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Apr. 28, 2005 Perhaps I should have called this article, "Who are the Taínos?", and the reason for that will be evident below. Anyway, Arawakan (or Arawak) Indians do not constitute a single tribe or language-group, but rather comprise over 60 subgroups scattered throughout Brazil, the Guianas, Venezuela and the West Indies, at one time reaching as far as Florida. Geographers divide the West Indies into the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles and the Lesser Antilles. The Greater Antilles consist of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. The aboriginal name of Hispaniola was Quisqueya or Kiskeya, and much later the island was called Santo Domingo too. The Spanish name is Española, now divided into Haiti in the west and the Dominican Republic in the east. Those Arawakans that inhabited Hispaniola, as well as some other localities in the vicinity, were called Taínos. Today, the Taíno culture, along with almost all of the Taínos, have vanished from the face of the Earth, although there are scattered individuals in the West Indies claiming Taíno descent, and some of these are endeavoring to reconstitute the Taínos as a recognized tribe or ethnicity. The great majority of Taínos died in the 16th century as a result of the clash with Columbus and the Spanish overlordship that Columbus drew in his wake. The Taínos had come in pre- Columbian times from Venezuela to Hispaniola, where they had established five chieftaincies, each ruled by a cacique (chief). Theirs was primarily an agrarian society, based on the cultivation of cassava (also called manioc or tapioca), corn, squash, peanuts, peppers, tobacco, cotton (an indigenous variety), yams and other crops, though they also hunted for small game, ducks, bats and turtles, and they fished. Another tribe that lived in the vicinity was the Caribs, a tribe of bellicose cannibals, with whom the more pacific Taínos were sometimes at peace, sometimes at war. Defensively, the Taínos relied on bows and poison arrows, along with spears and clubs. The Taínos lived in houses built on poles and covered with straw or fronds, practised polygamy, conducted elaborate polytheistic religious ceremonies and played a number of sports. They went naked or wore short skirts, adorning themselves with jewelry of gold and shell, and body paint. They had no large animals for riding or work, but constructed large dugout canoes. A few words that have come into the English language via Spanish from Taíno are these: hurricane, canoe, barbecue, hammock, tobacco and yucca. According to some authorities, certain Voodoo practises may have originated with the Taínos. On December 6, 1492, nine weeks after his discovery of America, Columbus made his second landing at Mole St. Nicholas in what is now north Haiti. By the end of the year he had founded a settlement there by the name of La Navidad. Columbus dubbed the Taínos "Indians", introducing an irritating ambiguity into the Spanish and English languages that persists till this day. The famous Jesuit missionary and historiographer, Bartolomé de las Casas, wrote in 1561, "There were 60,000 people living on this island (when I arrived in 1508), including the Indians; so that from 1494 to 1508, over 3,000,000 people had perished from war, slavery and the mines. Who in future generations will believe this?" Some authorities think that de las Casas, who in general was a meticulous writer, may have exaggerated the Taíno death-toll, and numerous estimates are in existence, with a consensus centering at about 1,000,000. By 1531, Taíno population was down to 600. So what happened? First of all the Spaniards were vectors of a number of foreign diseases, like smallpox, against which the Taínos had not developed immunities. More importantly though, the Taínos were enslaved by the Spaniards and worked to death in the mines and plantations they established on Hispaniola. Columbus imposed a burdensome tribute (tax) on every Taíno, which if he failed to pay, he would suffer mutilation or execution. Revolts against forced labor were put down mercilessly by the Spaniards, involving further deaths. By mid-fifteenth century, the Taínos were for all intents and purposes extinct, though there is a Taíno-Spanish creole still spoken in the area, and there are those who claim ancestry. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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