As Was Stated Before I Shall State It Again: Civilizations Beyond Ritualistic Monuments
The
process of differentiating states and civilizations from other forms of social organization has
troubled anthropologist and social theorist for at least a century. One social theorist
suggest that “where there is political organization there is a state” and “if
political organization is universal, so then is the state.”(Hoebel,1949, p.
376) while others have claimed that “it is the governmental center that denotes
as the state.” Labeling societies as state or underdeveloped has largely been and probably will continue to be based of individual interpretations.
V
Gordon Childe in order to create a more universal and concrete way of defining complex societies suggests that in order for a society to be
labeled a civilization they should show evidence of “large
urban centers,
full-time specialist, occupation primary producers of food paying surpluses to
deity or ruler monumental
architecture, ruling class exempt from manual labor, system for
recording information, development of exact practical sciences, monumental art, regular
importation of raw materials interdependence of classes (peasants,
craftspeople, rulers), state religion/ideology, persistent state structures." Though this definition works to include popular ancient civilization like Egypt and Mesopotamia, the trouble with this list is that it denies complex societies such as the Incas what most may consider the most advanced form o social orginization. It also heavily emphasizes monumental structures, and it centers archaeological research around monuments when a state’s geographical influence and
geographical occupation may have been extensive. In turn It has inadequately presented the life ways of peoples groups who worked together to form ancient civilizations for substitute of what tourist can look at and say "Oooohh that's really big" and "Wow !! how could they have built that". But for the adventure tourists the ooohhs and ahhhs have long been insufficiet, and for those who yearn for the intricate details of civilizations that spand far beyond monuments I present to you the life ways of the Taino.
I believe that
neither peoples groups nor ideas formulated by peoples groups are static and
that a collection of regional and cultural knowledge contribute to states past
and present. Specifically we will venture into the theoretical lives of the Taino and the other precolonial people of the Caribbean who worked together to form multi ethnic groups that was influenced by many regional cultures and have influenced many regional cultures and people groups including
early civilizations in Mesoamerica, as well as our current states and
civilization around the Gulf of Mexico.
Describing who the Pre Colonial people of the Caribbean were and how they got there is as difficult a task as describing who an
American is and how we as Americans got here. The history of America is often told as America being birthed out of dreams of Europeans who had to fight to bring their dreams to fruition but it would be incorrect to label
America as an extension of European nations, because though descendants of European nations
have had the most documented impact on the political structure of America, the
people who occupy America and who make up the culture are Natives, Africans, Asians and Europeans peoples groups who’s continental categorizes do them little justice because even in their
own nations they have a plethora of diversity. Just as the constant flux of
migrations has worked to complicate the definition of who an American is, so has the continuous migration of people into
the Caribbean between the years of 6,000 B.C. and 1492
also worked to create complex web of people and cultures that most define as the Taino, the Caribs and the Ciboney who can be grouped as
active participants in a single multiethnic civilization.
The second influx of
peoples from foreign lands into the Caribbean is believed to have occurred
around 500 BC. This migration is traced through the movement of Saladoid styled
pottery created by Arawakeen speaking people of Venezuela who followed Orinoco river out of South America into the Caribbean. The Saladoid people have been given the name of the style of
pottery they created. The
transition from the Venezuelan jungle to the Caribbean changed the symbolic structure of the Saladoid greatly because “the most symbolic creatures of the mainland –the jaguar and the caiman- were replaced with systems of symbols that came to feature other
powerful creatures including dogs bats and humans."(Bercht et al 1997) As they expanded and met the
Ciboney who taught them how to cope with hurricanes and volcanoes a clash of
cultures occurred that eventually created the Ostonoid period around 1200 AD
associated with the Taino People. The merging of Saladoid and Ciboney ideas
created hallmark charecteristics of Taino for example the three pointers,
which merge Archaic stone work and traditional Saladoid sculpture shapes.
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| This is a Zemi which is a Taino tangible representation of their deities. Zemis are very popular in the archeological record and incorporate Ciboney stone work and Saladoid style. http://sowhatresearch.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/what-is-a-zemis-3/
The Taino being the largest population of people who lived in the Caribbean before colonialism and the main group associated with the Caribbean will be the group I focus on the most in terms of describing who they were, how they seetled the carribean, and their relations with the other groups in that region.The Taino are the group of people who welcomed Columbus to the New World in 1492.The subsistance patterns on the islands the Tainos occupied varried from island to island with islands such as Hispanoila and Jamaica being mor suitable for agriculture than others. Imhabiting islands that are not well suited for agriculture raises the question of why? a question We will revisit latter. The Tainos main crop being cassava a plant who's origins lie in south america and who's caloric nourishment rivals that of corn and potatoes. They were also known for growing squash, sweet potatoes, and other tubers.
Aside from agriculture The Tainos are generally considered to have been organized in matrinlineal cheifdoms that were under the influence of and in alliances with larger political bodies in the region.
The third well documented influx of people were the Caribs who migrated of the coast of Venezuela around 1000 AD. The Arawakee speaking Taino called them Canibas which is the origins of the English word cannibal a title which speaks volumes about how they were perceived by the Taino. The Caribs were more primitive than the Taino and were very hostile and their introduction to the Caribbean changed the political landscape tremendously the fueds between the two groups were strong but there was also documentation of coorperation. |
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| This image created in Google earth shows the three theorized migrations out of South and Central America into the Caribbean. The first Inhabitants of the Caribbean are who historians call the Chiboney are believed to have migrated from Yucatan peninsula around 4,000 BC, this migration is shown in yellow. Second migration is what Anthropologist call the Saladoid expansion which came from central Venezuela around 500 BC, this migration is shown in maroon. Third are the Caribs who migrated late from South American coast, and image |
Evidence of Diversity
A snap shot of how
diverse the Taino civilization was comes from Fray Ramon Panes who complained
to Columbus because Columbus wanted him to go from one chiefs region to another
because it would require him to have to learn a new language. “Lord, how is it that Your Lordship wishes I go to live with Guarionx
without knowing any language other than that of the Macorix?” the phrasing of
his complaints also leads interpreters to assume that there were numerous
possible language groups on the Island of Hispaniola alone.
Other evidence of
diversity is the “wide spread observation of differences in
dress, body painting, and hairstyle among the people of the Greater Antilles.”
Also there is also a reported account of a group of Taino chiefs on Hispaniola who are generally categorized as separate from Caribs referred one of the
most powerful chiefs on the island as a Carib suggesting that the Caribs were also represented in the political landscape of the Tainos.
Go Were You May But Bring Back The Loot:
Why Tainos Inhabited Lands Not Suitable For Agriculture
Why Tainos Inhabited Lands Not Suitable For Agriculture
The examinations of the archaeological record shows that the expansion of the Taino occurred as
populations doubled in size new islands would be populated, the islands that
were populated were often the next island up the chain rather the jumping
islands to exploit some of the larger islands to the north of the archipelago
such as Abaco and Andros. Also present in the archaeological record is the occurrence of islands pairs were islands
would be settled in pairs. This settlement pattern leads Archaeologist to conclude that as the population expanded the people wanted to maintain close
ties with the parent islands so that trade between both group would be easier
and more fluent suggesting that the trade connections between people of the Caribbean and their homelands were trong.
Through excavations done
on the Turks and Caicos islands, a chain of islands on the southern end of the
Bahamian Archipelago Peter Sinelli discovers three types of Taino sites. Taino occupied
these sites in three different ways, the first being fish camps or outpost that are defined “smaller
sites both in dimension, depth of
deposit and appear to be lease intensively occupied.”(Sinelli 2010:25) The pottery found at
these sites were undecorated, there was an over representation of locally
available taxa compared to other sites and the appearance of ceremonial
artifacts were very scarce. Which leads Sinelli to conclude
that the people who occupied these sites were either transients or they
returned to sites on occasional basis for the sole purpose of harvesting the
abundant resources available to that area and returning to permanent locations with the goods they acquired.
The second type of site
was what Senilli defined as an Economic hubs, which are geographically large
sites with large number of occupants who lived there for long periods of time. These sites possessed
a wide range of artifacts non decorative ceramics, decorated ceramics, jewelry
ritual artifacts and imported goods even when locally available alternatives
were available, displaying that the temporary 'outpost ' contributed to the resources of these areas. This economic Hub theory reflects the Aztec economic hub of Teotihuacan where large numbers of multi ethnic people who seemed to be centered around good sources of obsidian, a volcanic rock that when sharpened is more precise than surgical steel
The third type of site
is what Sinelli labels as the Ritual Centers were the artifacts found include a
high ratio of ritual goods, more serving vessels than cooking vessels, and
higher amounts of pottery imported goods. The separation of sites to me reflects specialization and complexity, high concentrations of foreign goods in some places rather than others show that not all people had equal access to the same goods.
Sinelli also points out that throughout the Turks and
Caicos there is archeological evidence of extensive bead making industry.
Because bead making isn't essential to the biological livelihood of the population
it leads archaeologist to ponder why so much time and resources would be geared
toward the process. Archaeologist believe that a possible clue lies in the
mediums used, though the Tainos of Turks and Caicos used many mediums to
make the beads such as conch, clams, shells, mollusks, and the chama sarda, the
most exploited medium was the chama sarda. Archeologist believe that this item
was used over others because of its deep scarlet hue a color associated with
fertility and its abundance in the Turks as opposed to its limited appearance
in other areas of the Caribbean such as Hispaniola the center of the classic
Taino civilization increases the value of the shell. Another benifit is that the transporting necklace are way more lucrative than transporting food because the wight per weight ratio. The appearance of chama sadra sites on marginal islands based on the shells value in Hispaniola also reflects the way that The Mayans categorized and labeled areas based on the commodities that were present in that area that were of value to the Mayan empire.
The Antilles Mesoamerican Connection:
More Than Fun and Games
More Than Fun and Games
One of the strongest
connections between the Taino and the people of Meso America is the Taino
hallmark of ball courts. Though many groups in the Americas had ball courts and
played ball games, the ball courts of Meso America and the Caribbean are the
only two groups whos' ball courts were on substantial constructions, a feature which could reasonably lead one to believe that they were of increased importance within the cultures, also the ball games in both of
these areas utilized elbow stones and ball collars when other population groups didn't. The importance of the ball games in Meso American Civilizations is shown in that there were 16,000 rubber balls exported from the rubber tree rich low lands of Mexico into the capitol of Aztec capitol Tenochtitlan. (Schultz, 2012)
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| Taino ball court at Cagauno Ceremonial Park, Utuado, Puerto Rico http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcfgunkle/564370693/ |
Reenactment of Mayan ball game posted on youtube.
The games importance are believed to have extended beyond athletic competition, the games were deeply embedded in the social and political lives of both the elite and the working class. It is believed by anthropologist that the games acted as way to dissolve feuds and a way to increase power and prestige of elite who bet heavily on games (Schultz, 2012). The ideas that the ball games were more than fun and games is backed by the high concentration of ball courts that were found along borders between groups that were fighting for power in Meso America likewise in Puerto Rico “the most elaborate courts were on the putative boundaries of chiefdom's” and were perhaps used for “games between polities,” and as mentioned earlier the large amount of resources dedicated to putting the games in specific locations evident through the 16,000 rubber balls imported up the mountains into Tenochtitlan. Other evidence linking the games between the two civilizations is "the fact that the Taino word batay, referring to the ballgame, is also found in Classic Mayan inscriptions in the same context."
Another connection
between the Meso American Civilizations and the Tainos is that in precolonial central and
south Mexico seafaring terms and directional terms show a strong
resemblance to the Arawakan terms used by the Tainos who populated Hispaniola. This link allows one to interpret that because travelers that the central and south Mexican populations knew were the Arawakee's ie the Tainos the Mesoamericans borrowed the terms from them. One objection to this theory is how or why would Meso Americans have known the Arawakees as sea travelers? The very plausible answer outlined by quit a few archeological remains found in both Meso America and the Caribbean dated to pre-columbian times show that they traded with each other and possibly even maintained trade alliances.
Speculations aside archaeologist have discovered plant seeds native to Central America such as avocados and yellow sapote on Puerto rico in Archaic Strata. The dispersal of these seeds have been reflective of human dispersal and introduction into Puerto Rico which suggest that contact must have occurred. Also the appearance of Jadeite stone axes on Antigua which have been deteremined through mineralogical analyses could have only been created in Guatemala also suggest that contact must have occurred between the populations because Jadeite stones are not buoyant (Shultz, 2012).
Also at an excavation at Altun Ha’ in Belieze an artifact originally labeled as an unusual wooden spoon has recently been redefined as a Taino vomit spatula carved from Manatee rib bone and dated to the 8th century AD (Honey, 1999). This collection of evidence that links both populations doesn't imply that the two groups were one in the same but it does definitely suggest that contact occurred between the populations. The instrumental roles the Ball games of the Meso Americans played on the Taino.
The multi ethnic diverse settlement patterns of the people of the Caribbean, the exchange of goods, and the inhabiting of lands to exploit resources of particular interest to some economic center to me shows social complexity and in my opinion marks of a civilization. Civilization or no civilization I believe that the beautiful relationship between migrant peoples, the incorporation of artistic styles of diverse peoples, the parallels between the Taino and other civlizations shows that precolonial lives of people groups who lived thousands of miles from the nearest monument is as interesting, as intruiging and as relevant as the lives of groups that lived at the foot of pyramids.
The Taino Today
The Taino through their language, bloodline, and first encounters have influenced the region that they once occupied tremendously. The English language have adopted words such as canoe, tobacco hurricane cannibal, maize, mahogany and barbecue from the Taino people. The commodities like corn, tobacco, hot and sweet peppers have embedded themselves globally. Secondly though the Taino have been documented as extinct there is a growing population of Puerto Ricans who have denied the label of Hispanic and have adopted the Taino heritage.
Taino In the New World: The Walking Dead
"I come from Puerto Rico Formally known as Borinquen and as a native American you can call me boricua!!! a New tribe of three.Making us one Nation. my walk through life has show me this. so on your next visit to the isla come to Naguabo Taino for the Land of Meany waters...see some of my art work and help in keeping our nation alive. David P.S. thanks Obama For coming and calling us what we are Boricua s, in borinquen." David Aponte
