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66-810: Yaque or Yaqui was a Taíno word given to two rivers in the Dominican Republic. One is called the Yaque del Norte ("Northern Yaque"), and goes to the north of Hispaniola , emptying in the Atlantic Ocean ; and the second, the Yaque del Sur ("Southern Yaque") goes to the south, emptying in the Caribbean Sea . During his first visit to Hispaniola in 1492, Christopher Columbus saw the river at its mouth, and he called it Río de Oro ("Golden River") because he found many small pieces of gold . During his second visit, he saw

132-641: A chieftain , known as cacique , or cacica if the ruler was a woman. Many women whom the Spaniards called cacicas were not always rulers in their own right, but were mistakenly acknowledged as such because they were the wives of caciques . Chiefs were chosen from the nitaínos and generally obtained power from their maternal line. A male ruler was more likely to be succeeded by his sister's children than his own unless their mother's lineage allowed them to succeed in their own right. The chiefs had both temporal and spiritual functions. They were expected to ensure

198-505: A bird, a frog , or a reptile, depending on the interpretation of the myth . Zemí was also the name the people gave to physical representations of Zemis, which could be objects or drawings. They took many forms and were made of many materials and were found in a variety of settings. The majority of zemís were crafted from wood, but stone, bone , shell , pottery , and cotton were used as well. Zemí petroglyphs were carved on rocks in streams, ball courts, and stalagmites in caves, such as

264-461: A chief was succeeded by a son of a sister. Las Casas was not specific as to which son of a sister would succeed, but d'Anghiera stated that the order of succession was the oldest son of the oldest sister, then the oldest son of the next oldest sister. Post-marital residence was avunculocal , meaning a newly married couple lived in the household of the maternal uncle. He was more important in the lives of his niece's children than their biological father;

330-661: A native Caribbean social reality . The people who inhabited most of the Greater Antilles when Europeans arrived have been called Taínos , a term coined by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1836. Taíno is not a universally accepted denomination—it was not the name this people called themselves originally, and there is still uncertainty about their attributes and the boundaries of the territory they occupied. The term nitaino or nitayno , from which Taíno derived, referred to an elite social class, not to an ethnic group. No 16th-century Spanish documents use this word to refer to

396-399: A receptacle for hallucinogenic snuff called cohoba , prepared from the beans of a species of Piptadenia tree. These trays have been found with ornately carved snuff tubes. Before certain ceremonies, Taínos would purify themselves, either by inducing vomiting (with a swallowing stick) or by fasting . After communal bread was served, first to the zemí, then to the cacique, and then to

462-506: A sacred mountain on present-day Hispaniola. In Puerto Rico, 21st-century studies have shown that a high proportion of people have Amerindian mtDNA . Of the two major haplotypes found, one does not exist in the Taíno ancestral group, so other Native people are also among the genetic ancestors. DNA studies changed some of the traditional beliefs about pre-Columbian Indigenous history. According to National Geographic , "studies confirm that

528-426: A solid rubber ball. Normally, the teams were composed of men, but occasionally women played the game as well. The Classic Taíno played in the village's center plaza or on especially designed rectangular ball courts called batey . Games on the batey are believed to have been used for conflict resolution between communities. The most elaborate ball courts are found at chiefdom boundaries. Often, chiefs made wagers on

594-498: A typical village was a central plaza, used for various social activities, such as games, festivals, religious rituals , and public ceremonies. These plazas had many shapes, including oval, rectangular, narrow, and elongated. Ceremonies where the deeds of the ancestors were celebrated, called areitos , were performed here. Often, the general population lived in large circular buildings ( bohios ), constructed with wooden poles, woven straw, and palm leaves. These houses, built surrounding

660-466: A wave of pottery-making farmers—known as Ceramic Age people—set out in canoes from the north-eastern coast of South America starting some 2,500 years ago and island-hopped across the Caribbean. They were not, however, the first colonizers. On many islands, they encountered foraging people who arrived some 6,000 or 7,000 years ago...The ceramicists, who are related to today's Arawak-speaking peoples, supplanted

726-452: Is mostly shallow, so navigation is limited to small boats. During the wet season, however, the river swells up considerably, causing floods in some places. Since 1972, its waters have been dammed to harness electricity at the Tavera Dam . There are several dams along the river to generate electricity , store the water for irrigation, and prevent flooding . The river is 298 km long, is

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792-569: Is the largest of the Dominican Republic, and the second largest of the island. Its discharge ( volume of water which passes through a section of the river per unit of time ) is 97.0 cubic metres per second at Palo Verde , to the southeast of Monte Cristi. Due to factory dumping, water mismanagement, and damming, the Yaque Del Norte is currently very polluted; it is very diminished in size, and lacks fish throughout much of its course. American crocodiles ( Crocodylus acutus ) once inhabited

858-544: The Arawak peoples. Their language is considered to have belonged to the Arawak language family , the languages of which were historically present throughout the Caribbean, and much of Central and South America. In 1871, early ethnohistorian Daniel Garrison Brinton referred to the Taíno people as the Island Arawak , expressing their connection to the continental peoples. Since then, numerous scholars and writers have referred to

924-609: The Cibao Valley . Its mouth is on Monte Cristi Bay, just to the south of the city of Monte Cristi , and empties into the Atlantic Ocean. Its main tributaries are the Bao, Ámina, Mao and Guayubín rivers. The city of Santiago de los Caballeros is the most important Dominican city close to the river. It goes also near the cities of Jarabacoa, Mao , Guayubín , Castañuelas and Monte Cristi. With an area of 7,044 km , its watershed

990-557: The Virgin Islands to Montserrat . Modern groups with Caribbean-Indigenous heritage have reclaimed the exonym Taíno as a self-descriptor, although terms such as Neo-Taino or Indio are also used. Two schools of thought have emerged regarding the origin of the Indigenous Caribbean people. Taíno culture as documented is believed to have developed in the Caribbean. The Taíno creation story says they emerged from caves in

1056-448: The cacique , social organization was composed of two tiers: The nitaínos at the top and the naborias at the bottom. The nitaínos were considered the nobles of the tribes. They were made up of warriors and the family of the cacique. Advisors who assisted in operational matters such as assigning and supervising communal work, planting and harvesting crops, and keeping peace among the village's inhabitants, were selected from among

1122-499: The drainage basin for the north-west of the country, and is economically important as a source of irrigation for rice-farming and other agriculture. Ta%C3%ADno Taíno is a term referring to a historic Indigenous people of the Caribbean , whose culture has been continued today by their descendants and Taíno revivalist communities. Indigenous people in the Greater Antilles did not refer to themselves as Taínos , as

1188-402: The nitaínos . The naborias were the more numerous working peasants of the lower class. The bohíques were priests who represented religious beliefs. Bohíques dealt with negotiating with angry or indifferent gods as the accepted lords of the spiritual world. The bohíques were expected to communicate with the gods , soothe them when they were angry, and intercede on the tribe's behalf. It

1254-473: The tribe began to occupy the hierarchical position that would give way to the cacicazgo . The Taíno founded settlements around villages and organized their chiefdoms, or cacicazgos , into a confederation. The Taíno society, as described by the Spanish chroniclers, was composed of four social classes: the cacique , the nitaínos , the bohíques , and the naborias . According to archeological evidence,

1320-508: The Americas for centuries before 1492. Christopher Columbus in his journal described how Indigenous people used tobacco by lighting dried herbs wrapped in a leaf and inhaling the smoke. Tobacco, derived from the Taino word "tabaco", was used in medicine and in religious rituals. The Taino people utilized dried tobacco leaves, which they smoked using pipes and cigars. Alternatively, they finely crushed

1386-574: The Caribbean, they captured and ate small animals such as hutias , other mammals, earthworms , lizards , turtles , and birds . Manatees were speared and fish were caught in nets, speared, trapped in weirs , or caught with hook and line. Wild parrots were decoyed with domesticated birds, and iguanas were taken from trees and other vegetation . The Taíno stored live animals until they were ready to be consumed: fish and turtles were stored in weirs, hutias and dogs were stored in corrals. The Taíno people became very skilled fishermen . One method used

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1452-519: The Greater Antilles as Taíno (except the western tip of Cuba and small pockets of Hispaniola), as well as those of the Lucayan Archipelago and the northern Lesser Antilles . He subdivides the Taíno into three main groups: Classic Taíno , from most of Hispaniola and all of Puerto Rico; Western Taíno , or sub-Taíno , from Jamaica, most of Cuba, and the Lucayan archipelago; and Eastern Taíno , from

1518-522: The Indigenous group as Arawaks or Island Arawaks . However, contemporary scholars (such as Irving Rouse and Basil Reid) concluded that the Taíno developed a distinct language and culture from the Arawak of South America. Taíno and Arawak have been used with numerous and contradictory meanings by writers, travelers, historians, linguists, and anthropologists. Often they were used interchangeably: Taíno

1584-562: The Left") in Manabao, to the west of Jarabacoa , at an elevation of 900 m. From Manabao, the river flows to the east, through the northwestern part of La Vega province. When it gets to Jarabacoa , it turns to the north, to the Santiago . The Jimenoa river joins it at Jarabacoa. In Santiago de los Caballeros, the river turns to the northwest and flows by the Yaque del Norte Valley , the western part of

1650-446: The Taíno islands were able to support a high number of people for approximately 1,500 years. Every individual living in the Taíno society had a task to do. The Taíno believed that everyone living on their islands should eat properly. They followed a very efficient nature harvesting and agricultural production system. Either people were hunting, searching for food, or doing other productive tasks. Tribal groups settled in villages under

1716-429: The Taíno permission to engage in important tasks. The Taíno had a matrilineal system of kinship , descent, and inheritance. Spanish accounts of the rules of succession for a chief are not consistent, and the rules of succession may have changed as a result of the disruptions to Taíno society that followed the Spanish intrusion. Two early chroniclers, Bartolomé de las Casas and Peter Martyr d'Anghiera , reported that

1782-477: The Taíno were no longer extant centuries ago, or that they gradually merged into a common identity with African and Hispanic cultures. However, many people today identify as Taíno or have Taíno descent, most notably in subsections of the Puerto Rican , Cuban , and Dominican nationalities. Many Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Dominicans have Caribbean-Indigenous mitochondrial DNA , suggesting Taíno descent through

1848-556: The Taíno were the first New World peoples encountered by Christopher Columbus , in the Bahama Archipelago on October 12, 1492. The Taíno historically spoke a dialect of the Arawakan language group. They lived in agricultural societies ruled by caciques with fixed settlements and a matrilineal system of kinship and inheritance. Taíno religion centered on the worship of zemis . Some anthropologists and historians have argued that

1914-535: The Taínos as a physically tall, well-proportioned people, with noble and kind personalities. In his diary , Columbus wrote: They traded with us and gave us everything they had, with good will ... they took great delight in pleasing us ... They are very gentle and without knowledge of what is evil; nor do they murder or steal...Your highness may believe that in all the world there can be no better people ... They love their neighbors as themselves, and they have

1980-412: The Yaque del Norte and other rivers of Hispaniola, but now they are found only in the large lakes of the island ( Lago Enriquillo and Etang Saumâtre ). The water of the river is used for irrigation , mainly in the valley that goes from Santiago to Monte Cristi, the Yaque del Norte Valley. Crops grown include rice , bananas , plantains , cassava , tobacco , and vegetables . The Yaque Del Norte

2046-510: The back, and they occasionally wore gold jewelry, paint, and/or shells. Taíno men and unmarried women usually went naked. After marriage, women wore a small cotton apron, called a nagua . The Taíno lived in settlements called yucayeques , which varied in size depending on the location. Those in Puerto Rico and Hispaniola were the largest and those in the Bahamas were the smallest. In the center of

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2112-470: The central plaza, could hold 10–15 families each. The cacique and their family lived in rectangular buildings ( caney ) of similar construction, with wooden porches. Taíno home furnishings included cotton hammocks ( hamaca ), sleeping and sitting mats made of palms, wooden chairs (dujo or duho) with woven seats and platforms, and cradles for children. The Taíno played a ceremonial ball game called batey . Opposing teams had 10 to 30 players per team and used

2178-524: The common people, the people would sing the village epic to the accompaniment of maraca and other instruments. One Taíno oral tradition explains that the Sun and Moon came out of caves. Another story tells of the first people, who once lived in caves and only came out at night because it was believed that the Sun would transform them; a sentry became a giant stone at the mouth of the cave, and others became birds or trees. The Taíno believed they were descended from

2244-430: The direct female line. While some communities describe an unbroken cultural heritage passed down from the old Taíno peoples, often in secret, others are revivalist communities who seek to incorporate Taíno culture into their lives. Scholars have faced difficulties researching the native inhabitants of the Caribbean islands to which Columbus voyaged in 1492, since European accounts cannot be read as objective evidence of

2310-402: The earlier foraging inhabitants—presumably through disease or violence—as they settled new islands." Taíno society was divided into two classes: naborias (commoners) and nitaínos (nobles). They were governed by male and female chiefs known as caciques , who inherited their position through their mother's noble line. (This was a matrilineal kinship system, with social status passed through

2376-500: The female lines.) The nitaínos functioned as sub-caciques in villages, overseeing the work of naborias. Caciques were advised by priests/healers known as bohíques . Caciques enjoyed the privilege of wearing golden pendants called guanín , living in square bohíos, instead of the round ones of ordinary villagers, and sitting on wooden stools to be above the guests they received. Bohíques were extolled for their healing powers and ability to speak with deities. They were consulted and granted

2442-469: The first Taíno mythical cacique Anacacuya, whose name means "star of the center", or "central spirit". In addition to the guanín, the cacique used other artifacts and adornments to serve to identify his role. Some examples are tunics of cotton and rare feathers , crowns, and masks or "guaizas" of cotton with feathers; colored stones, shells, or gold; cotton woven belts; and necklaces of snail beads or stones, with small masks of gold or other material. Under

2508-565: The fish would be stunned and ready for collection. These practices did not render fish inedible. The Taíno also collected mussels and oysters in exposed mangrove roots found in shallow waters. Some young boys hunted waterfowl from flocks that "darkened the sun", according to Christopher Columbus. Taíno groups located on islands that had experienced relatively high development, such as Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, and Jamaica, relied more on agriculture (farming and other jobs) than did groups living elsewhere. Fields for important root crops , such as

2574-549: The gourd broke, an accident caused by Deminán Caracaracol, and all the water of the world came pouring out. Taínos believed that Jupias, the souls of the dead, would go to Coaybay, the underworld, and there they rest by day. At night they would assume the form of bats and eat the guava fruit. Columbus and the crew of his ship were the first Europeans to encounter the Taíno people, as they landed in The Bahamas on October 12, 1492. After their first interaction, Columbus described

2640-426: The leaves and inhaled them through a hollow tube. The natives employed uncomplicated yet efficient tools for planting and caring for their crops. Their primary tool was a planting stick, referred to as a "coa" among the Taino, which measured around five feet in length and featured a sharp point that had been hardened through fire. Contrary to mainland practices, corn was not ground into flour and baked into bread, but

2706-483: The men made wooden war clubs, which they called macanas . It was about one inch thick and was similar to the coco macaque. The Taínos decorated and applied war paint to their face to appear fierce toward their enemies. They ingested substances at religious ceremonies and invoked zemis. The Taíno were the most culturally advanced of the Arawak group to settle in what is now Puerto Rico . Individuals and kinship groups that previously had some prestige and rank in

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2772-409: The people depended on. The men also fished and hunted, making fishing nets and ropes from cotton and palm . Their dugout canoes ( kanoa ) were of various sizes and could hold from 2 to 150 people; an average-sized canoe would hold 15–20. They used bows and arrows for hunting and developed the use of poisons on their arrowheads. Taíno women commonly wore their hair with bangs in front and longer in

2838-536: The possible outcome of a game. Taíno spoke an Arawakan language and used an early form of proto-writing in the form of petroglyph , as found in Taíno archeological sites in the West Indies . Some words they used, such as barbacoa ("barbecue"), hamaca ("hammock"), kanoa ("canoe"), tabaco ("tobacco"), sabana (savanna), and juracán ("hurricane"), have been incorporated into other languages. For warfare,

2904-405: The river elsewhere, confusing it for a different one, and called it Río de las Cañas ("River of Canes") because many tall sugarcanes grew on the borders of the river. Columbus built three forts near the river: Esperanza, Magdalena and Santiago. The first two were abandoned, and Santiago was moved to another place, with the name of Santiago de los Caballeros . Later, Santiago de los Caballeros

2970-453: The sea and the mountains". He was considered the spirit of cassava, the zemi of cassava – the Taínos' main crop – and the sea. Guabancex was the non-nurturing aspect of the zemi Atabey who was believed to have control over natural disasters. She is identified as the goddess of hurricanes or as the zemi of storms. Guabancex had twin sons: Guataubá, a messenger who created hurricane winds, and Coatrisquie, who created floodwaters . Iguanaboína

3036-500: The shore that they were taíno , i.e., important people, from elsewhere and thus entitled to deference. If taíno was being used here to denote ethnicity, then it was used by the Spanish sailors to indicate that they were "not Carib", and gives no evidence of self-identification by the native people. According to José Barreiro , a direct translation of the word Taíno signified "men of the good". The Taíno people, or Taíno culture, have been classified by some authorities as belonging to

3102-443: The staple crop yuca , were prepared by heaping up mounds of soil, called conucos . This improved soil drainage and fertility as well as delayed erosion while allowing for the longer storage of crops in the ground. Less important crops such as corn were cultivated in clearings made using the slash-and-burn technique. Typically, conucos were three feet high, nine feet in circumference, and were arranged in rows. The primary root crop

3168-556: The sweetest talk in the world, and are gentle and always laughing. Hydroelectricity and dams in the Dominican Republic There are numerous dams and reservoirs in the Dominican Republic , which is composed of rivers, lakes, streams, and numerous waterfalls. The main rivers in the Dominican Republic are the Yaque del Norte , which is the longest in the country at 201 km in length. The second largest and

3234-585: The term Taíno should refer to all the Taíno/Arawak nations except the Caribs , who are not seen as belonging to the same people. Linguists continue to debate whether the Carib language was an Arawakan dialect or a Creole language . They also speculate that it was an independent language isolate, with an Arawakan pidgin used for communication purposes with other peoples, as in trading. Rouse classifies all inhabitants of

3300-465: The term to indicate that they were the "good men", as opposed to the Caribs. According to Peter Hulme, most translators appear to agree that the word taíno was used by Columbus's sailors, not by the islanders who greeted them, although there is room for interpretation. The sailors may have been saying the only word they knew in a native Caribbean tongue, or perhaps they were indicating to the "commoners" on

3366-438: The term was coined by the anthropologist Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1836. The Indigenous peoples of the Greater Antilles are sometimes referred to as Island Arawaks . At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of what is now Cuba , the Dominican Republic , Jamaica , Haiti , Puerto Rico , the Bahamas , and the northern Lesser Antilles . The Lucayan branch of

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3432-554: The tribal affiliation or ethnicity of the natives of the Greater Antilles. The word tayno or taíno , with the meaning "good" or "prudent", was mentioned twice in an account of Columbus's second voyage by his physician, Diego Álvarez Chanca , while in Guadeloupe . José R. Oliver writes that the Natives of Borinquén, who had been captured by the Caribs of Guadeloupe and who wanted to escape on Spanish ships to return home to Puerto Rico, used

3498-485: The uncle introduced the boys to men's societies in his sister and his family's clan. Some Taíno practiced polygamy . Men might have multiple wives. Ramón Pané, a Catholic friar who traveled with Columbus on his second voyage and was tasked with learning the Indigenous people's language and customs, wrote in the 16th century that caciques tended to have two or three spouses and the principal ones had as many as 10, 15, or 20. The Taíno women were skilled in agriculture, which

3564-413: The union of the cultural hero Deminán Caracaracol and a female turtle (who was born of the former's back after being afflicted with a blister). The origin of the oceans is described in the story of a huge flood that occurred when the great spirit Yaya murdered his son Yayael (who was about to murder his father). The father put his son's bones into a gourd or calabash . When the bones turned into fish,

3630-534: The unity of the Indigenous communities in a territory; they would band together as a defensive strategy to face external threats, such as the attacks by the Caribs on communities in Puerto Rico. The practice of polygamy enabled the cacique to have women and create family alliances in different localities, thus extending his power. As a symbol of his status , the cacique carried a guanín of South American origin, made of an alloy of gold and copper. This symbolized

3696-409: The welfare of the tribe and to protect it from harm from both natural and supernatural forces. They were also expected to direct and manage the food production process. The cacique's power came from the number of villages he controlled and was based on a network of alliances related to family , matrimonial, and ceremonial ties. According to an early 20th-century Smithsonian study, these alliances showed

3762-430: The wild. Taíno spirituality centered on the worship of zemis (spirits or ancestors). Major Taíno zemis included Atabey and her son, Yúcahu . Atabey was thought to be the zemi of the moon , fresh waters, and fertility. Other names for her included Atabei, Atabeyra, Atabex, and Guimazoa. The Taínos of Kiskeya (Hispaniola) called her son, "Yúcahu|Yucahú Bagua Maorocotí", which meant "White Yuca, great and powerful as

3828-664: The zemi carved into a stalagmite in a cave in La Patana, Cuba. Cemí pictographs were found on secular objects such as pottery, and tattoos . Yucahú, the zemi of cassava, was represented with a three-pointed zemí, which could be found in conucos to increase the yield of cassava. Wood and stone zemís have been found in caves in Hispaniola and Jamaica. Cemís are sometimes represented by toads , turtles, fish, snakes , and various abstract and human-like faces. Some zemís were accompanied by small tables or trays, which are believed to be

3894-724: Was applied to the Greater Antillean natives only, but could include the Bahamian or the Leeward Islands natives, excluding the Puerto Rican and Leeward nations. Similarly, Island Taíno has been used to refer only to those living in the Windward Islands , or to the northern Caribbean inhabitants, as well as to the Indigenous population of all the Caribbean islands. Many modern historians, linguists, and anthropologists now hold that

3960-451: Was cooked and eaten off the cob. Corn bread becomes moldy faster than cassava bread in the high humidity of the Caribbean. Corn also was used to make an alcoholic beverage known as chicha . The Taíno grew squash , beans , peppers , peanuts , and pineapples . Tobacco , calabashes (bottle gourds), and cotton were grown around the houses. Other fruits and vegetables, such as palm nuts , guavas , and Zamia roots, were collected from

4026-615: Was moved again near the river, where the modern city stands today. The source of the Yaque del Norte is at an elevation of 2,580 metres , on the Pico del Yaque mountain, in the central part of the Cordillera Central mountain range. There, the river is called Los Guanos or Río de la Derecha ("River to the Right"). The name Yaque del Norte is used only when it is joined by another small river, Los Tablones or Río de la Izquierda ("River to

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4092-482: Was the goddess of good weather. She also had twin sons: Boinayel, the messenger of rain, and Marohu, the spirit of clear skies. Minor Taíno zemis are related to the growing of cassava, the process of life, creation, and death. Baibrama was a minor zemi worshiped for his assistance in growing cassava and curing people of its poisonous juice. Boinayel and his twin brother Márohu were the zemis of rain and fair weather, respectively. Maquetaurie Guayaba or Maketaori Guayaba

4158-409: Was the zemi of Coaybay or Coabey, the land of the dead. Opiyelguabirán', a dog-shaped zemi, watched over the dead. Deminán Caracaracol, a male cultural hero from whom the Taíno believed themselves to be descended, was worshipped as a zemí. Macocael was a cultural hero worshipped as a zemi, who had failed to guard the mountain from which human beings arose. He was punished by being turned into stone, or

4224-420: Was their duty to cure the sick, heal the wounded, and interpret the will of the gods in ways that would satisfy the expectations of the tribe. Before carrying out these functions, the bohíques performed certain cleansing and purifying rituals , such as fasting for several days and inhaling sacred tobacco snuff. Taíno staples included vegetables, fruit, meat, and fish. Though there were no large animals native to

4290-408: Was to hook a remora , also known as a suckerfish, to a line secured to a canoe and wait for the fish to attach itself to a larger fish or even a sea turtle. Once this happened, someone would dive into the water to retrieve the catch. Another method used by the Taínos involved shredding the stems and roots of poisonous senna plants and throwing them into nearby streams or rivers. After eating the bait,

4356-421: Was yuca or cassava , a woody shrub cultivated for its edible and starchy tuberous root . It was planted using a coa , a kind of hoe made completely from wood. Women processed the poisonous variety of cassava by squeezing it to extract its toxic juices. Roots were then ground into flour for bread. Batata ( sweet potato ) was the next most important root crop. Tobacco was grown by pre-Columbian peoples in

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