Please note: The materials
on this page, like on all other CAC pages, are limited to what is available
on the Internet. Moreover, the CAC does not necessarily vouch for the accuracy
of the information contained in the listed pages. Only those pages marked
with "*****" have been recommended
by at least one CAC editor as being of exceptional value. The main purpose
of this page is to list those kinds of materials that many visitors frequently
inquire about, i.e., "what were the religious beliefs of the Tainos?" or
"what foods did they eat?". Please consult materials listed on other pages
of the CAC in addition to these. Lastly, please note that history is problematic
in the listing that follows: a great many changes have occurred, and these
materials are not always properly sorted out according to place and time.
Therefore, do not take anything as an "essential trait" of any particular
group of people, for all time. Note that there is some "real world" overlap
between various categories (i.e., legends, myths, religion, material culture).
Sites are listed in no particular order.
I
General
Pre-Colonial I General Contemporary I
Art
I Food I
Myths I
Music
I Politics I
Pottery I
Religion
I Seafaring I
Weaving I
A.
SITES WITH GENERAL COVERAGE OF PRE-COLONIAL LIFEWAYS:
Taíno Caves in the Dominican Republic: An
essay accompanied by an extensive range of photographs of Taíno petroglyphs and
pictographs, gathered and arranged by Dr. Lynne Guitar *****
Background
for the Teaching of Caribbean Prehistory: Cultural
practices, according to group (Taino, Carib), according to various pre-Columbian
historial periods (Emily Lundberg) *****
Cacique—About
the Caribbean Indigenous Peoples: an extensive and fair summary
of elements from the literature on the Siboney, Lokono, Galibi, Caribs,
plus a complete listing of the aboriginal names for the islands of the
Caribbean.
“The
Caribs,” a UCSB page located in the Internet Archive: Excerpt—“The
Lesser Antilles were settled in 1,000 AD by the Caribs, a far more warlike
people than the Arawaks. During their numerous battles against the dwindling
Arawak population, they massacred the men and kept as many of their women
as possible: which explains why the first Europeans to settle in Martinique
and Guadeloupe noticed that men and women there did not always speak the
same language. In Columbus' time the Caribs had progressed to the Virgin
Islands and were raiding Puerto Rico's coast. Caribis, the name that was
given to them by the Spanish, means cannibal. In spite of that peculiarity,
all reports agree that they were a rather appealing people. Of an over-average
height, well-proportioned, they dressed much like the Arawaks. They dyed
their body with a red dye called roucou. The Spaniards, believing that
this was their natural color started the legend of a red-skinned race….”—while
reaffirming some outmoded conceptions of the Caribs in relation to the
Arawaks, this page does provide notes on agriculture, hunting and fishing,
religious beliefs, language, house construction, and contemporary survival.
Cultural
History of the Tainos of Puerto Rico, by Ivonne Figueroa, www.elboricua.com:
A detailed page, with references to published sources, covering various
facets of Taino culture, including social and political organization, religious
ceremonies, agriculture and material culture.*****
Indigenous
Peoples in Caribbean Prehistory: further
materials on lifestyles, cultural practices (Emily Lundberg)
“The
Lucayans: The People Whom Columbus Discovered in the Bahamas,” by
George A. Aarons in Five Hundred Magazine (April 1990, Vol. 2, No.
1, pp. 6-7): Excerpt—“When Columbus, the great admiral and navigator,
arrived at San Salvador in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492, he found there
a group of people known to us as the Lucayans. It was at this juncture
that the 15th century inhabitants of the Bahamas entered written history.
But their history, as can today be pieced together through archaeological,
anthropological, ethnographical and historical research, actually predates
this momentous event by many centuries….”
“Peopling
the Antilles,” by Samuel M. Wilson, in Archaeology (September/October 1990,
pp. 52-57): Excerpt—“ Who were these Caribbean people? Where
did they come from? How did the chiefdoms of the Caribbean come to exist?
For the past ten years, I have tried to answer these questions—through
archaeological surveys and excavations in the Lesser Antilles and from
the study of eyewitness accounts by the Europeans whovisited the islands
in 1492 and thereafter….”
Pre-Columbian
Anguilla: Diet,
Residential Patterns, Pottery, Religious Ceremonialism, History *****
Prehistory
of the Caribbean Culture Area, from the Internet Archive, originally by
the Southeast Archaeological Center of the National Parks Service:an
excellent and detailed archaeological chronology for Puerto Rico and the
Virgin Islands, from the Paleoindian Period (c. 9,500 BC) to the Ostionoid
Period (c. 1500 AD)—excerpts: “Paleoindian Period (ca. 9500 - 5000 B.C.),
The earliest recorded prehistoric site for the Caribbean cultural area
is the El Jobo site in Venezuela, which has been dated as roughly contemporaneous
with the Clovis period in North America. Gordon Willey (1971) assumes that
this culture is an offshoot of the North American Big Game Hunting (concentration
on the hunting of Pleistocene megafauna) tradition…. Mesoindian Period
(ca. 5000 B.C. - A.D. 1) The cultures of the Mesoindian period of the Caribbean
area were considered roughly equivalent to North American Archaic hunting
and gathering cultures. This period was believed to begin ca. 5000 B.C.
and ended for most of the Lesser and Greater Antilles about two thousand
years ago. A people referred to by the early Spanish as Ciboney, utilizing
a Mesoindian life style, continued to exist in extreme western Cuba until
historic times. This period was characterized as representative of a hunting
and gathering people, who increasingly became dependent on the littoral
zones of the islands for subsistence (Willey 1976)…. Casimiroid
Culture: The Casimiroid Culture has been proposed to have originated from
Lithic or Archaic period cultures from either the Yucatán or Central
America. It is presumed the people of this culture migrated by sea from
the mainland to western Cuba via a Mid-Caribbean chain of islands, which
is now submerged. They spread eastward through Hispaniola Island, where
the earliest known sites of this culture are dated at ca. 4000 B.C. Recent
investigations in a rock shelter on Mona Island have uncovered a Casimiroid-like
assemblage of lithic tools, with an appropriate radiocarbon date of ca.
2380 B.C. Only one Puerto Rican site, the Cerrillo site in the extreme
southwestern part of the island, exhibits Casimiroid-like lithic artifacts.
The implications are that the Casimiroid culture came into the western
end of the Greater Antilles and spread eastward only as far as extreme
western Puerto Rico…. Neoindian Period (ca. A.D. 1 - A.D. 1500), This period,
dating from ca. A.D. 1 to European contact, ca. A.D. 1500, was characterized
in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands by distinct cultural periods, which
were originally separated on the basis of different ceramic styles and
other cultural manifestations. The first group to immigrate into the Antilles
were the Saladoid (A.D. 0 - 600) who brought horticulture (cassava, yucca,
and maize) and pottery technology to the islands. It is generally accepted
that they originated in the lower Orinoco River Valley before spreading
throughout the Antilles pushing the Mesoindian groups to western Cuba (Willey
1976). *****
"Taíno:
Ancient Voyagers of the Caribbean", by Dicey Taylor, Ph.D, Guest Curator,
El Museo del Barrio: a paper outlining the archaeological history,
pre-colonial culture, religious beliefs, cosmology, food, and social structure
of the Tainos, ending with a consideration of the their cultural legacy-this
relates to the exhibition, by the same name, hosted by El Museo del Barrio.
*****
Pre-Columbian
Hispaniola, Arawak/Taino Native Americans, by Bob Corbett: includes
descriptions of the following- Lifestyle of the Arawak/Taino; Housing and
Dress; Food and Agriculture; Transportation; Defense; Religion and Myth;
The genocidal end of the Arawak/Taino; Specific Indian leaders at the time
of Columbus (The five caciques of the time) *****
Arawaks:
Social
Organization, Housing, Technology, Art, Dress, Diet, Agriculture, Transport,
Defense, Religious Practices (René Bermúdez Negrón)
The
Taino World: Spiritual
Life, Zemis, Ball game, Caciques (chiefs), Daily life (El Museo del Barrio)*****
Pre-Columbian
Hispaniola: "Taino-Arawak
Indians" includes: Lifestyle of the Arawak/Taino, Housing and Dress, Food
and Agriculture, Transportation, Defense, Religion and Myth, Specific Indian
leaders at the time of Columbus (Bob Corbett course material) *****
Subject--
Archeology, The Amerindians, from Suriname.Nu:
“It
was not until 3000 BC before the first indians appeared on the coast of
the Guyanas. Those indians who arrived between 3000-2000 BC are often called
Meso-Indians. Those after 2000 BC are given the name of Neo-Indians. However
it is difficult to establish an exact determination of which term to use.
The more recent tribes are first the Arawak tribes as they arrived 3000
years ago. A second tribe were the Carai…”. From: Avonturen aan de Wilde
Kust, Albert Helman, VACO, Paramaribo, 1982. ISBN 9991400087. This book
has numerous photographs of Amerindian artifacts, bowl/pottery fragments.
Map
of the Pre-Columbian Peoples of the Caribbean
The
Cultural Sequence on the Guyanese Coast, An Archaeological Reconstruction
(Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology): from
11050 BC to 1210 AD.
Arawak
Artifacts: February 17, 2001 was the unveiling of a limited edition of
reproductions Arawak Arifacts, hand crafted in Anguilla—“…Wilma
explains the Arawak collection, its creation and future, to the Governor
of Anguilla, Mr. Johnstone and his wife. The Arawak Indians, now almost
extinct, have left an indelible legend in the Caribbean. In Anguilla, this
can be seen by markings, petroglyphs in caves and remnants of excavated
artifacts…”
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B. SITES
WITH GENERAL COVERAGE OF CONTEMPORARY LIFEWAYS:
Garifuna
of Belize: song, dance, seafaring, agriculture (Allan Burns, PhD, Chair,
Dept. of Anthropology, University of Florida at Gainesville)
Galibi
do Oiapoque (French Guyana): [site in Portuguese—information on their
name, location, demography, land tenure situation, history of migration,
festivals, material culture, subsistence, household organization and marriage,
rites of passage, this site also includes photographs and numerous factoids—by
Lux Vidal, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil, Instituto Socioambiental]
Astroaborigen—Carib
Astronomy: “La Fundación de Estudios Indígenas ofrece
este sitio web para divulgar la Astronomía en la Cultura,
el Arte Rupestre, la Mitología Aborigen de Venezuela y el Glosario,
permitiendo ampliar conocimientos sobre nuestras etnias. Este
portal, está basado en el libro La Astronomía de los Caribe
en Venezuela, de Domingo Sánchez Picconne…”—a comprehensive site
on the Venezuelan’ Caribs astronomical knowledge, including an overview,
general features, natural phenomena, calendrical time, petroglyphs, and
mythology.
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C. ART
AND MATERIAL CULTURE:
Gallery
of Cemis, Duhos, Vases, Utensils (Taino Museum) *****
Melanio
Gonzalez: Contemporary Taino Artwork (NMAI)
Indigenous
Art Products from Suriname (1): “Real Surinamese Indigenous cotton
hammocks, cloth, jewelry, pottery, traditional musical instruments like
the karawasi, maraka or sambura…Order your Indigenous full dress…”
Indigenous
Art Products from Suriname (2): Examples of products for sale—travel
bag (warimbo); maraca; womans dress; ingi pipa cigars; fan; ceramics; mutete
(back pack); ceramics;purses; hammocks; earrings.
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D. FOOD
AND AGRICULTURE:
Bitter
Cassava Processing (amerindiantrail.com)
Casabe
(cassava) Secrets (Anacaona.net)
Caribs
making Cassava Bread in Trinidad (Max Forte) *****
Benjamin
Nicholas' "Processing Cassava to Make Bread" with an extract on the
topic by Father Breton (early 1600s) and with relevant carib terminology
(Duna Troiani) *****
Carib
Cooking Traditions: The Barbecue (Robb Walsh)
The
Barbecue (barbacoa), From Frances Beith: "What is the origin of the
word barbecue?": "We have to go back to the West Indian island of Hispaniola
in the seventeenth century to begin the search for this word. The local
Arawakan Indians had a method of erecting a frame of wooden sticks over
a fire in order to dry meat. In their language, Taino, they called it a
barbacoa, which Spanish explorers borrowed…"
Cassava: first entry from the Encyclopaedia Britannica
Cassava: second entry from the Encyclopaedia Britannica
Antes
del Descubrimiento—La Cultura Taína: A page on the pre-Columbian
history and culture of the Tainos of the Dominican Republic, focusing on
agriculture, petroglyphs.
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E. LEGENDS
AND MYTHOLOGY:
Caribbean
Indigenous People: Mythology and Culture
Taino
Legends (Anacaona.net)
Taino
Legends, from CubaHeritage.com: Taino legends of the rainbow, night,
love, stars, the rivers and the sea, the bat, mosquitos, honey, seeds,
tobacco and dangers.
Legend’s
of Guyana’s Amerindians—Legends of the Caribs: legends here include,
“The First People”, “The Rock”, “The Story of Amalivaca”
An
Inquiry into the Animism and Folk-Lore of the Guiana Indians, by Walter
E. Roth from the Thirtieth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology,
1908-1909, pp. 103-386. Washington D.C., 1915 (courtesy of Scared
Texts online at www.sacred-texts.com). A complete plain text version,
in a single file, is also
available
here.
Legends
and Myths of the Aboriginal Indians of British Guiana, collected and edited
by the Rev. William Henry Brett, B.D. (courtesy of Scared Texts
online at www.sacred-texts.com). A complete plain text version,
in a single file, is also
available
here.
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F. MUSIC,
SONG, DANCE:
Garifuna
Music: Traditional Garifuna songs from the film Spirit of my Mother sung
by Marcelina Ferndandez and Grupo de Danza Duvali Rescate Cultural
“Honduras
- Garifuna Music, The tradition of the black Caribs”: “The Garifuna
live in Honduras, Belize and Nicaragua. They are the descendants of Black
slaves who were shipwrecked off the coast of St. Vincent island, Caribbean
Sea, in 1635. They mixed with the red Caribs Indians and became their sole
inheritors, by the language, the customs and the music. This CD presents
for the first time black Carib secular and ritual music recorded in its
traditional context.The Garifuna culture and music have been declared in
2001 by Unesco: ‘Masterpiece of the human oral and immaterial heritage’.”
Garifuna,
Dügü: The dügü ritual, also called “feasting the dead.” This site describes the reasons and preparations for this fervent ceremony
and explains each aspect—“The culture of the Garifuna is a system of traditional
and typical West African cultural expression fused with Amerindian customs
and subsistence bases. This infrastructure of dance, drum and ancestor
worship through ritual is no clearer defined than through the elaborate
funeral rites associated with Garifuna culture. Our presentation was a
visual synopsis of the Dugu. Here we will outline in detail the rites of
death, the most important and sacred cultural expression of the Garifuna…”
Clarinet
Ensemble (Guyana, Upper Oyapock): “Like other Amazonian populations,
the Wayã Indians use ensembles of clarinets, called tule, for entertainment
at village gatherings. These instruments are composed of two separate elements,
a reed and a resonator. The reed, a long narrow tongue cut out of a segment
of cane, is inserted through the upper knot of a broader and longer stem
of bamboo that serves as the amplifier…”—music sample included
Subject--
Musical Instruments, The Amerindians, from Suriname.Nu: “P.J. Benoit
describes how Amerindians use flutes at their 'wild' dance parties. These
flutes are made of reeds in which they have made holes. They blow on their
flutes to produce sound. Once in a while the music is accompanied by the
sound of a tambourine and a sharp sound of a kind of trumpet. This trumpet
is four to five feet long. At the end of the trumpet is an ox horn attached.
According to Benoit, the sound of the musical instruments, the shouting
and yelling blends well with the kind of dance that is performed by them”.
From: [1] Reis Door Suriname, P.J. Benoit with Chris Schriks and Dr. S.W.
De Groot, De Walburg Pers, Zutphen, 1980. ISBN: 906011.306.3 Reprinted
at SURALCO request. [2] Avonturen aan de Wilde Kust, Albert Helman, VACO,
Paramaribo, 1982. ISBN 9991400087
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G. POLITICAL
ORGANIZATION:
Taino
Chieftancies of Boriken/ Puerto Rico (Taino.com)
Caciques,
Nobles and their Regalia (The Taino World, El Museo del Barrio): "Taíno
society was divided into two classes - nobles (nitaínos) and commoners
(naborias) - governed by a hierarchy of greater and lesser chiefs known
as caciques, who were advised by high-ranking nobles and shamans (medicine
men)…" *****
Los
Padres de la Patria, by Luna De Plata:a
page in Spanish on some of the key caciques of Hispaniola, including Caonabo
(Chiefdom of Maguana), Guarionex (Chiefdom of Magua), Bohechio (Chiefdom
of Jaragua), Cayacoa (Chiefdom of Yguayagua), Guacanagarix (Chiefdom of
Marien), and Anacaona (of Jaragua). Excerpt on Anacaona: “….Según
los cronistas, su nombre significaba en lengua aborigen ‘Flor de Oro.’
A pesar de que en un principio ella sintió gran admiración
por los españoles, a quienes consideró superiores, el continuo
abuso que estos cometían contra los indígenas, junto a la
prohibición por parte de Roldán del matrimonio entre Hernando
de Guevara y su hija Higüemota, convirtió en odio y antipatía
esa admiración. A la muerte de su hermano quedó gobernando
el cacicazgo de Jaragua….”
Cacicazgos
(Chiefdoms of Hispaniola), from www.rincondominicano.net: a very
short entry, in Spanish, listing the main chiefdoms of Hispaniola as encountered
by the early Spanish chroniclers.
Cacique
(the meaning of the word), from www.rincondominicano.net: a short
entry in Spanish on the cacique, or chief, in aboriginal Hispaniola and
a list of the main chiefdoms.
Caciques
of Puerto Rico, from www.elboricua.com: A useful page that lists
the principal chiefdoms, or cacicazgos, of aboriginal Puerto Rico, indicating
their general locations. The site as a whole provides a wide range of cultural
information.
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H. POTTERY:
Pre-Columbian
Pottery in the Antilles (Athena Review) *****
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I. RELIGION
AND SPIRITUALITY:
Zemís,
trees, and symbolic landscapes: three Taíno carvings from Jamaica
by N. J. Saunders & Dorrick Gray*****
Shamanism
and Male Pregnancy among the Galibi of French Guiana (Jean-Jacques
Chalifoux)
COMING SOON: The Santa Rosa Festival
and the Carib Community of Trinidad (Max Forte)
Ritual
Work Duties of the Carib Community for the 1998 Santa Rosa Festival (Max
Forte)
The
Smoke Ceremony of Trinidad's Carib Community (Max Forte)
La
cérémonie de l'Omaganon: [page in French—describing the
Omaganon funerary rituals among the Kalina/Galibi of French Guyana] “Chez
les Kali'na, la cérémonie de l'Omaganon s'inscrit dans un
processus lié au décès d'un membre de la famille et
d'une manière plus large de la communauté. Ce processus commence
par la veillée funéraire et prend fin à l'occasion
de la cérémonie de l'Epekodonon dont le principe est la levée
de deuil. Ainsi, une famille touchée par un décès
observera une période de deuil appelée Onemanon. Durant la
période de l'Onemanon (port du deuil) la famille doit impérativement
respecter des interdits comme par exemple celui de ne pas danser sur le
son du Sambula (tambour) lors des cérémonies traditionnelles…”
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J. SEAFARING:
The
Gli-Gli Carib Canoe Project: A modern day reconstruction of inter-island
Carib seafaring (Gli-Gli)
Pirogue(Britannica)
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K. WEAVING:
Woven
Crafts of the Carib Community of Trinidad (SRCC Unofficial Website)
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