Unit Title: Tainos, Kalinagos and the

Encomienda System -16th century

Migratory & Settlement Patterns of

the Indigenous People

The Tainos
• Americas was called the continents and all islands which
surrounds the Bering Strait.
• Man 1st came to the Caribbean by way of Asia.
• They came across the Bering Strait (an ice-bridge); across the
Bering Sea when it was frozen many, many years ago.
• Men were able to walk across following the herds of wild
animals which they hunted for food, clothing & shelter e.g.
mammoth & caribou.
• These men were rough, short and hairy and then roamed across
the continents of Africa, Europe & Asia.

MIGRATORY PATTERN
The Bearing Strait
• Bare stone caves or the crotches of trees were their homes or
shelter for they did not know how to build.
• Meat was almost all they had to eat, for they did not know
much about food.
• They collected fruits, but they did not know how to grow the
plants they wanted.
• To keep themselves warm they used the skins of the beasts
they slaughtered.
• Hunters followed the mammoths & other animals as they
roamed from one grazing ground to another.

Migratory Pattern
Hunting of the Mammoth
• Men learned to chip bits of stones to make them sharp as the
points could pierce, scrape & cut.
• Theses stones were used as tools for killing animals & cleaning
skins (hides).
• A stick was tied to the stone to develop a spear or an axe.
• They were called pre-historic men as no record of them can
be found except the studying of the bones and tools they left
behind. (Archaeology).

Migratory Pattern
• Mongolian Race-People of Eastern Asia.
• The Ice Age mammals had came from the East from Siberia
into Alaska in search of food in greener pastures & later into
the grasslands of North America.
• After 10,000 BC (before the birth of Christ) the Ice- cap
receded & the Bering Strait became sea once more.
• They were Nomads-wandered from place to place in search of
food.
• They had portable homes (temporary dwellings)

Migratory Pattern
• They lived on semi-wild plants e.g. peppers,beans,squash
(pumpkin) & avocado pears.
• Most important crop was maize (corn) which became their staple
diet.
• They also ate potato & manioc (cassava).
• They also planted tobacco.
• They developed the slash & burn method of clearing land by fire
to remove weeds etc. for planting. (e.g. Andes farmers in Peru.)
• Lands were on steep hillsides that were exposed to soil erosion
when rain fell which damaged crops.
• They built stone terraces as a conservative method to keep the
soil in place.

Farmers
• They thrived by fighting & raiding other peaceful tribes e.g
the Tainos & burnt settlements, plundering stores for food and
animals.
• They were cruel & ferocious tribes like the
Kalinagos,Iroquios,Toltecs & Aztecs who ate human flesh
during ceremonial occasions. (Cannibals)
• They had a variety of tools e.g. knives,chisels, bone
awls,needles,fish hooks,pikes (spears) ,harpoons & beads.
• They had canoes or dug out boats to go across the rivers or
lakes.

Warriors
• They picked seeds & wild fruits.
• They harvested acorns,nuts,grass seeds, berries & roots
fit to eat.
• They made baskets from vines & tree barks.
• They were basket makers who gathered vegetables & seeds
in the baskets.
• They later developed farming as they settled in an area.

Food Gatherers
• Tainos settled in the Greater Antilles because of the availability
of space for their settlements, more room for hunting &
agriculture & far greater scope for development.
• Settlements were developed around the coast.
• Highest level of settlement existed in Hispaniola.
• Taino means “good” or “noble”.
• Some lived in the lesser Antilles & Bahamas called Lucayans.
• Tainos also lived in the Virgin Islands & the Leeward Islands.

Settlement Patterns
• The Early Americans lived in caves & learnt to make fire by
rubbing stones together to keep themselves warm during the
winter.
• They were hunters,food-gatherers,farmers,fishermen &
warriors.
• They used the harpoons (hunting spears) & hook & line for
fishing.

Occupations
 Tainos Kalinago Mayans
s
Jamaica Dominica Belize (Central
America)
Bahamas Lesser Antilles Mexico
Greater Antilles Puerto Rico Honduras
Trinidad Guyana Guatemala
Hispaniola Grenada

Cuba Trinidad
Puerto Rico Tobago
St. Vincent
St. Kitts
Nevis
Hispaniola
TAINO SETTLEMENT
Each island was subdivided into provinces or what
we would call communities.
The cacique was in charge of a province.

Hispaniola
Taino’s Greeting Columbus
Taino Family
• They lived in small communities.
• They usually lived near the sea.
• They often chose sites on the top of
hills as a precaution against surprise
attack.
• In the village houses of wood &
thatch were arranged around a central
plaza called a batey.
Taino Communities
Taino Village
 • Short & middle height
• Well shaped, but slightly built
& plump
• Olive brown skin colour
• Smooth & brown skinned
• Hair was black & straight, but
coarse & usually worn long.
• Flattened foreheads
• Broad noses & flared wide
nostrils.
• Often decorated hair with
parrot feathers.

Physical Appearance & Colour

 • Printing the body in black,
white & other colours.
• They painted their faces, eyes
& noses & bare parts of their
head.
• They had gold in their noses as
plugs or hanging ornaments.
• Caciques (chiefs) had more
ornaments than the others,
made of gold or an alloy of
gold & copper called guanine.

Physical Appearances
Taino Baby Head being
flattened
 • Usually partially naked.
• Jamaica & Cuba wore
woven cloth.
• Wore thin cotten bands
around their arms and legs.
• Clothes were made from
simple loin cloths for the
men.
• Women wore apron skirts
made of cloth & woven
fibres.

Dress
• The Tainos often decorated
hair with parrot feathers.
• Ears, noses, and often the
lower lip were pierced so
that ornaments like gold
could be worn.
• Bodies of men and women
were painted, especially on
ceremonial occasions.
• The hair was usually worn
loose and flowing.

Dress
• The Tainos had a simple system of government.

• The cacique was the leader who belonged to a special family.

• His post was hereditary which means that it was passed down
from father to son throughout generations.

• In a Taino society a female could inherit the position if her father,

the cacique did not have a son.

• We know that there was a woman cacique ruling a province in

Hispaniola when Columbus and his men arrived on their first
voyage to the Caribbean.

Politics (Government)
• The cacique was in charge of a province. He or she had
several duties.

• Supreme judge
• Lawmaker - he made the laws and enforced them.
• Chief priest
• Distribution of land.
• Led ceremonies.
• Fixed the day of worship and celebrations.
Duties of the
Cacique
• Caciques was a religious leader.
• His canoe was built by his tribesmen.
• He was given the best food & carried in a litter.
• He was buried with him.
• He had a special ceremonial stool called duho which was
carved out of wood or stone in the shape of an animal.
• He fixed the day of worship.
• He led the ceremonies playing a wooden gong.
• He had his own zemis which were felt to be more powerful than
any others.
• He commanded additional respect and obedience.

The Cacique
Cacique’s Ceremonial Stool
• The cacique was aided by a group of nobles known as nitayanos.

• They were to see to it that the orders of the chief were carried
out.

• Each village had a village leader. This person was to see to the
orderly day to day operations of the village.

• A number of elders were elected to the council of elders.

• Their wisdom was sought when difficult decisions were to be

made.

The Nitaynos
Taino Houses
• Houses were usually round.

• Wooden posts were put into the ground in a circle & canes
were woven between them & tied with creepers.
• The roof was thatched in a conical shape and a hole left in the
top for smoke to go through.
• There were no windows and only one opening for a door.
• Houses were strongly built and sometimes withstood
hurricanes.
• They had very little furniture except for hammocks made of
cotton in which they slept. (E.g. Jamaica & Cuba)

Houses
Bohio & Village
• The Tainos were polytheistic- they believed in many gods.

• They had a number of myths to explain the mysteries of life

including earth and the creation of man.

• Their gods were represented by zemis which they made from

wood, bone, stone or cotton.

• Each household kept a zemi to protect the family.

Religious Beliefs and Practices

Tainos Religious Zemis
• A cacique had many privileges:

• 1. He was allowed to have more than one wife. This would increase his chances
of having a male heir.

• 2. His house (bohio) was rectangular while all the others were round. His house
was also the largest.

• 3. He was given the best of the crop.

• 4. A specially carved ceremonial seat or stool (duho) was given to him. This
was his symbol of authority. On it he sat and dispensed justice or gave out the
orders for the day.

• 5. He was not allowed to walk. He was carried about from place to place on a
litter.

Caciques Privileges
• Tainos believed in:

• The forces of good and evil.

• Life after death.

• Heaven (coyaba) and hell

Religious Beliefs and Practices

• There is punishment in the afterlife for those who lived an
evil life.

• There is reward in the afterlife for those who lived a good

life.

• The priest was the only one who could communicate with the
gods (zemis).

• Offering food and meat offerings to the gods.

Religious Beliefs and Practices

• Using tobacco (incense) in the process of communicating with
the gods.

• Having festivals and celebrations in honour of the gods.

• Keeping the gods happy (appeasing the gods).

• Offering prayers to the gods for healing, good harvest, protection

and so on.

Religious Beliefs and Practices

Zemi
• They flattened the children's forehead as a mark of beauty. This was done
between two boards.

• An object would be tied onto a string that move continuously as the baby
eyes would follow it until eyes became crossed-considered also as a sign of
beauty.

• 2. They were a pleasure loving people. They played ball game called batos,
swam and did wrestling.

• 3. Only men were allowed to smoke and drink.

• 4. They got married early. Married men and women wore loincloth and
cotton skirts respectively. The single people went naked or wore leaf skirts.

Customs/Pastimes
• Singing & dancing called
arietos.
• Smoking-tobaccocalled
cohaba from the cohiba plant.
• Playing ballgame-batos
• Festivals merged with
religious celebrations.
• Wrestling-men only
• Women & men usually
danced separately but
sometimes both sexes danced
together.

Pastimes
• The Tainos liked tobacco for peace &
contentment & for helping them to
mediate.
• They made cigars, chewed tobacco &
smoked it in pipes.
• They used herbs for medicine & pleasure.

Pastimes
Taino Smoking
Hammock
• The most heinous crimes were theft and adultery for which the
punishment was a slow and painful death.

• 7. There was no private property, possession or wealth.

Everything was owned collectively by the members of the
community. (communally)

Customs/Pastimes
• The Tainos hunted and grew just enough food for themselves &
their families.
• They did not lack protein & had a balanced diet with
vegetables.
• They caught various types of fish,shellfish,turtle & the
manatee (sea cow).
• Cultivated plots (conucos) were outside of the houses in
which they planted groudnuts,sweet potatoes,yuatia (esp. in
Puerto Rico) & other crops were grown.
• Cotton & tobacco were grown elsewhere.

Subsistence Living
• The Tainos were engaged in hunting ,farming & fishing

• They hunted conies (utia/hutia) and birds with nets and noose
that they made from fibres and vines.

• They also hunted iguanas, agouti and snakes.

• They also went in search of and gathered wild plants and the
bark of certain trees as directed by their priests to be used for

Occupations-
medicinal purposes.

Hunting
• The Tainos practiced subsistence farming. That is they did
not produce and store a surplus.

• They produced enough for the needs of the community. They

practiced slash and burn agriculture.

• The men did the hard work of clearing the land.

• They used wooden axes to chop the branches from the trees
and then set them on fire.

Farming-Men Tasks
• The women's duty was to do the actual planting.
• They planted roots, seeds and vegetables on their small plots of
land or conoucos.
• They used pointed wooden sticks to dig holes and drop the corn
grains in.
• Corn or maize was their favourite starch. Then they covered
them over with dirt.
• The ashes from the burnt tree provided fertilizer.
• Aided by the children they watered the crops as necessary.
• It was the children's duty to scare away birds from the newly
planted seeds.

Farming-Women Tasks
• They grew a wide variety of crops such as:

• 1. Fruits: pineapples, guava, naseberry, cashew, soursop,

papaya and grapefruit (the only citrus known to them before
the coming of the Europeans).

• 2. Cassava

• Cassava roots

• 3. Sweet potatoes
Crops
• The Tainos ate a lot of fruit and vegetables including
pineapples,mammeee apples, star apples ,naseberries,
guavas & cashews.
• They cultivated maize by soaking the seeds in water & planting
them in rows.
• Cassava, sweet potatoes,yuatia (another crop root crop) &
groundnuts were planted in large mounds of earth.
• Taino food was carefully prepared and they knew about
stewing, baking & roast.
• Iguana meat was stewed, cassava cakes were baked & fish was
smoked.

Food Types
Taino Fruits
HOGPLUMS
YUATIA-FOOD
CROP
• They seasoned food with
• Intoxicating drinks was
salt & pepper.
made out of cassava &
• Cassareep-a sauce made
maize.
of cassava juice, salt &
• Iguana-Most delicious
pepper.
meat/delicacy
• Favourite dish-
• Cassava-made cakes
pepperpot stew or soup
made with • Barbequing meat is a
meat,vegetables,nuts & very famous contribution
pepper. from the Tainos.

Foods
Taino’s Cooking
 • They would go fishing
in the dugout canoes
that they made.

• They used nets made of

vegetable fibres, bone
and turtle shell hooks
and bone tipped
Used for hunting harpoons.

Taino Hatchets
• Fishing was done
by nets made of
fibres,bone hooks
& harpoons.

Harpoon
• They caught doves in
nets & birds like
parrots by slipping a
noose over their
heads.

Taino’s Birds
Taino’s Birds
• They had an ingenious method of
attaching the remora or sucking
fish to the canoe by a thin line.
• The fish would then dart after the
remora hoping to eat it but would
only succeed in getting itself
sucked onto the powerful remora.
• The fisherman would then pull
up the remora, take off the fish
and deposit the remora once more
in the water to wait for another
victim.

Fishing with Remora

(Sucking Fish)
 • Used to
hunt the
turtle

Remora
(Sucking Fish)
Taino’s Fishing
• Waterfowls were also caught by trickery.
• The Tainos would allow a number of calabashes to
float on the river.
• The waterfowls became used to these harmless
objects and paid them no mind.

How they caught waterfowls

(ducks)
• As soon as he was convinced that the fowls
were relaxed, the Taino would place a
calabash over his head and quietly slip into
the water unnoticed.
• After a few minutes he would grab a nearby
fowl by the legs, pull it under until it
drowned and then put it in the bag that he
carried with him.

How they caught waterfowls (ducks)

• They hunted small
animals like the utia (a
kind of Coney), the
agouti & the iguana
whose meat they
enjoyed.
• They were hunted at
nights with small
barkless dogs (domestic
animals) called alcos.
How they caught the utia (coney)
Agouti
• They caught a wide
variety of water
animals such as: flying
fish, shell fish, lobster,
snapper, barracuda,
jacks, grunt,dorado,
crabs and manatee.
(sea cow)

Fishing
MANICOU
(OPOSUM)
DORADO FISH
BARRACUDA FISH
FLYING FISH
LOBSTER
JACKFISH
SNAPPERFISH
CRABFISH
 • They would catch the
iguana at nights by
imitating its cry and as
soon as it opens its mouth
they would stick a sharp
object inside its mouth to
prevent it from biting.

• It would then be plucked

from the tree & put in a
bag they had on their
shoulder.

How they caught the iguana

• The Indigenous people lived in the Stone Age.

• They did not know iron.

• Their tools were therefore very simple.

• Most people consider their techniques and methods

backwards when judged by modern methods.

Technology
• 1.The remora or sucking fish used to catch fish.

• 2. Bows and arrows used in hunting.

• 3. Slash and burn agriculture.

• 4. Fertilizer: ashes, animal and vegetable manure.

Technology
• 5. Crude irrigation ditches.

• 6. Crop Rotation

• 7. Fishing hooks made from bones.

• 8. Fire used as a tool in canoe building

• 9. Dyeing
Technology
• Gourds/calabash-soup bowls
• Utensils-Wooden spoons &
forks, clay bowls
• Hammock-was slept on or for
recreation.
• Bows & Arrows-weapons for
fighting or hunting.
• Canoes-boats
• They had highly polished clay
pots for cooking & other food
vessels.

Craft, Pottery & Utensils

• They had stools & tables.
• Tools were small & made of stone.
• They were well shaped & highly polished.
• They made potteries & clay pots.
• They had small statue of a zemi (idol) made of wood,
stone or cotton, or a basket of bones serving as a zemi.
• Bone awls or perforators were used for punching
holes in skins or leather for sewing garments or other
Craft, Pottery &
articles of clothing.

Utensils
Taino Ceremonial Bowl
Wooden Zemi
Taino Craft-Pottery
• The Tainos were a primitive people.
• They could not read & write.
• They knew little about metalworking
(apart from gold for decoration) &
nothing about the domestication of
animals' (apart from barkless dogs).

Conclusion
• Remora-sucking fish • Utia-coney
• Batos-ballgame • Maize-Corn
• Bohio-family house
• Duho-Cacique’s ceremonial stool
• Caneye-Cacique’s house
• Coyaba-Powdered Tobacco
• Zemi-idols
• Cohiba-tobacco plant • Utia-spirits
• Cohaba-heaven • Arietos-singing & dancing
• Conuscus-cultivation plots • Mitaynos-headman/noblemen/
• Boyez-priest captains
• Alcos-small barkless dogs • Manioc-cassava
• Roucou-dye
• Batatas-Sweet Potatoes
• Yocahu-chief Taino god,god of
manioc • Manicou-Opposum
• Grindstone-metate • Hammocks-hamacas
• Guanin-bits of gold & copper

Glossary