Taínos

The Taínos were an indigenous people of the Caribbean who spoke a Taíno language in the Arawakan family. They inhabited the Greater Antilles, especially Hispaniola (the present-day Dominican Republic and Haiti), Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and Cuba, and organized communities around caciques (leaders). Social structure included nitaínos (nobles) and naborías (commoners). Villages featured central plazas called bateyes, with thatched houses known as bohíos and communal farming plots called conucos.

Their economy combined agriculture, fishing, and hunting. They cultivated cassava (yuca), maize, beans, peppers, and cotton, often on raised fields and conucos. Cultural life emphasized craftwork, pottery, weaving, and wood and bone tools. Religion centered on zemí figures representing gods and ancestral spirits. Areíto ceremonies, with music and dance, accompanied communal rituals. Duhos served as spiritual leaders and healers, guiding rites and rites of passage.

Contact with Europe began with Christopher Columbus’s 1492 voyage to Hispaniola, triggering rapid cultural and demographic change. The Taíno population declined sharply due to diseases, overwork, and violent disruption under the colonial encomienda system. By the mid-16th century, many Taínos had perished or merged into the broader population, though some communities persisted and contributed to the mixed Caribbean heritage. Taíno influence endures in languages,.place names, and cultural practices. Linguistic and cultural legacies include terms such as hamaca (hammock), barbacoa (barbecue), huracán (hurricane), and canoa (canoe). In modern times, there are revival and identity efforts in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and other Caribbean areas, alongside ongoing scholarly work to document pre-Columbian life and contemporary Taíno heritage.