Taino

Taíno refers to the Indigenous peoples who inhabited the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean at the time of first sustained European contact. They spoke Taíno, an Arawakan language, and were the predominant group in parts of what are now the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica. The term Taíno is used to describe a cultural-linguistic group rather than a single political entity.

Society and daily life were organized around small communities called yucayeques, each led by a cacique. Within these communities, nobles and priestly specialists existed alongside commoners. The bohiques or shamans played a central role in religious life. The Taíno practiced agriculture as the economic backbone, cultivating cassava (manioc) as a staple, along with maize, beans, sweet potatoes, peppers, and fruits. They also fished, hunted, and produced cotton textiles and simple pottery. Dwellings were typically circular thatched-roof houses called bohios, and communal ceremonial spaces known as bateyes hosted rituals and ball games.

Religion and ritual featured zemis, or deity figures, housed in shrines and incorporated into household and community life. Central deities in some Taíno cosmologies included Yúcahu, the spirit of cassava, and Atabey, a mother goddess. Ceremonial practices, offerings, and the ballgame held social and spiritual significance, reinforcing community bonds and leadership.

Contact with Europeans began in 1492 with Columbus’s voyage and rapidly altered Taíno society through disease, warfare, and forced labor under Spanish colonization. Population decline and cultural disruption followed, with many Taíno assimilating into colonial populations or intermarrying. Nonetheless, Taíno heritage persists in place names, cultural practices, and in modern communities that identify as Taíno or Indigenous in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and the wider Caribbean. Their legacy also appears in Caribbean art, craft traditions, and linguistic influences.