Feb 7, 2025 · Taino, Arawakan-speaking people who at the time of Christopher Columbus’s exploration inhabited what are now Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

The Taino people utilized dried tobacco leaves, which they smoked using pipes and cigars. Alternatively, they finely crushed the leaves and inhaled them through a hollow tube. The natives employed uncomplicated yet efficient tools for planting and caring for their crops.

Oct 5, 2023 · Although the Taíno never developed a written language, they made exquisite pottery, wove intricate belts from dyed cotton and carved enigmatic images from wood, stone, shell and bone. The Taíno...

When Christopher Columbus arrived on the Bahamian Island of Guanahani (San Salvador) in 1492, he encountered the Taíno people, whom he described in letters as "naked as the day they were born." The Taíno had complex hierarchical religious, political, and social systems.

It was characterized by happiness, friendliness and a highly organized hierarchical, paternal society, and a lack of guile. Each society was a small kingdom and the leader was called a cacique. The cacique’s function was to keep the welfare of the village by assigning daily work and making sure everyone got an equal share.

Taíno society was divided into two social classes, the naborias and nitaínos. The naborias were the laboring class in charge of fishing, hunting, and working in the conuco fields, while the nitaínos, the nobles, supervised their labor.

Mar 31, 2017 · Some of the crafts that have survived from the Taíno culture include ceramic pieces with specific detailing and circular shapes, along with some depicting animals. They also created works made out of rock, including the cemí, a triangular-shaped symbol believed to have religious meaning.

Native and African slave labor to work on sugar plantations and in mines and Spanish households. Native leaders were killed or forced under Spanish control, religious and cultural traditions were suppressed, and slaves were brutalized.

Dec 7, 2018 · Most researchers agree that the cultural ancestry of the Taínos can be traced to Arawakan-speaking people living along the Orinoco River in South America. At about 1,000 BC, these people, known to archaeologists as “ Saladoi d” were living in large settled towns, cultivated manioc and corn, and made elaborate painted pottery.

The Taínos were divided in three social classes: the naborias (work class), the nitaínos or sub-chiefs and noblemen which includes the bohiques or priests and medicine men and the caciques or chiefs, each village or yucayeque had one.