Table of Contents
- 1 What are the differences between the Tainos and the Caribs?
- 2 What is the political structure of the Tainos?
- 3 What was the social structure of the Taino?
- 4 What is the physical appearance of the Tainos?
- 5 What does the Sol Taino mean?
- 6 How did the Tainos prepare their meals?
- 7 Where did Christopher Columbus find the Taino people?
- 8 How did the Spanish affect the Taino people?
What are the differences between the Tainos and the Caribs?
Tainos comes from the Arawak word taino meaning ‘peace’. The Arawaks on the island of Puerto Rico were known as Borinquens and they were more warlike than the other Arawaks who were known to be peaceful. The Caribs were cannibals and extremely savage hence their name.
What is the political structure of the Tainos?
The Taíno society was divided into two classes, the Nitaino, the nobility or upper class and the Naboria, the working or lower class. The Nitaino consisted of the cacique and his family, warriors and artists and ruled over the Naborias who were fishermen, hunters, and farmers.
What are three features of the political system of the Tainos?
Taíno socio-political organization Each casicazgo had a clearly recognized territory, a system of regional chiefs (caciques) and sub-chiefs, and a paramount ruler. At least two distinct social categories were recognized by the Taíno as subordinate to the caciques.
Who governed the Tainos?
Taíno society was divided into two classes: naborias (commoners) and nitaínos (nobles). They were governed by male chiefs known as caciques, who inherited their position through their mother’s noble line.
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.
What is the physical appearance of the Tainos?
In appearance the Taino were short and muscular and had a brown olive complexion and straight hair. They wore little clothes but decorated their bodies with dyes. Religion was a very important aspect of their lives and they were mainly an agricultural people although they did have some technological innovations.
What did the Tainos called Cayo?
English got both cay and key from Spanish cayo. The Spanish word may come from Taino kaya or from French quai (which is pronounced “kay” and means quay). Originally, “cay” and “key” were the same word, sometimes spelled one way but pronounced the other.
What does the Toa mean in Taino?
Description of Toa Legends are rife in the Taino culture. As Toa is the word for mother in Taino, the children began to cry out the words ‘toa toa’ as a plea for their mothers in the hungry state. The men who were unable to console their children, they were turned into frogs.
What does the Sol Taino mean?
Description of Sun God This is the cave Mautiatibuel (son of dawn), also known as the “Lord of the Dawn” and belonged to the country’s chieftain. The Taino believed that the sun rose from this cave, and hid when the moon emerged from the same cave.
How did the Tainos prepare their meals?
The Taino diet relied heavily on vegetables, fruits, cassava, beans, barbecued meats and fish. Fish and meat were slowly roasted on a spit lined with pimento wood. Low heat and slow cooking retains the natural juices of the meat, which become infused with the flavour of the wood.
Who are the Taino people of the Caribbean?
The Taíno were an indigenous people of the Caribbean. At the time of European contact in the late fifteenth century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and the northern Lesser Antilles.
How are the Tainos and Kalinagos alike and different?
Although the Tainos and the Kalinagos were Amerindians, they had differences and similarities in their culture. Three of the differences between these two groups are evident in their government, occupations and their way of life. Both the Taino and the Kalinago had a system of government.
Where did Christopher Columbus find the Taino people?
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.
How did the Spanish affect the Taino people?
By 1550, the Taíno were close to extinction, many having succumbed to diseases brought by the Spaniards. Taíno influences survived, however, and today appear in the beliefs, religions, language, and music of Caribbean cultures.