Jamaican Tainos

     The Tainos were the indigenous residents in Jamaica when Christopher Columbus "discovered" the island in 1494 AD. The Tainos came from south America mainland and they migrated to Jamaica through the Lesser Antilles and Puerto Rico around 650 AD. According to Marian BeWolf, the potteries discovered in Little River of Jamaica were similar to that of Cuevas Ostinones of Puerto Rico (Howard, 1965, p. 250). It is the evidence of the migration route said above.
     Taino people lived in relatively large numbers all over Jamaica until 1494. They did not create a nation or city, but lived in tribes and villages. There were about 200 villages on the island when Spanish met them. Every village belonged to a tribe and was ruled by caciques. Generally speaking, there were about four classes in the society of Jamaican Tainos. The caciques, the bohuti, the common people, and the Naborias. The caciques were chiefs in villages and they were permitted to have several wives. The  bohuti were priests and soothsayers, and they were dominant in the religious rites. Besides, the bohuti played roles as doctors. The common people were just the ordinary members of the society. The Naborias were "underclass labors" in the society of Tainos, However, they were not slaves. They were assigned work within the limits of the town and received maintenance from their lords (Antonio Curet, p.500). In some documents, the Naborias were not Tainos, but were the people conquered by Tainos.
       Tainos lived in small-thatch-hut villages. There were two kinds of huts in the villages, one was for caciques and the other was for general people. Caciques' huts were square and called caneyes, while the general people's huts were round and called bohios (Glenn Woodley, 2001, p.50). Tainos relied heavily on seafood and some cultivated food such as cassava, maize, and sweet potatoes. They also hunted birds and a kind of now-extinct barkless dogs called alcos. According to Peter Martyr of Anhgiera, Tainos used the sweet potatoes roasted or boiled and they used cassava to make a bread. Tainos did not wear clotheh except the apron of women. They extracted a black dye from a local kind of fruits and painted the dye to their skin. They also painted a red dye, which is from the Annatto seed, to make them look fearful to enemy. In many spainsh documents, the Tainos of Greater Antilles often conflicted with the Caribs of Lesser Antilles. Nevertheless, Jamaica was relatively peaceful.
        The Tainos have their own religon. They worshiped caves, ancestors, and zemis (a kind of simulacra made of wood). For the Tainos, caves were places of dwelling, burials, and religious conotations. They believed that mankind originated from caves. The belief is reflective in Taino reverence for caves and the location of rock art at the entrance of the cave, such as the "One bubby Susan" at Rock Spring (Atkinson, 2010). Tainos also worshiped ancestors through the sacred areitos, a big religous rite and festival. In addition, the Tainos worshiped zemis as eternal gods. The zemis were made of wood because Tainos believed that trees could receive messages from gods at night.
         In Taino's worldview, there were two types of souls: goeiza (soul of living) and opia (soul of deads). The opia roamed at night in the form of animals. Therefore, two kinds of animal which were active at night, owls and bats, were symbols of death. In the Taino's folklore, if an owl cryed near someone's home, it meant that this person would die soon.
         The influence of Taino on Jamaica was significant. For example, the name of the island, Jamaica, derived from Taino language which meant "the land of wood and water." Tainos lived in Jamaica about one thousand years and created a unique culture. Unfortunately, Jamaican Tainos disappeared now and an important factor of the catastrophe was the arrival of Europeans. Nevertheless, the influence of Tainos were not extinct, the legacy of their culture, such as maize, cassava, and folklores, stilled play important roles in the modern Jamaican society. Today, the Jamaican declared that the fifth day of May was "Taino Day". This action was to let Jamaican people don't forge Taino culture.
 
Sources
1. Lesley-Gail Atkinson, Taino Influence on Jamaican Folk traditions, 2010. http://www.jnht.com/download/influence.pdf
2. Peter Mason, Jamaica: a guide to the people, politics, and culture, Page 13
3. Robert R. Howard, New Perspective On Jamaica Archaeology, 1965. page 250
4. Gleen Woodley, The Taino of Jamaica, 2001, page 50
5. Geoffrey symcox and Blair Sullivan, Christopher Columus and the Enterprise of the Indies, Press: University of Califorma, Los Angeles.