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TAINO
First people of the Caribbean

Before Christopher Columbus sailed here on the ocean blue in 14 hundred 92 and did the things he did, the original Taino (Arawak) inhabitants had an incredible mythology with its own gods and spirits known as "Zemi".

To this day, these original Caribbean myths are part of the cultural heritage of the region.

The Taino played a rubber ball game very similar to Native Mexican Pok-A-Tok and had agricultrual systems similar to that practiced in tropical South America from whence their ancestors came in the year 2000 Before the Christ Era.
Cuba isn't very far from the Yucatan, so perhaps the Taino learned how to play on ballcourts from the Mayans across the sea.

Besides the Taino of the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica), there were also the Carib of the Lesser Antilles (The Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Barbados, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and St. Lucia).

Unlike the more peaceful and spohisticated Taino, the Carib were more simple and warlike.
The word "cannibal" comes from the Carib after one of their more gruesome practices, which played an important role in their mythology and spirituality.
I do not condone eating people.
The Carib may not have thought it was wrong, but we know better.

In the beginning, the goddess Atabey appeared out of nothingness, and created all of the other gods and the land.

Christopher Columbus was arrested by his own managers for doing the things he did.
Ironically, those same managers of his had just completed the Reconquista and were enacting the Spanish Inquisition.
That tells you something!

Columbus also never landed in what is now the Continental U.S.A.; he landed in the Caribbean Sea region of America.
That's why he is discussed on this webpage instead of the North American Native one or the American folklore one.

The Taino live on in the genetics and cultural heritage of the Caribbean.

There are Taino revivalist movements today.
I even see this in my everyday life.
The Puerto Rican community in my area openly displays Taino symbology as part of their heritage.
This is the sixth era of Taino mythology.

Commonly used words of Taino origin
Barbecue
Hurricane
Hammock
Canoe
Iguana
Papaya
Tobacco
Cassava
Maize
(That's right; only the Taino called it maize)

Caribbean islands with Taino names
Jamaica
Haiti
Cuba

Puerto Ricans call themselves "Boricua" after the Taino name for Puerto Rico, which means "the land of the noble and valiant lord"

After the Taino and Carib were devastated by diseases and mass unaliving brought by Columbus and his ilk (who also had their way with the Native womenfolk, leaving the modern Hispanic Caribbean people with Taino ancestry through female lineages), the European colonists populated the Caribbean Islands with enslaved Africans (who had been captured by other Africans to be sold to those same Europeans).

The new traditions created by the enslaved African people in the Colonial Caribbean can be viewed on the Latin American/Caribbean webpage of this website.

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