nets to poisoning, shooting or line fishing. Cassava was a staple food, which they had successfully learned to leach of its poisonous juice. They also grew yams, maize, cotton, arrowroot, peanuts, beans, cocoa and spices, rotating their crops to prevent soil erosion. It is documented that in Jamaica they had three harvests of maize annually, using maize and cassava to make breads, cakes and beer.

Cotton was used to make clothing and hammocks (never before seen by Europeans), while the calabash tree was used to make ropes and cords, baskets and roofing. Plants were used for medicinal and spiritual purposes, and cosmetics such as face and body paint. Also important, both to the Arawaks and later to the Europeans, was the cultivation of tobacco, as a drug and as a means of exchange. They had no writing, no beasts of burden, no wheeled vehicles and no hard metals, although they did have some alluvial gold for personal ornament. The abundance of food allowed them time to develop their arts and crafts and they were skilled in woodwork and pottery. They had polished stone tools, but also carved shell implements for manioc preparation or as fishhooks. Coral manioc graters have also been found. Their boat building techniques were noted by Columbus, who marveled at their canoes of up to 75 ft in length, carrying up to 50 people, made of a single tree trunk in one piece. It took 2 months to fell a tree by gradually burning and chipping it down, and many more to make the canoe.

The Arawaks had three main deities, evidence of which have been found in stone and conch carvings in many of the Lesser Antilles as well as the well populated Greater Antilles, although their relative importance varied according to the island. The principal male god was Yocahú, yoca being the word for cassava and hú meaning 'giver of'. It is believed that the Indians associated this deity's power to provide cassava with the mystery of the volcanoes, for all the carvings, the earliest out of shells and the later ones of stone, are conical. The Yocahú cult was wiped out in the Lesser Antilles by the invading Caribs, and in the Greater Antilles by the Spaniards, but it is thought to have existed from about 200 AD.

The main female god was a fertility goddess, often referred to as Atabeyra , but she is thought to have had several names relating to her other roles as goddess of the moon, mother of the sea, the tides and the springs, and the goddess of childbirth. In carvings she is usually depicted as a squatting figure with her hands up to her chin, sometimes in the act of giving birth.

A third deity is a dog god, named Opiyel-Guaobiran, meaning 'the dog deity who takes care of the souls of the immediately deceased and is the son of the spirit of darkness'. Again, carvings of a dog's head or whole body have been found of shell or stone, which were often used to induce narcotic trances. Many of the carvings have holes and Y-shaped passages which would have been put to the nose to snuff narcotics and induce a religious trance in the shaman or priest, who could then ascertain the status of a departed soul for a recently bereaved relative.

One custom which aroused interest in the Spaniards was the ball game, not only for the sport and its ceremonial features, but because the ball was made of rubber and bounced, a phenomenon which had not previously been seen in Europe. Catholicism soon eradicated the game, but archaeological remains have been found in several islands, notably in Puerto Rico, but also in Hispaniola. Excavations in the Greater Antilles have revealed earth embankments and rows of elongated upright stones surrounding plazas or courts, pavements and stone balls. These are called bateyes, juegos de indios, juegos de bola, cercados or corrales de indios. Batey was the aboriginal name for the ball game, the rubber ball itself and also the court where it was played. The word is still used to designate the cleared area in front of houses in the country. The ball game had religious and ceremonial significance but it was a sport and bets and wagers were important. It was played by two teams of up to 20 or 30 players, who had to keep the ball in the air by means of their hips, shoulders, heads, elbows and other parts of their body, but never with their hands. The aim was to bounce the ball in this manner to the opposing team until it hit the ground. Men and women played, but not usually in mixed sex games. Great athleticism was required and it is clear that the players practiced hard to perfect their skill, several, smaller practice courts having been built in larger settlements. The game was sometimes played before the village made an important decision, and the prize could be a sacrificial victim, usually a prisoner, granted to the victor.

In 1492 Arawaks inhabited all the greater islands of the Caribbean, but in Puerto Rico they were being invaded by the Caribs who had pushed N through the Lesser Antilles, stealing their women and enslaving or killing the men. The Caribs had also originated in South America, from around the Orinoco delta. In their migration N through the Caribbean islands they proved to be fierce warriors and their raids on the Arawak settlements were feared. Many of their women were captured Arawaks, and it was they who cultivated the land and performed the domestic chores. Polygamy was common, encouraged by the surplus of women resulting from the raids, and the Arawak female influence on Carib culture was strong.

Despite rumors of cannibalism reported to Columbus by frightened Arawaks, there appears to be no direct evidence of the practice, although the Spaniards took it seriously enough to use it as an excuse to justify taking slaves. After some unfortunate encounters, colonizers left the Caribs alone for many years. The Arawaks, on the other hand, were soon wiped out by disease, cruelty and murder. The Spanish invaders exacted tribute and forced labor while allowing their herds of cattle and pigs to destroy the Indians' unfenced fields and clearings.

Transportation to the mines resulted in shifts in the native population which could not be fed from the surrounding areas and starvation became common. Lack of labor in the Greater Antilles led to slave raids on the Lucayans in the Bahamas, but they also died or committed collective suicide. They felt that their gods had deserted them and there was nowhere for them to retreat or escape. Today there are no full-blooded Arawaks and only some 2,000 Caribs are left on Dominica (there has been no continuity of Carib language or religious belief on Dominica).

The 500 years since Columbus' arrival have served to obliterate practically all the evidence of the indigenous civilization.