Taína

Taíno, in its broad sense, refers to the indigenous Arawakan-speaking peoples who inhabited large parts of the Caribbean at the time of European contact. The term Taíno (plural Taínos) is the name applied by the Spanish to these communities; in some contexts the feminine form Taína is used in Spanish. The core homeland was the Greater Antilles, especially the island of Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), with populations also on Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Cuba, and various Bahamas and Lesser Antilles islands. By the 16th century, rapid population decline followed European colonization due to disease, violence, and forced labor, leading to profound cultural disruption.

Society and culture of the Taíno were organized around structured communities and a regional chief system. Villages, or yucayeques, were typically composed of bohíos, simple thatched-roof houses. The social hierarchy included caciqued (chiefs) who governed communities and nitaínos (nobles or warriors). Economically, Taíno practiced mixed agriculture—manioc (cassava) and sweet potato as staples, along with maize, beans, squash, and fruit crops—supplemented by fishing and hunting. They cultivated the fertile lands with dugout canoes and made pottery, weaving, and bone, shell, and cotton crafts. Spiritual beliefs centered on zemí, ancestral spirits and deities such as Yúcahu (personified as a god of cassava) and Atabey (goddess of the earth and motherhood); their cosmology intersected daily life and ritual.

Language and legacy: the Taíno language belonged to the Arawakan family and is now extinct, though it left a lasting imprint on Caribbean Spanish and other languages through loanwords such as huracán (hurricane) and barbacoa (barbecue). Today, Taíno identity persists in cultural revival and through recognized descendant communities in several Caribbean countries.