The Taino, first original settlers of
Hispaniola Island, now Dominican Republic. When Christopher Columbus
found the American continent back in October 12, 1492 he was under the
impression of being at or close to India, in his quest for a quicker
trade route. What he found were the Taino, an indigenous culture that
populated many of the Caribbean islands. Columbus anchored in La
Isabela, Puerto Plata and built the first Spanish settlement in the New World.
Throughout the years to follow, the Taino
were killed by the conquerors either by disease or battle, and their
culture was almost completely wiped out. Most Dominicans nowadays rarely
resemble what the Taino looked like, and only a few families have some
Taino blood in their generations. Preserved in time, still many
artifacts and stone pottery can be found in the island, and their simple
art they left behind in caves. The Dominican Republic Taino were the
most peaceful of these indigenous groups.
The Taino developed a culture based
primarily on agricultural production that allowed them to craft a
significant increase of utilitarian objects such as vases and other
containers made of clay and wood, well-polished stone axes, objects of
basketry and woven plant fibers cotton which were decorated with dyes
extracted from the Jagua (Genipa Americana) and annatto (Bixa orellana),
with which they also painted their bodies on special occasions. In
addition, the Taino were excellent sculptors who drew up ceremonial
artifacts of great artistic expression as duhos or ceremonial seats,
idols or cemíes, instruments for the cohoba ritual and monolithic rings.
Taino Zemi – The Religious icons
The zemi
(also Cemí or Zemí), whose figure, carved in various materials and
sizes, could act at will to decisively influence the normal development
of human life and the environment: could cohabit with men and even breed
through them. The zemi was the living body of God, the mythical entity,
the deified ancestor. The emotional effect that would link to the
faithful and proper performance of their spiritual powers depended on
the expertise to craft it and the ability to be able to reflect the
nature of it.
Housing
Taino
villages were called yucayeques and housing units were the huts and log
cabins, made of wooden posts buried in the soil and cane reeds with
roofs held down by palm leaves or straw, leaving a vent on top covered
by a stand for the exhaust and smoke from the embers that always kept
indoors. A single hut could accommodate several families, as was common
among the married daughters of Tainos to live in the homes of their
parents.
Taino mythology and religion
The Tainos believed
in a Supreme Being whom they called Yucahu Protector Maócoti Bagua,
whose mother was Atabey, Mother of Waters and Protection of the labor,
but in their mythological beliefs or other deities conceived cemíes
living in the sky, named Turey, relating them to the weather, the
creation of the earth and mankind. Among the most accepted cemíes were
the stones of three points “or trigonolitos, propitiatory rituals
related to fertility, such as swidden productivity and reproduction of
the human race.
The
trigonolito is a highly specialized piece about the area in which it is
found far more frequently. The east coast of the Spanish and the west
coast of Puerto Rico have been the places where significant amounts have
been found in these parts.
