Introduction
The Tainos of Puerto Rico are a key indigenous group that remains a historical population today. It encompassed distinct groups that made the advanced Taino community. These groups are the Archaists, Igneris, and the Ostinoids. They arrived in Puerto Rico at different times and had diverse impacts on the community. The advanced Taino community is characterized by unique language, physical appearances, and cultural values and practices. They believed in and practiced many gods for guidance and intervention purposes. They practiced farming and hunting for survival. However, the arrival of the Spaniards left the community exposed to adverse outcomes as the colonization process reduced its population significantly. Even though the Taino culture became extinct, it shaped global history with its unique language, culture, and religious practices.
Tainos Key Groups
The Tainos living in Puerto Rico encompasses various groups that form this indigenous-based community. They are known for their unique aspects ranging from appearance to established cultural values. The Archaics are one of these groups, with their emergence rated back before the prehistoric and pottery periods. Their daily lives were characterized by seminomadic living in small bands and making crude artifacts using conch, shells, and other stones.[1] These are crucial engagements that surround their daily lives. The other group is the Igneris, who came from the South American region across the Orinoco River. They are well known for pottery making. They established this vital practice in this region and made it one of the global artistic segments. Last is the Ostinoids, whose focus was on using polished artifacts to make different items for use. The Tainos emerged later as a critical advanced group formulated of various indigenous populations living in Puerto Rico. Overall, the Tainos of Puerto Rico are associated with artifacts commonly seen across the community from multiple structures such as rocks and caves. Their central focus was on artifacts that were motivated by various approaches. However, they also engaged in agriculture and hunting for sustenance purposes.
Key Facts about the Tainos
One of the central facts associated with this community is the unique language that differentiates it from other populations. They spoke the Arawakan language, deemed a unique dialect in the community. Even though this language has since become extinct, it cannot be undermined in shaping the culture of the Tainos people at the time. The other important fact is that the community had unique physical appearances. They were medium height, with long black hair and high cheekbones.[2] These traits are often associated with Mongols, and differentiating the two would have been difficult. Also, Tainos enjoyed traditional dances, ceremonies, and events that were held in the village center. That was considered the most lucrative setting to hold these events.
Culture and Beliefs
The Tainos practiced artifacts, agriculture, and hunting. The artifacts include wooden ritual seats, baskets, hammocks, and polished stone beads. These items eased their daily lives. For example, they would use wooden seats for various cultural and ritual events, while the baskets held food products in the households. Besides, they also engaged in the production of food items through vast agricultural practices and activities. They farmed products such as beans, potatoes, cotton, and peanuts to feed their populations. This community was also known for hunting animals that they used to supplement their feeding purposes with the crop growth on the farms. For example, they hunted for birds and other small animals for consumption. It is also crucial to note that Tainos went fishing in search of fish, shellfish, and other marine animals required at the home setting. Thus, the culture of the Tainos people revolved around farming, hunting, and making artifacts.
The community valued polytheism. They believed in various gods and ancestral spirits. That means that everyone was free to select and align with the religious practice they felt aligned with their needs and interests. The famous known god Zemi was used for ceremonial purposes.[3] These relied on statutes and images that represented these gods for their religious interventions. They had carved images and structures representing these gods and would always intervene to handle their needs and interests. Tainos also engaged their ancestral spirits by fasting and purification. They consulted them through rituals to ensure they had an impact on their lives.[4] They came in handy as they guided them across all perspectives they handled daily. The community was also bound along a well-established social order.
The Tainos thrived on a complex social order. At the helm of the leadership were the hereditary chief and their subchiefs. These leaders handled key processes that focused on rules and regulations. They made decisions and determined how people shaped their lives. The community also operated along the class status. This aspect diminished collective interests. There was a division that emanated from the class perspective, with the rich, commoners, and enslaved people being impacted by this variation. For example, enslaved people were often looked down upon and used for the advantage of the rich. They accelerated discrimination and vast inequalities. Therefore, the community was led based on social status.
Existence of the Taino Community
The Taino community ended during the colonization process. After the Spaniards found their way into the community and colonized the Tainos, their status diminished. Anderson-Cordova states that Tainos were colonized by the Spaniards, where they altered the native numbers.[5] That posed a challenge to its population as the community lost a key segment of its people. There was a rapid decline in its population after the European contact.[6] The situation was further aggravated by forced labor and dispersed migration. Notably, diseases and drought emerged, reducing the number of Tainos progressively. Those who survived were exposed to enslavement and other negative vices that wiped out their generations based on increased deaths and other harmful outcomes. However, even though the Taino community was diminished based on the mentioned factors, it remains a key indigenous group in global history.
Conclusion
Tainos of Puerto Rico remain a key population in global history. It shaped the culture of the Puerto Rico community through the various practices and values adopted by its people. However, the colonization process paved the way for the extinction of this community, coupled with natural factors such as diseases and drought. Also, slavery reduced the population as most of these people lost their lives due to excessive work and conditions associated with the same. Irrespective of its extinction, the Tainos community has shaped global history.
Bibliography
Anderson-Córdova, Karen F. Surviving Spanish Conquest: Indian fight, flight, and cultural transformation in Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. University of Alabama Press, 2017.
Arrom, José J. “Taíno mythology: Notes on the Supreme Being.” Latin American LiteraryReview (1980): 21-37.
Fuller, Harcourt, and Jada Benn Torres. “Investigating the “Taíno” ancestry of the Jamaican Maroons: a new genetic (DNA), historical, and multidisciplinary analysis and case study of the Accompong Town Maroons.” Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies 43, no. 1 (2018): 47-78.
Ostapkowicz, Joanna, and Lee Newsom. ““Gods… Adorned with the Embroiderer’s Needle”: The Materials, Making and Meaning of a Taino Cotton Reliquary.” Latin American Antiquity 23, no. 3 (2012): 300-326.
Ramos, Reniel Rodríguez. “From the Guanahatabey to the Archaic of Puerto Rico: The Non-evident Evidence.” Ethnohistory 55, no. 3 (2008): 393-415.
Rouse, Irving. The Tainos: Rise and Decline of the people who greeted Columbus. Yale University Press, 1992.
[1] Reniel Rodríguez Ramos, “From the Guanahatabey to the Archaic of Puerto Rico: The Non-evident Evidence,” Ethnohistory 55, no. 3 (2008): 397-398.
[2] Harcourt Fuller and Jada Benn Torres, “Investigating the “Taíno” Ancestry of the Jamaican Maroons: A New Genetic (DNA), Historical, And Multidisciplinary Analysis and Case Study of the Accompong Town Maroons,” Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies 43, no. 1 (2018): 50.
[3] José J. Arrom, “Taíno mythology: Notes on the Supreme Being,” Latin American Literary Review 1, no. 1 (1980): 24.
[4] Joanna Ostapkowicz and Lee Newsom, “”Gods… Adorned with the Embroiderer’s Needle”: The Materials, Making and Meaning of a Taino Cotton Reliquary.” Latin American Antiquity 23, no. 3 (2012): 322.
[5] Karen F. Anderson-Córdova, Surviving Spanish Conquest: Indian fight, flight, and cultural transformation in Hispaniola and Puerto Rico (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2017), 135.
[6] Irving Rouse, The Tainos: Rise and decline of the people who greeted Columbus (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), 145.
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