Taíno Religion: The creation of the world!

This is the story of the creation according to the Taíno culture. How everyhting started with only 4 brothers!

Pretty cool!

 

Fun fact!

Did you know that René Pérez Joglar, also known as  Residente, ex vocalist from the polemic group Calle 13, mentions the Taíno natives in one of his most viewed music videos?

René was born in Puerto Rico, and of course, in there they teach their kids about the Taíno culture because these natives are they ancestors. That's why in this deep sad song about his life and his childhood titled: "René", we can hear at the beginning and at the end a chorus about her mother trying to teach him about the Taíno natives! 

Bohíos: Taíno houses

 Taíno houses, known as "bohíos" were made with simple materials, all of them easily found in nature like wood or foliage. Bohíos were built with strong logs to face possbile storms. They put reeds and palm leaves tied with vines to the logs to make walls. The roof was made of mud, leaves and straw and the floor was covered with canes or rods.

Bohíos were used only to sleep, rest or to convalesce from an illness, that's why inside of them there were just a few things, like a hamacas, a small chair, vessels, small food containers, religious objects and sometimes tools or weapons.

Taíno culture: Clothes and more!

Men wore just a loincolth, and married women wore straw, cotton or leaf aprons. On the other hand single women were naked almost all the time.

Both, women and men, used to paint their bodies in black, red, white and yellow. They also decorated their bodies with religious tattoos against evil spirits.

(Taíno symbols they normally used as tattoos)

Taínos also wore jewelry made up of gold, stone, bones or shells.

Taíno people: How did they live?

Taíno people were mainly an agrarian folk, but they also practiced fishing and hunting (they used to hunt small animals like lizards and birds). One of the main crops that they use was the “mandioca” or also known as “yuca” which is a tuber like potatoes. They used yuca to create some kind of bread called “casave” and also a vinegar and a fermented drink that they drank to rejoice during their celebrations and festivities.

When the night came and they had to sleep, they used Hamacas, and to have fun they used to play a sport in which they had to hit a ball in the air with any part of the body but the arms so that doesn’t fall to the ground. This sport is called “batey” also known as “batú”.

Taíno people: What does Taíno means? Who were they? And where did they live?

The Taíno people were the first settlers to arrive on the island "Hispaniola" (Named by Cristobal Colón because it looked similar to Spain). Hispaniola It's an island in the Caribbean Sea that is located between the islands of Cuba and Jamaica, to the west, and Puerto Rico, to the east, is the second island by extension of the Greater Antilles archipelago.
Most of the people from Hispaniola are decendents from another culture called Arawak, they came to the island from South América (Near Venezuela).

The natives from the island were pacific people, that's why they named themselves as "Taíno" which means "good man", and also to differentiate from the Caribbean people which were very belicose and some historians claim that they were even cannibals!

                                         Caribbeans                                     Taíno

So that answer the question about who they were and what does Taíno means, but don't be eager we will be telling more about them, what do they do, what happen to them, what did the y believe, and more!

Welcome! Mabrika!

 Welcome to our blog!

Hi everyone it's María Paz and Leonardo Tejeda, we are two students trying to explore the Taíno culture with you and of course we are happy to introduce you our newborn blog!

Here we will be uploading everything we learned in our five-day trip about the Taíno culture. I'm sure that there will be some fun facts for you to know.

And I know this will be a great experience, you don't need to worry, this will be very interesting!