Caribbean Tribes and Cultures — Part 2

Las Casas and Oviedo describe the Taíno chiefdoms of Hispaniola. At the head was the cacique; below him were the nobles, the nitaínos; the healer-priests, the bohíques; and the working people, the naborías. Oviedo records that when a cacique died, his chiefdom usually passed to the son of his sister rather than to his own son, because a sister's children were certainly of the family's blood. A woman could rule: Anacaona governed Xaragua after her brother Bohechío.

The friar Ramón Pané lived among the Taíno of Hispaniola, nearly two years of it with the people of the cacique Guarionex, and wrote down what they told him. His Account of the Antiquities of the Indians records that the first people came out of two caves, Cacibajagua and Amayaúna, in a mountain called Cauta; that zemis were made of stone, of wood and of cotton; and that the bohíques and caciques inhaled a powder called cohoba through a forked tube to speak with the zemis.

Oviedo describes the areíto: men and women dancing with linked arms, one leading the song and the rest answering, telling the deeds and histories of their past. He compared the areítos to the ballads sung in Spain. He also describes the ball game on the batey. The ball, made from the gum of trees, bounced far higher than a Spanish ball, and the players struck it with the hip, the shoulder, the knee, the elbow or the head — never the hand.

The Kalinago, whom the Spanish called Caribs, lived in the Lesser Antilles. Columbus's log records the Taíno telling of Carib raiders who took captives, and Dr Chanca's letter from the second voyage describes the houses on Guadeloupe, the Taíno captives who fled to the Spaniards for protection, and the human bones found in the houses. In 1503 Queen Isabella permitted the capture of Caribs who resisted and were reported to eat men. The English word 'cannibal' comes from the Spanish form of their name.

The French missionaries of the 1600s — Raymond Breton, Jean-Baptiste du Tertre and Charles de Rochefort — describe the Kalinago war canoes, each hollowed from a single great tree and carrying many men, and their weapons: bows with poisoned arrows, and a heavy wooden war club, the boutou.

Spanish officials counted the Taíno of Hispaniola when the island's Indians were distributed among settlers: some 60,000 in 1508, and fewer than 30,000 in 1514. Smallpox reached the island in 1518. Bartolomé de las Casas, who came to Hispaniola in 1502 and held Indians in encomienda in Cuba before giving them up in 1514, recorded the labour in the mines and fields, and the wars, of those years. In 1512 the crown issued the Laws of Burgos, setting rules for the food, housing, work and instruction of the Indians held by settlers.

The Taíno did not vanish. Their words, their ancestry and their identity continue in Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, and the Kalinago Territory in Dominica has its own chief.

By 1492 the Taíno held the large islands of the Greater Antilles, and the Kalinago held the smaller islands of the Lesser Antilles. From that year, Columbus's log, the letter of Dr Diego Álvarez Chanca from the second voyage, and the Spanish officials and friars who came after them record both peoples and what happened to them.

How Taíno society worked

According to the book, each Taíno village or region was led by a cacique (chief), and women could hold the title as cacica. Under the cacique were the nitaínos, the leading families who organised work and led warriors. The bohíques were healers and priests who spoke with the zemis, the spirits. The farmers, fishers and builders were the working people of the village. People worked together to build large houses and the bateyes, the plazas used for ceremonies and ball games.

The Kalinago

The Kalinago, whom the Spanish called Caribs, lived in the Lesser Antilles. They were seafarers and warriors, and farmers of cassava and sweet potatoes. Columbus's log records the Taíno telling of Carib raiders who took captives. Dr Chanca's letter from the second voyage, in 1493, describes the houses on the island of Guadeloupe, the Taíno captives who fled to the Spaniards for protection, and the human bones found in the houses. In 1503 Queen Isabella permitted the capture of Caribs who resisted and were reported to eat men. The English word "cannibal" comes from the Spanish form of their name.

Hispaniola after 1492

Under the encomienda, groups of Taíno were assigned to Spanish settlers, who took their labour. Spanish officials counted the Taíno of Hispaniola when the island's people were divided up in this way: some 60,000 in 1508, and fewer than 30,000 in 1514. Smallpox reached the island in 1518. Bartolomé de las Casas came to Hispaniola in 1502 and held Indians in encomienda in Cuba before giving them up in 1514. He recorded the labour in the mines and fields, and the wars, of those years. In 1512 the crown issued the Laws of Burgos, which set rules for the food, housing, work and religious teaching of the Indians held by settlers.

Taíno leaders

The book names the leaders of those years. Agüeybaná, "the Great Sun," was the leading cacique of Puerto Rico, which the Taíno called Borikén, when the Spanish arrived. Enriquillo, a Taíno cacique of Hispaniola, held out in the Bahoruco Mountains from 1519 to 1533, until the Spanish made a peace treaty granting his followers land and freedom.

Two things worth knowing

• Anacaona was cacica of Jaragua and a composer of areítos (song-poems). She was hanged by order of Governor Ovando around 1503, and she is honoured in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
• Hatuey crossed from Hispaniola to Cuba and led resistance there. Las Casas recorded that when he was offered baptism so that he might go to heaven, he asked whether Spaniards went there — and refused.

By the year 1492 the Taíno lived on the big islands of the Caribbean — Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. The Kalinago, whom the Spanish called Caribs, lived on the smaller islands to the east. That year, Christopher Columbus sailed in and met them.

Taíno people and their jobs

• The cacique was the chief of a village or a whole region. A woman chief was a cacica. Anacaona was a famous cacica, and she made up songs and poems.
• The nitaínos were the important families who helped the cacique lead and led the warriors.
• The bohíque was a healer and priest who spoke to the spirits.
• The workers farmed, fished, built houses and made canoes.
• The ball player kept a heavy rubber ball in the air in a game on the village ball court.

Kalinago people and their jobs

• The war captain led the fighting men.
• The canoe men built big canoes and sailed from island to island.
• The farmers, mostly women, grew cassava and sweet potatoes, and made pottery and baskets.

Animals

• Parrots. Columbus wrote that the Taíno brought parrots to his ships.

Things they built and used

• A batey is a flat plaza and ball court in the middle of a village, used for games and ceremonies. Some, at Caguana in Puerto Rico, still stand today.
• A bohío is a house made of wooden posts, with a roof of palm leaves or straw.
• A zemi is a carved figure that stood for a spirit.
• A duho is a carved wooden seat for the cacique.
• A canoe was cut from one tree trunk. Columbus saw some that held forty men.
• The areíto was a song-and-dance that kept the people's history.

After 1492

Spanish settlers came to the islands, and new sicknesses came with them. Many Taíno died. But the Taíno did not disappear. Their families and their words live on, and Kalinago people still live in Dominica, where they have their own chief.