Indigenous Peoples of the Caribbean Constructed Roads and Causeways

 

Stone structures at the Centro Ceremonial Indígena de Tibes, Ponce, Borikén. Tibes preserves plazas, stone alignments, constructed walks, and other features that demonstrate a long Indigenous tradition of shaping and organizing ceremonial landscapes. Photo: Ligocsicnarf89 / Wikimedia Commons, CC0.

Did You Know: Archaeological sites across the Caribbean preserve evidence that Indigenous Peoples constructed roads, causeways, and other prepared pathways. At Chacuey in Kiskeia (Dominican Republic), archaeologists documented parallel stone-cobble causeways associated with a major ceremonial complex that extended toward the Río Chacuey for more than 600 meters. In Borikén (Puerto Rico), constructed roads and causeways have also been documented at Indigenous ceremonial centers, including Caguana, Tibes, and other sites.

The precise purposes of these structures remain open to interpretation. Some may have facilitated movement between important places, while others may have had ceremonial or political functions—or served several purposes at once. What the archaeological evidence makes clear is that the Indigenous landscape encountered by Europeans was not simply a collection of isolated iukaieke (yucayeque). Taíno Peoples shaped and organized the landscapes around their settlements, rivers, ceremonial centers, and other important places.

Background Sources:
Samuel M. Wilson, The Indigenous People of the Caribbean / archaeological discussion of Chacuey
Miguel Rodríguez, archaeological studies of Indigenous ceremonial centers in Borikén
Irving Rouse, The Tainos: Rise and Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus
Sebastián Robiou Lamarche, Taínos y Caribes: Las culturas aborígenes antillanas

Did You Know: A Taíno Agricultural Ceremony Was Mistaken for Desecration?

 
Did You Know: One of the earliest Spanish accounts from Kiskeia records an incident in which Taíno men took Christian religious images from a chapel and buried them in a cultivated field, declaring that the crops would now grow well and abundantly. Friar Ramón Pané, writing in the late fifteenth century, interpreted their actions through a Christian colonial worldview, describing them as an intentional desecration and mockery of the images. Yet Pané's own account preserves an important detail: the Taíno explicitly connected the burial of the images with the fertility and productivity of the cultivated field.

Seen from a Taíno cultural perspective, the incident tells a very different story. Taíno spiritual and agricultural practices were deeply interconnected, and semí (cemí) could embody spiritual powers associated with fertility, food production, and the forces sustaining life. Contemporary Taíno leaders rebuke claims of desecration. Several modern scholars have also questioned the colonial interpretation of the incident as simple "desecration." The Christian images would have been understood within an existing Taíno spiritual framework and treated as powerful sacred objects. Their potency could be placed into relationship with the cultivated earth. In other words, actions the Spanish interpreted as contempt would have represented an Indigenous attempt to understand—or even test and incorporate—the spiritual power claimed for these unfamiliar sacred images.

The consequences demonstrate how deadly such cultural misunderstandings could become under colonial rule. Pané reports that after the incident was brought to Bartolomé Colón, acting as governor in his brother Christopher's absence, proceedings were brought against those responsible and the Taíno men were publicly burned alive. Their deaths remind us why early colonial chronicles must be read critically: European writers recorded invaluable information about Taíno life, but they also interpreted what they witnessed through their own religious beliefs, political interests, and cultural assumptions. Recovering Taíno history therefore requires us not only to read what the chroniclers wrote, but also to examine the Indigenous meanings that may still be visible beneath their interpretations.

References:

Ramón Pané. An Account of the Antiquities of the Indians. Written ca. 1498. New edition with introductory study, notes, and appendices by José Juan Arrom; translated by Susan C. Griswold. Duke University Press, 1999.

José Juan Arrom, ed. Relación acerca de las antigüedades de los indios: el primer tratado escrito en América. Based on the account of Fray Ramón Pané. [For the English scholarly edition: Duke University Press, 1999.]

Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo. Cave of the Jagua: The Mythological World of the Taínos. University of New Mexico Press, 1988. The National Park Service's historical documentation specifically cites Stevens-Arroyo's analysis of this episode, noting that the Taíno treated the Catholic images as cemíes and that the Spanish interpreted this as desecration. 

Cashews and Taino People

Did You Know: The cashew tree (Anacardium occidentale) is said to have originated in northeast Brazil, however, it is widely distributed through tropical South and Central America and the Caribbean. In Borikén (Puerto Rico) and Kiskeia (Dominican Republic), what are understood to be Taino words for cashew are still used today, incorporated in the local Spanish language including kahuil (prounounced kah-hoo-eel), pahuil (pajuil), and pauhil. An additional, more rarely used term for cashew in Borikén is pahui (pajuy/pah-hoo-ee). All these terms seem to be related linguistically to the term for cashew used in indigenous Tupian languages - acajú - said to mean “nut that produces itself.” The cashew tree is large and evergreen, growing to 10-12m (32 ft) tall. It produces a type of fruit (known in English as ‘cashew apple’ or ‘marañón’ in Spanish), which is edible, and has a strong "sweet" smell and a sweet taste. The cashew nut is really a seed and a good source of antioxidants, but it needs to be roasted or steamed as it contains urushiol, a resin that can cause skin rashes, and can be toxic when ingested. Urushiol is also present in the tree's leaves. Traditional medicinal uses of the cashew tree include grinding the seeds into a poultice for treating snakebites, and the use of the fruit, bark, and leaves for many other purposes including anti-fungal activity, for sores and rashes, or as an antipyretic, and for antidiarrheal applications. – UCTP Taino News © 2014 

Guayiga and Marunguey are Taino

Did You Know: Traditionally, Taino People made special use of a type of cycad plant species in the Zamia family that grows in several varieties throughout the Caribbean, the Bahamas, and even Florida (Zamia pumila, Zamia debilis, Zamia amblyphyllidia, Zamia integriflora, etc). This plant is known as guayiga in Kiskeia (Dominican Republic), it also is known as marunguey in Borikén (Puerto Rico). The indigenous Seminole Peoples of Florida call it Coonti. In Kuba (Cuba) these plants are known as Yuquilla de ratón or Yuquilla de paredón. While guayiga/marunguey is extremely poisonous, the Taino learned to make a bread called Chola or Cholla, out of its roots. The production of this bread is similar to that of Taino kasabe (yuka/cassava/manioc bread). According to local traditional knowledge, once the bread is made, it is left outside, and when insects begin to land on it, the bread is deemed ready to be consumed as the poisons have been sufficiently extracted. Today, on the island of Kiskeia, the communities of Higuey and Haina produce most of the chola bread made on the island. – UCTP Taino News © 2013 

Batea is Taino

Did You Know: Batea are oval or circular wooden trays used traditionally by Taino to carry food, wash clothes, or pan for gold. Today, Taino and others in Kiskeia (Dominican Republic) continue to make and use them for these same purposes, still calling them batea, which is its Taino name. Batea is pronounced  "bah-teh-ah." - UCTP Taino News (c) 2013 

Taíno Political Organization

Did You Know: Taíno society was organized in two sectors - nitaíno (community leaders) and naboria (general community members).  Community life was administrated by chiefs and sub-chiefs called kasike (cacique), who in turn were supported and often advised by other community and spiritual leaders called behike and buhiti among other names. The traditional territories (called cacicazgos by the Spaniards) controlled by kasike were actually confederations of iukaieke (yucayeque) communities with populations that ranged from several hundred to thousands of people. As Taíno society developed over time, powerful kasike (caciques) united these communities into political states that were ultimately guided by a grand or paramount chief. In 1492, Kiskeia (Hispaniola) was organized under five confederations. Boriken (Puerto Rico) was organized under 20, with the Guainia (Guaynia) territory being the largest and most politically powerful. -  UCTP Taíno News © 2013

Kasabi: Bread made from iuka (yuca)

DID YOU KNOW: Traditionally, bread made from iuka or cassava is known in the Taíno language as kasabi or kasabe. It was created by grating iuka (yuca, cassava/manioc) flour into flat disks and roasting them on flat ceramic griddles called burén over a cooking fire. Today, the baking of kasabi, now more commonly called kasabe, is modernized for increased production, but it is still presented in the original flat, round style. Whether made from bitter or sweet varieties of iuka/manioc, kasabi is known to preserve exceedingly well with a preservative-free shelf life of about 8 months. In the time of the ancient Taino, it was taken on long journeys over land and sea without spoiling, providing a sometimes a much-needed burst of carbohydrates. The bitter cassava is said to produce a kind of kasabi that was virtually “unassailable by vermin” since it retained a small amount of hydrocyanic toxin harmless to humans but harmful or deadly to insects and rodents. Hab jao (jab jao) is the Taíno name still given to the thinnest kasabi in Kiskeia (Dominican Republic). According to Taino tradition hab hao or hau hau (xau xau) was reserved for community leaders and dignitaries. Since the 1970s, kasabe production in Kiskeia has expanded the availability of this ancient Taino culinary tradition from the local to international markets. - © 2012 UCTP Taino News

References

De las Casas, B. (1875). Historia de las Indias (Vol. 1). Imprenta de Miguel Ginesta. (Original work written 1559–1561).

Rouse, I. (1992). The Taínos: Rise and decline of the people who greeted Columbus. Yale University Press.