Question

Describe some aspects of the Taino culture that you find strange, exotic or aberrant. Explain your reasoning to judge such cultural features

Answer 1

The Taino people lived throughout the Caribbean before the arrival of Columbus. After European arrival, their culture was all but wiped out. If you speak English, it would probably surprise you to know that many words you use every day (like canoe, hammock, and barbecue) came from a group of people who lived throughout the Caribbean in the late 1400s but who are essentially extinct today. In addition to their linguistic contributions, the Taino people also shaped the way Spanish settlements in America farmed, traded, and established ways of living. Let's talk about who the Taino were, their language, and their culture.

The Taino people originated in Venezuela and spread throughout the Caribbean. When Columbus arrived in the late fifteenth century, the Taino had settlements in the Bahamas as well as the islands of Cuba, Hispaniola, and Jamaica. They could even be found as far east as Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. At one time, they were the largest group in the Caribbean. Historians estimate that at their height, there were between one and three million Taino.

Many elements of popular Caribbean culture, particularly rural culture, derive from Native traditions. Across the Caribbean, in Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Haiti, we can find indigenous influences: herbal traditions, local spiritual or religious traditions, memories associated with the landscape, traditional agricultural crops and farming methods, home-building techniques, crafts like basketry and fishing nets, and Taino words. Many words today, especially in the Spanish Caribbean, reflect Taino influence, including the names “Cuba,” “Haiti,” and everyday vocabulary like “barbeque,” “canoe,” and “hurricane.”

The Taino towns described by Spanish chroniclers were densely settled, well organized and widely dispersed. They were inventive people who learned to strain cyanide from life-giving yuca, developed pepper gas for warfare, devised an extensive pharmacopeia from nature, built oceangoing canoes large enough for more than 100 paddlers and played games with a ball made of rubber, which fascinated Europeans seeing the material for the first time. Although the Taino never developed a written language, they made exquisite pottery, wove intricate belts from dyed cotton and carved enigmatic images from wood, stone, shell and bone.

Another thing that was important to Tainos was their formation of hierarchy. They had an intricate system that allowed them to be organized among each other. Tainos had three social classes. They had the naborias, nitaínos, and the caciques. The naborias were considered the working class, the nitaínos were the sub-chiefs and noblemen, which also included their priests and medicine men -the bohiques, and the caciques was the highest rank - the chiefs. Each village, named yucayeques in their native language, had one.  

The Taino impressed Columbus with their generosity, which may have contributed to their undoing. “They will give all that they do possess for anything that is given to them, exchanging things even for bits of broken crockery,” he noted upon meeting them in the Bahamas in 1492. They were very well built, with very handsome bodies and very good faces.

Usually, most indigenous tribes would choose their highest rank based on their war skills. This was not the case for the Tainos. Instead, they based their selection on how large their clan was. I suppose this could’ve meant that these individuals were great leaders and gaining a following was not a difficult task for them. But, the best part of their selection is that they didn’t discriminate in regards to genders. It was a fair game for everyone, including women.

Given the dramatic collapse of the indigenous society, and the emergence of a population blending Spanish, Indian and African attributes, one might be tempted to declare the Taino extinct.

Overall, Tainos should be regarded as a really special part of history. Whether people like it or not, Tainos indirectly lives within them and today’s society. This just goes to show you the strength and value history has. Yes, we are constantly moving forward, but it’s all thanks to the past.