Taino Lifestyle Essay

The Arawak/Taino culture was fundamentally a very gentle culture. It had been characterized by joy, friendliness and a highly arranged hierarchical, familiar society, and a lack of guile.

Each world was a small kingdom as well as the leader was called a hierarchisation. The cacique’s function was to keep the well being of the village by determining daily job and making sure everyone received an equal talk about. The family members of the caciques lived collectively in large houses in the center of the small town. These homes reflect the heat of the weather and simply used mud, straw and side leaves.

The houses did not consist of much furniture. People rested in cotton hammocks or perhaps on pads of clown leaves. The typical population lived in large round buildings called bohios, constructed with wooden poles, woven straw, and hands leaves. During the time of Columbus there have been five distinct kingdoms on the island of Hispaniola. The Indians practiced polygamy.

Most men acquired 2 or 3 wives, but the caciques had as many as 30. It was a great reverance for a woman to be committed to a hierarchique. Not only do she enjoy a materially superior lifestyle, but her children were held in high worth.

HOUSING AND DRESS The Arawak/Taino applied two major architectural designs for their homes. The general population lived in spherical buildings with poles rendering the primary support and they were covered with woven straw and palm leaves. We were holding somewhat like North American teepees except instead of being covered with cases they required to reflect the heat of the weather and simply utilized straw and palm leaves.

The caciques were singled out for exceptional housing. Their property were rectangle-shaped and even presented a small patio. Despite the difference in shape, as well as the considerably bigger buildings, a similar materials had been used. If the Africans emerged beginning in 1507 they launched mud and wattle while primary building materials. Yet , there is no record of the Arawak/Tainos having used these types of materials.

The house of the cacique contained simply his family. However , given the number of wives he might possess, this constituted a huge friends and family. The rounded houses with the common people were also large. Every one got about 10-15 men and their whole people.

Thus any kind of Arawak/Taino residence might house a hundred people. The houses did not contain much furniture. Persons slept in cotton hammocks or simply upon mats of banana leaves. They also built wooden seats with weaved seats, couches and developed cradles for their children.

Furthermore to houses the typical Arawak/Taino village included a flat courtroom in the center of the village that was used for ball games and various conventions, both faith based and secular. Houses were around this the courtroom. This was a hierarchical culture, and while there is only one hierarchique who was paid out a homage (tax) to oversee the village, there have been other numbers of sub-caciques, who had been not paid out, but would hold positions of exclusive chance. They were accountable for various solutions to the town and hierarchisation.

Stone making was specifically developed among the list of Arawak/Tainos, however they seem not to have ever done it at all in building properties. It was primarily used for tools and especially religious artifacts. The men were generally naked, however the women at times wore mini-skirts.

Men and women as well adorned their very own bodies with paint and shells and other decorations. FOOD AND FARMING The Arawak/Taino diet, like ours, centered around beef or fish as the main source of healthy proteins. There under no circumstances were various wild animals to hunt about Hispaniola, nevertheless there were some small mammals which were sought after and liked. They also had snakes, numerous rodents, bats, worms, wild birds, in general any living things they will could find except for humans. These people were able to quest ducks and turtles inside the lakes and sea.

The costal natives relied intensely on fishing, and were known to eat their particular fish both raw or only partly cooked. Simply because did expand cotton on st. kitts, the natives had fishing nets made from cotton. The natives in the interior counted more in agriculture and de-emphasized meat or fish in their diet plan. The Taino had a produced system of agriculture which was eco-friendly and almost maintenance free. They elevated their crops in a conuco, a large mound which was created especially for farming.

They jam-packed the conuco with leaves which increased drainage and guarded it via soil chafing. One of the primary plants cultivated by Taino was cassava or yuca, that they ate as being a flat loaf of bread. They also grew corn, squash, beans, peppers, sweet taters, yams, peanuts as well as tobacco. (As a great aside I want to review that many people in the pre-Columbian Americas acquired virtually job free culture. This system meant that people living in these materially simple social systems had enormous amounts of free time and often developed intricate religious rituals which required a lot of their time, but also had remarkably developed systems of online games and recreation.

There are some nice advantages to very simple living and diet plan! ) Among the Arawak/Taino’s major crops was cassava. This can be a main crop from where a poisonous juice must be squashed. Then it is baked into a bread like slab. The existing method of doing this in Haiti produces a toned bread, type of like a stale burrito or perhaps pizza shell. The Arawak/Taino grew corn (maize), corn, beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams and peanuts.

They not only got cotton, but they raised smoking cigarettes and enjoyed smoking greatly. It was not just a part of their very own social your life, but was used in religious events too. TRANSPORTATION The Arawak/Taino had simply no large pets like horse, oxen or perhaps mules to ride or use pertaining to work. However they did include river and sea transport. They used dugout canoes which were cut from a single tree shoe and used with paddles.

That they could take 70-80 people in one canoe and used them for lengthy travels on the sea. These kinds of dugouts allowed fishing the few wetlands of Hispaniola as well as sportfishing out a bit off the seacoast. DEFENSE The Arawak/Taino themselves were quite peaceful people, but they performed have to guard themselves in the Caribs who had been cannibals. The Caribs of this area were centered by what is today Puerto Potentado, but some performed live in northeast Hispaniola, an area that today is the Dominican Republic. The Caribs had been war-like cannibals.

They often raided the more tranquil Arawak/Tainos, eradicating off the males, stealing and holding the women for propagation, and unhealthy the children to have. Thus the Arawak/Taino got some weaponry which they employed in defense. They used the bow and arrow, together developed some poisons for their arrow tips. They had natural cotton ropes pertaining to defensive reasons and some asparagus spears with fish hooks on the end.

Since there was hardwoods on the island of st. kitts, they did possess a conflict club made of macana. This was about 1? thick and reminds 1 very much in the cocomaque stay used in after Haitian days and nights. They did not really develop any armor or specifically protecting weapons (shields, etc . ). RELIGION AND MYTH The Arawak/Taino had been polytheists and their gods had been called zemi.

The zemi controlled different functions of the universe, similar to Greek gods did, or perhaps like after Haitian Voodoo lwa. However , they do not manage to have had particular personalities such as the Greek and Haitian gods/spirits do. There are three major religious methods: Religious worship and obeisance to the zemi themselves Grooving in the town court during special festivals of thanksgiving holiday or request Medicine men, or priests, consulting the zemi intended for advice and healing.

This is done in public ceremonies with song and dance Persons had particular dress for the events which included paint and feathers. From their legs on down they would be covered in shells. The shaman (medicine man or priests) provided the created figures of the zemi. The cacique sat on wooden stool, a place of honor. (There are many surviving stone carvings from the cacique in the stool. ) There was a ceremonial conquering of plats. People induced vomiting which has a swallowing stick.

This was to purge bodily impurities, both a exacto physical getting rid of and a symbolic spiritual purging. This kind of ceremonial getting rid of and other rituals were a symbolic changing before zemi. Women offered bread (a communion rite), first to zemi, in that case to the oligarca followed by the other people. The sacred loaf of bread was a highly effective protector. (The interesting commonalities between this ritual as well as the Christian practice of eucharist is apparent! ) Finally came a great oral record lesson — the singing of the town epic honoring the hierarchisation and his ancestors and forefathers. As the poet recited he was with a maraca, a piece of hardwood which was beaten with pebbles.

There were an what bodes where the great would be paid. They would speak to dead relatives and good friends. Since most of the people they would satisfy in this paradise were ladies, it is inquisitive to speculate if this was largely women who were considered very good, or in the event some other cause accounted for this kind of division of the sexes inside the afterlife.

There are numerous stone faith based artifacts which were found in Haiti. The zemi take on unusual forms like toads, frogs, snakes, alligators and numerous distorted and hideous man faces. The zemi, and dead caciques, have particular powers within the natural community and should be dealt with. As a result these several services happen to be ways of acknowledging their electric power (worship and thanksgiving) and at the same time seeking their aid. Because of these powers there are plenty of Arawak/Tanio tales which take into account the beginnings of some experienced trends in fantasy and or magic.

Several common myths had to do with souterrain. The sun and moon, for example , came out of grotte. Another history tells the people occupied caves and later came out through the night.

One guard was meant to watch thoroughly over individuals to be sure we were holding well divided in the land. However , one day he was past due in returning and the sunshine caught him and turned him in a stone expoliar. Another Of india became angry at the sun for its various tricks and decided to leave. He certain all the ladies to get away from their guys and come with him along with their children.

However the children had been deserted, and their being hungry they changed into frogs. The ladies simply vanished. This still left the men with out women.

However they did discover some sexless creatures roaming around and in the end captured all of them. (Actually that they used individuals with a disease like mange simply because had rough hands and could hold on to these types of elusive animals. ) Nevertheless , they attached these creatures up make woodpeckers to them. The wild birds, thinking these were trees started pecking to them and designed out the love-making organs of women, thus re-establishing the possibility of survival. A different fable simply explains to that then were not any women. Person brought female from an island high were just women.

The foundation of the seas was in a huge flood which usually occurred every time a father killed his boy (who involved to murder the father), and then set his our bones in a calabash. The bone tissues turned to fish and then the gourd out of cash and all the of the world flowed from the broken gourd. GENOCIDE AGAINST THE ARAWAK/TAINO INDIANS There exists a great argument as to precisely how many Arawak/Taino inhabited Hispaniola when Columbus landed in 1492.

Some of the early Spanish historian/observers claimed there were as much as 3, 1000, 000 to 4, 000, 000. These types of numbers appear to be based on hardly any reliable evidence and are thought to be gross exaggerations. However , since nothing like a census was done, the techniques for estimating the quantities are extremely shaky, whether by simply these early on historians or later experts. One lengthy technical content on the human population comes in the with the low estimate of 100, 500.

Several other contemporary scholars appear to lean even more forcefully in regards to 300, 1000 to 4 hundred, 000. No matter what number, what happened to all of them is extremely tragic. They were not really immune to European disorders, especially smallpox, and the The spanish language worked them unmercifully inside the mines and fields. By simply 1507 the Spanish were settled and able to start a more reliable job of keeping track of the Arawak/Tainos.

It is generally agreed that by 1507 their numbers had shrunk to sixty, 000. By 1531 the phone number was into 600. Today there are no easily discerned traces with the Arawak/Tanio by any means except for some of the archaeological remains to be that have been identified. Not only upon Hispaniola, yet also over the Windward Passage in Barrica, complete genocide was applied on these kinds of natives.

Disease was a key cause of their demise. However , on Columbus’ 2nd journey he began to require a homage from the Arawak/Tainos. They were expected to yield a specific quantity of rare metal per capita. Failing that each adult of 14 was required to submit 25lbs. of cotton.

For many who could not produce the cotton either, there is a service requirement of them to work for the Spanish. This set the stage for any system of assigning the Arawak/Taino to Spanish settlers while effective servant labor. This system contributed substantially to their genocide.