Taino Indians of Meso America

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Were somewhat lower in height with well-trained bodies and coppery skin Had a broad face and cheeks very slightly marked with thick lips and very good teeth. Columbus described them as men without body hair and short hair.
Children are practiced artificial cranial deformation to make wider lucieran forehead, which was a symbol of beauty.
It perforated the lower lobe of the ear to look decorative pins or earrings taguaguas calls.

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Men and boys usually do not carry anything.
Went naked, holding in his arms and legs only garters or girdles made of cotton threads. The women were naked from the waist up, wearing at the bottom called a kind of skirts skirts to the calves, although women cacicas major ankle.

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The ceremonial dance was one of the main activities call Areyto.
It arranged for painting their bodies red, parrot feathers, jewels, seashells or coral and gold earrings. There were areytos of love, war, pitiful, etc … With their songs.
The celebration represented an ancestral Areyto which perpetuate the myths and the history of the Taino tribes. The women sang and danced using maracas, flutes and drums. Men and women participated together.
The religious or medical behique had a vast knowledge of the pharmacopoeia early and watched for the healing of the sick by magic-medicinal practices. Cohoba created idols and other ritual objects.

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Communication with spirits through rituals and sacrifices performed. He deployed the rite of cohoba, which consisted of inhaling a hallucinogenic powder extracted from the cassava preceded by a ritual vomiting to establish contact with CEMI.
Of Taino mythology surpassed his highest divinity
Yocahú Maorocoti Bagua, the Lord of Heaven and
Creator of all existence.
The ceremonies were led by behiques, transmitting tribal traditions and also educated the sons of chiefs and transmitting a permanent link with the gods.
They believed in the immortality of the soul and the continuation of life on another world.

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The mortar that is used today is of Taino origin.
The mortar was carved from a tree with a diameter of up to 25 inches. These were crudely carved and polished or finished, depending on the skill of the carver. Were used to grind corn, herbs and ingredients that are used for painting adorning their bodies.

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The greatest legacy left to us by the Tainos was his art. Many of their traditions, customs and artifacts did not survive the Spanish invasion but there are some sculptures, ceramics, jewelry, fabrics, rods, daggers, CEMIS dujos, belts and other devices Taíno game in museums todayMost of their ceremonial artifacts were hidden from the Spanish in caves. In addition, the Tainos were excellent sculptors who drew up ceremonial artifacts of great artistic expression as duhos or ceremonial seats, idols or cemíes, instruments for ritual and rings cohoba monolithic.

TRUCTURE
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Their social, political and religious was the most developed among indigenous groups in the West Indies. Your maximum territorial unit was the "chiefdom" which grouped certain villages or "yucayeques", which were run by caciques, amounting to these positions by the matrilineal inheritance or making an extraordinary .
The social structure consisted of:
+ Nitainos who were the nobles, warriors, and artisans
Estimated to be of better blood than the others, were responsible for other Indians, came to be the lieutenants of the chiefs.
+ Naborias were serfs and were the lowest class.
+ The Chiefs (Chiefs) were inherited positions and proceeded Nitainos class.
+ The bohiques (healer) were from a lineage of bohiques.

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The behique or witch doctor of the tribe was a personage of importance in Taino society, having a vast knowledge of the primitive pharmacopoeia and ensure the healing of the sick by magic-medicinal practices, speaking also in the preparation of the cohoba idols and other ritual objects.
The great feature of the Taino cosmological universe was called cemíes worship, deities idols personify abstract, naturalists, local, familiar spirits and natural phenomena. It was an animistic religion.
Finally, there was a belief in the immortality of the soul and the continuation of life on another world.
Also included the exploits of their heroes and ancestors. This fascinating collection of stories and explanations were told in magical-religious ceremonies.

T RADITIONS AND COSTUMS .
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The Taino practiced a series of games that had a dual character: ceremonial and entertainment, such as races, contests of strength, fishing ...
Most important are the warrior and drill the ball.

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The dance and songs were social events among the Indians West Indians. Accompanied their songs with orchestras monotone. The songs sung and dances were called areytos areytos.Había several classes: the symbolic areyto belonging to the sacred liturgy, the areyto warrior, which celebrated the victories of war and social areyto to honor celebrities Areytos also served to transmit the beliefs from generation to generation and were always sung the same way not to corrupt them.

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They used hooks made of fish bones, turtle shells and bone. Pescaban con cañas en sus canoas.
Fishing with rods in their canoes. They made nets and traps, as a kind of pens with sticks together with vines, and dug into the bottom of the river to catch fish, shellfish and turtles.

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The homes were intended for an extended family, which consisted of 20 or more people. The houses were of two types:
Bohio -The huts: they were circular in shape with a conical roof, and was supported by poles which were placed around a central pole, which rested on the top.
Walls made with cane leaves or palm leaves of royal palm.
-The caneye, was the house of chiefs, was rectangular in shape and more spacious, with two aguas.Estas
roof houses were located near a place called Batey, where festivities were held ceremonias. Tainos slept in hammocks made cotton which were hung with twine and rope hicos

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Some of the weapons used to fight the Taino were:
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- Pitchers: An instrument used by the Tainos in war activities, hunting and fishing.
- Macana: typical weapon used by the Amerindians in their warlike activitiesFor the manufacture of wood she used dental stalk fire-hardened blade, the sides were keenHe clung with both hands as it was very heavy.
- Bows, arrows and throw darts: Instruments used by the Tainos both for its military activities, such as for hunting and fishing. In his clothing was used hardwood. The arrows ending in a bone, fish teeth, bone or wood hardened by fire.

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The first inhabitants of Puerto Rico were the
Taino Indians, a tribe descended from the
Arawak Indians of Venezuela.
The Taino language was in the form of petrographic or symbols carved in stone and was the Arawak language.
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The Taíno name means' good and noble. “ When the Europeans arrived, the Tainos inhabited much of the island of Puerto Rico and Spanish, as well as eastern Cuba and Jamaica.
According to Christopher Columbus, Taino language was mild, the sweetest in the world, always with a laugh.

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The chiefs practiced polygamy, rare among the common people. This practice was justified by the excess of girls of marriageable age, and because among the Tainos were a disgrace to have no children.
The relative wealth of the chiefs, their status, and low aspirations of the people, allowing them to have several wives and children.
Polygamy was heightened by the constant struggle against the Carib Indians. The numerous casualties among the male population and the urgent need to maintain a population level, were key factors to propagate polygamy among West Indian Taino tribes.