Taíno Current News
How Ancient DNA Can Help Recast Colonial History
The people of pre-colonial Puerto Rico did not disappear entirely—a new study shows that the island’s residents still carry bits of their DNA.
ED YONG
SEP 18, 2019
In the 15th century, when Europeans first reached the island now named Puerto Rico, it was home to between 30,000 and 70,000 people, sometimes known collectively as Taíno. They came from various ethnic groups descended from several waves of ancestors who came to the island in succession, beginning as early as 3,000 b.c. But a century after the colonizers arrived, official traces of these indigenous peoples were all but impossible to find.
Under a regime of forced relocations, starvation, disease, and slavery, their numbers plummeted. At the same time, colonial officials elided their existence, removing them as a distinct group from the census and recategorizing many—from Christian converts to wives of colonists—as Spanish or “other.”
Those censuses, and other colonial documents, have fueled the common narrative that the indigenous peoples were completely extinguished.
“We’re told our past is a thing that went extinct,” says Maria Nieves-Colón, an anthropological geneticist at Arizona State University. Growing up in Puerto Rico, she heard a different story. Her friends and neighbors would share oral histories about traditions that were passed down to them from Native ancestors, who must somehow have survived to share these customs. In recent years, several groups have pushed a counter-narrative in which indigenous groups were greatly diminished by colonization, but not completely destroyed.
If this were correct, there should be some genetic evidence to back it up. But the only way of finding it would be to examine the DNA of the pre-colonization populations. On this tropical island, ancient DNA, which degrades rapidly in heat and humidity, is hard to come by. But Nieves-Colón has spent the past decade looking for it, and her work backs up the counter-narrative.
There was already some genetic evidence to support the idea of Taíno survival. In 2001, Juan Carlos Martínez-Cruzado of the University of Puerto Rico analyzed modern Puerto Ricans and found substantial amounts of Native American ancestry in their mitochondrial genomes—a subset of DNA that’s inherited from mothers. “The Taíno contribution to the current population is considerable,” he wrote.
But such ancestry can be hard to interpret because European colonizers moved people around. “In contemporary populations, when indigenous ancestry is found, you can only say that it’s indigenous to the Americas,” says Jada Benn Torres of Vanderbilt University, who studies the genetic ancestry of indigenous Caribbean peoples. “It’s hard to pinpoint it to one particular area.” That’s why the ancient DNA is necessary.
Over the past 10 years, Nieves-Colón has been working to wrest tiny fragments of DNA from ancient remains. From three archaeological sites on the island, she and her colleagues acquired 124 skeletal remains, which all dated between a.d. 500 and 1300. They then searched teeth, bones, and dental plaque for genetic fragments—a difficult task, since DNA breaks down quickly and readily in tropical conditions.
Still, the team managed to completely decipher the mitochondrial genomes from 45 precontact people, and partial nuclear genomes from two of them.
These hard-won sequences confirmed that indigenous Puerto Ricans were strongly connected to Amazonian groups from Venezuela and Colombia, and likely originated from that region. They also contained genetic evidence connecting pre-colonial populations with modern ones.
The team found that the 45 ancient mitochondrial genomes fell into 29 distinctive clusters. Most of these have never been detected in modern-day people across the Caribbean, and may well have disappeared. But three of them did survive: They’re still around in the genomes of today’s Puerto Ricans, and only in Puerto Ricans.
“We wouldn’t have expected that if the ancient narrative [of extinction] was completely true,” says Nieves-Colón. “These people didn’t disappear.”
“This shows that there really are ties to populations that are indigenous to the island, and survived through colonization, and are present in modern peoples,” adds Benn Torres. “This is something that some people have said all along, based on their oral histories and other ways of knowing.”
Many questions remain. Nieves-Colón wants to work out exactly how much Puerto Rican ancestry comes from precontact predecessors, and whether those groups left traces of ancestry elsewhere in the Caribbean. And “if I had a magic wand, I’d want [ancient] samples from islands all over the Caribbean so we could look at the links between communities,” she says. For example, last year a European team sequenced the genome of a 1,000-year-old female skeleton from the Bahamas and found a connection between her DNA and that of some modern Puerto Ricans; perhaps she represented a cousin of the islanders’ ancestors.
Ironically, the study of ancient DNA has been criticized for practicing a kind of modern colonialism. Many researchers from Western countries have traveled around the world, grabbing as many samples as they can and performing studies without consulting or involving local communities with ties to those remains. In some cases, the studies have been done against the communities’ express wishes. Almost always, they destroy the remains they analyze.
In response, many indigenous scientists and their allies have pushed their peers toward more inclusive and ethical practices, and set up training programs for budding indigenous researchers. Momentum is building, and Nieves-Colón’s study, in which a geneticist studies questions that are relevant to her own identity and community, reflects that shift.
“Thinking about who we are and where we came from: These are questions that run through the discourse of the island,” she says. “They’re personal to me and to most Puerto Ricans.”
Agustín Fuentes, an anthropologist from the University of Notre Dame, also praises the team for placing the genetic results within existing archaeological, historical, and anthropological evidence. “It shows how such studies can be done in collaboration with a range of scholars, including those for the regions of interest, and benefit from it,” he says. “The explicit recognition of narratives and historical perceptions of Puerto Ricans are taken seriously as aspects of data and context, and the genetic material is not held as the ultimate arbiter of ‘reality.’ Such an approach should be a central characteristic of the field.”
Once the study was complete, Nieves-Colón traveled to Puerto Rico to discuss her findings in public talks and help people work out “how to reconcile their own stories with the science,” she says. Some took the results as affirmation of their familial histories, held in the face of prevailing historical narratives. “I don’t want to push for genetic essentialism, but I think it’s rewarding for people who have struggled with that discontinuity to know that there’s a link,” she says. “It’s not the biggest link ever, but it’s there.”
The people of pre-colonial Puerto Rico did not disappear entirely—a new study shows that the island’s residents still carry bits of their DNA.
ED YONG
SEP 18, 2019
In the 15th century, when Europeans first reached the island now named Puerto Rico, it was home to between 30,000 and 70,000 people, sometimes known collectively as Taíno. They came from various ethnic groups descended from several waves of ancestors who came to the island in succession, beginning as early as 3,000 b.c. But a century after the colonizers arrived, official traces of these indigenous peoples were all but impossible to find.
Under a regime of forced relocations, starvation, disease, and slavery, their numbers plummeted. At the same time, colonial officials elided their existence, removing them as a distinct group from the census and recategorizing many—from Christian converts to wives of colonists—as Spanish or “other.”
Those censuses, and other colonial documents, have fueled the common narrative that the indigenous peoples were completely extinguished.
“We’re told our past is a thing that went extinct,” says Maria Nieves-Colón, an anthropological geneticist at Arizona State University. Growing up in Puerto Rico, she heard a different story. Her friends and neighbors would share oral histories about traditions that were passed down to them from Native ancestors, who must somehow have survived to share these customs. In recent years, several groups have pushed a counter-narrative in which indigenous groups were greatly diminished by colonization, but not completely destroyed.
If this were correct, there should be some genetic evidence to back it up. But the only way of finding it would be to examine the DNA of the pre-colonization populations. On this tropical island, ancient DNA, which degrades rapidly in heat and humidity, is hard to come by. But Nieves-Colón has spent the past decade looking for it, and her work backs up the counter-narrative.
There was already some genetic evidence to support the idea of Taíno survival. In 2001, Juan Carlos Martínez-Cruzado of the University of Puerto Rico analyzed modern Puerto Ricans and found substantial amounts of Native American ancestry in their mitochondrial genomes—a subset of DNA that’s inherited from mothers. “The Taíno contribution to the current population is considerable,” he wrote.
But such ancestry can be hard to interpret because European colonizers moved people around. “In contemporary populations, when indigenous ancestry is found, you can only say that it’s indigenous to the Americas,” says Jada Benn Torres of Vanderbilt University, who studies the genetic ancestry of indigenous Caribbean peoples. “It’s hard to pinpoint it to one particular area.” That’s why the ancient DNA is necessary.
Over the past 10 years, Nieves-Colón has been working to wrest tiny fragments of DNA from ancient remains. From three archaeological sites on the island, she and her colleagues acquired 124 skeletal remains, which all dated between a.d. 500 and 1300. They then searched teeth, bones, and dental plaque for genetic fragments—a difficult task, since DNA breaks down quickly and readily in tropical conditions.
Still, the team managed to completely decipher the mitochondrial genomes from 45 precontact people, and partial nuclear genomes from two of them.
These hard-won sequences confirmed that indigenous Puerto Ricans were strongly connected to Amazonian groups from Venezuela and Colombia, and likely originated from that region. They also contained genetic evidence connecting pre-colonial populations with modern ones.
The team found that the 45 ancient mitochondrial genomes fell into 29 distinctive clusters. Most of these have never been detected in modern-day people across the Caribbean, and may well have disappeared. But three of them did survive: They’re still around in the genomes of today’s Puerto Ricans, and only in Puerto Ricans.
“We wouldn’t have expected that if the ancient narrative [of extinction] was completely true,” says Nieves-Colón. “These people didn’t disappear.”
“This shows that there really are ties to populations that are indigenous to the island, and survived through colonization, and are present in modern peoples,” adds Benn Torres. “This is something that some people have said all along, based on their oral histories and other ways of knowing.”
Many questions remain. Nieves-Colón wants to work out exactly how much Puerto Rican ancestry comes from precontact predecessors, and whether those groups left traces of ancestry elsewhere in the Caribbean. And “if I had a magic wand, I’d want [ancient] samples from islands all over the Caribbean so we could look at the links between communities,” she says. For example, last year a European team sequenced the genome of a 1,000-year-old female skeleton from the Bahamas and found a connection between her DNA and that of some modern Puerto Ricans; perhaps she represented a cousin of the islanders’ ancestors.
Ironically, the study of ancient DNA has been criticized for practicing a kind of modern colonialism. Many researchers from Western countries have traveled around the world, grabbing as many samples as they can and performing studies without consulting or involving local communities with ties to those remains. In some cases, the studies have been done against the communities’ express wishes. Almost always, they destroy the remains they analyze.
In response, many indigenous scientists and their allies have pushed their peers toward more inclusive and ethical practices, and set up training programs for budding indigenous researchers. Momentum is building, and Nieves-Colón’s study, in which a geneticist studies questions that are relevant to her own identity and community, reflects that shift.
“Thinking about who we are and where we came from: These are questions that run through the discourse of the island,” she says. “They’re personal to me and to most Puerto Ricans.”
Agustín Fuentes, an anthropologist from the University of Notre Dame, also praises the team for placing the genetic results within existing archaeological, historical, and anthropological evidence. “It shows how such studies can be done in collaboration with a range of scholars, including those for the regions of interest, and benefit from it,” he says. “The explicit recognition of narratives and historical perceptions of Puerto Ricans are taken seriously as aspects of data and context, and the genetic material is not held as the ultimate arbiter of ‘reality.’ Such an approach should be a central characteristic of the field.”
Once the study was complete, Nieves-Colón traveled to Puerto Rico to discuss her findings in public talks and help people work out “how to reconcile their own stories with the science,” she says. Some took the results as affirmation of their familial histories, held in the face of prevailing historical narratives. “I don’t want to push for genetic essentialism, but I think it’s rewarding for people who have struggled with that discontinuity to know that there’s a link,” she says. “It’s not the biggest link ever, but it’s there.”
SABIDURIA: Decolonization Practice
By Latinx Lancaster
January 16, 2019
Talk about decolonization has taken off in certain circles and many of us feel like it's about time before it goes "mainstream". This often means that we lose control of what it means and it becomes totally unrecognizable. I wrote about how there is an important distinction between decolonial practice and reclamation/re-appropriation last year and since then have been critically examining (and re-examining) what that looks like for me. In the last Sabiduria post, I talked about the ways I'm practicing healing and confronting hard-truths myself. Tangentially related is the work I have found myself doing to practice decolonization.
For the past three years I've been attending, on and off, Full Moon ceremonies and drop-in events at Yukayeke Manicato Taíno Cultural Center. I got to know them through the research I conducted while completing my thesis for graduate school and have fallen in love with their mission, drive, and intentions. They are a small non-profit organization second and a family, a tribe, and preservers of Taíno culture. The tribal council consists of Guatu Iri (Behike and Cacike), Jose Nicoari Torres (Sub Cacike and Behike), Tekina Rafael Guamoel Torres, and many others. To learn more about what their positions mean visit this link.
They are located in a row-home on Beaver Street and have a first floor that consists of display cases full of Taíno artifacts and a mural depicting various Taíno figures including my favorite, Atabey. Upstairs is a small library and dioramas of a traditional Taíno community. Out the window you can see the progress being made in the backyard on a replica of a Bohío (hut). They are now working on a craft room on the same floor. On the third floor is the sacred space. There full moon and other important ceremonies are held. The power of the space if palpable. Not just because it is imbued with spirituality, but because the community of Taíno leaders have poured so much love into every aspect of what the physical, spiritual, and emotional space looks like. It's small and nondescript from the outside but holds so much energy it's nearly bursting at the seams.
For my personal journey, I have been regularly visiting because I know I learn and embody thing best when I can research, read, and experience first hand what they are. I have set an intention to connect with and learn more about my indigenous ancestors. With the center I am able to talk with elders who have dedicated their lives to this work and who have made it their mission to share and preserve our history and culture for people just like me.
This has not been easy though. With my religious upbringing, I am constantly fighting the feeling of criticism or guilt that want me to fear or run away from learning more about Taino tradition. And this is a constant reminder that the systematic eradication of our ancestors by colonial murderers is still at work. I imagine Cristobal Colon smiling from his grave as more and more young folks in the diaspora reject learning about or accepting their Taino heritage because it is somehow "unholy" or "sinful". And I imagine a future where we have no idea who we are. This is not the future I want for myself, my future children, or the diaspora.
At the Allied Media Conference, we held a healing circle where we listened to a healer sing Taino songs and perform an unblocking ritual for the Boricuas present. The time I spent in that room and with the people I met there was moving and healing. It was the first time my skin felt the waters of Boriken and the first time I was able to connect deeply with Boricuas from on and off our islands about who we are and what we want. We talked about Re-membering as the act of undoing the dismemberment of colonialism. I see my involvement and learning at Yukayeke Manicato as an extension of this practice.
I want for us to know the following:
We are allowed to and have a right to learn about and invest in our indigenous heritage without feeling as though we are abandoning, disrespecting, or "sinning" against our religious choices.
A religious practice that asks you to abandon your culture or heritage is a colonial practice and is steeped in white supremacy.
Decolonization takes time and repetition.
Decolonization starts with taking active steps toward learning what to unlearn. This work is best with community even if that community is online, small, or fluctuates.
So, for me, I have chosen to continue building community with Yukayeke Manicato. I have chosen to accept that I have so so much learning to do. I have chosen to respect and honor my ancestors recent and long deceased by learning their stories, their metaphors, their wisdom, and their knowledge. So much of this lives in our bones and is just waiting to be awakened. So much of this takes time and looks differently for each of us. It might start with picking up a book or a visit with an elder. Regardless, it has to start somewhere.
Mi gente, Sigue Pa'Lante y siempre with an eye on the past.
New exhibit explores Taíno heritage in the Caribbean
By Alexandra Simon
July 27, 2018
The National Museum of the American Indian is opening a new exhibit about the indigenous Taínos on July 28. The display titled “Taíno: Native Heritage and Identity in the Caribbean,” explores the history of the indigenous peoples before, during, and after European colonization. One of the focal points of the presentation examines the group mostly in parts of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, what makes someone Taíno, and the advocacy for Taíno identity, said the curator.
“We talk about the living legacy of the indigenous people generally and how its in the culture of all Caribbean people regardless of whether or they’re Taíno, because it’s something that’s part of everybody’s legacy,” said Ranald Woodaman. “But we’re also trying to make context for the Taíno movement itself since it emerged around 40 years ago, and a lot of people may not know where it came from.”
The burgeoning movement has inspired an increased interest in revisiting the indigenous heritage of the Caribbean, and with the launch of this exhibit, a lot of pressing questions will be answered, added Woodaman.
“What we’re trying to do is make sense of that to people and show them why and where this movement came from,” he said. “There’s people with these family stories and even though the indigenous history is not always there, we want to try and build context for it so people can understand and are respectful to the movement.”
The multi-room exhibit features images, paintings, artifacts, maps, and even video footage detailing and discussing who are the Taíno, their way of life, and how their customs and traditions still lives on in their descendants and the existing populations in the Caribbean.
One of exhibit’s display showcases the number of foods and crops the Taíno harvested, and how the names of them either stayed the same or evolved with colonization. Such an example is batata, which is a Taíno word for sweet potato, or guayabo, which is now commonly referred to as guava.
Other parts of the exhibit detail the exchanges between indigenous people and Africans, some who came as slaves and others as free people, and how Black Caribs and Garifuna came to be.
While there is a strong focus on indigenous identity in Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Cuba, there is mention of Haiti in particular, which shares the island of Hispaniola with neighboring Dominican Republic. Woodaman says both Haiti and Jamaica also have strong Taíno roots, but their connection to it vastly differs from how Spanish-speaking countries.
“The sugar economy was ramped up in Haiti and Jamaica sooner than the rest of the Spanish- speaking Caribbean and that also meant those places had many more enslaved Africans coming,” said Woodaman.
As a result, their identities leans more towards their African heritage, with several remnants of the Taíno in ancestral and traditional practices.
“In Haiti and Jamaica, there’s a lot of ideas of black nationalism interwoven into their consciousness but the connection is there just not as strong and different,” he said.
“In Jamaica, it’s the Maroons and how they honor those ancestors, and in Haiti, Vodun has Taíno elements and Haiti named itself after the native name of the island.”
Woodaman said the goal of the exhibit was to shed light on the Taíno heritage, the movement that has grown stateside, and how their traditions can help modern times.
“People should come because indigenous knowledge is still valuable to the present and may in fact offer some incredible solutions to the Caribbean, especially when we think about things like post-Maria,” he said.
“Taíno: Native Heritage and Identity in the Caribbean” at National Museum of the American Indian [1 Bowling Green at State Street in Financial District, (212) 514-3700, www.nmai.si.edu]. On display July 28 through Oct. 2019.
By Alexandra Simon
July 27, 2018
The National Museum of the American Indian is opening a new exhibit about the indigenous Taínos on July 28. The display titled “Taíno: Native Heritage and Identity in the Caribbean,” explores the history of the indigenous peoples before, during, and after European colonization. One of the focal points of the presentation examines the group mostly in parts of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, what makes someone Taíno, and the advocacy for Taíno identity, said the curator.
“We talk about the living legacy of the indigenous people generally and how its in the culture of all Caribbean people regardless of whether or they’re Taíno, because it’s something that’s part of everybody’s legacy,” said Ranald Woodaman. “But we’re also trying to make context for the Taíno movement itself since it emerged around 40 years ago, and a lot of people may not know where it came from.”
The burgeoning movement has inspired an increased interest in revisiting the indigenous heritage of the Caribbean, and with the launch of this exhibit, a lot of pressing questions will be answered, added Woodaman.
“What we’re trying to do is make sense of that to people and show them why and where this movement came from,” he said. “There’s people with these family stories and even though the indigenous history is not always there, we want to try and build context for it so people can understand and are respectful to the movement.”
The multi-room exhibit features images, paintings, artifacts, maps, and even video footage detailing and discussing who are the Taíno, their way of life, and how their customs and traditions still lives on in their descendants and the existing populations in the Caribbean.
One of exhibit’s display showcases the number of foods and crops the Taíno harvested, and how the names of them either stayed the same or evolved with colonization. Such an example is batata, which is a Taíno word for sweet potato, or guayabo, which is now commonly referred to as guava.
Other parts of the exhibit detail the exchanges between indigenous people and Africans, some who came as slaves and others as free people, and how Black Caribs and Garifuna came to be.
While there is a strong focus on indigenous identity in Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Cuba, there is mention of Haiti in particular, which shares the island of Hispaniola with neighboring Dominican Republic. Woodaman says both Haiti and Jamaica also have strong Taíno roots, but their connection to it vastly differs from how Spanish-speaking countries.
“The sugar economy was ramped up in Haiti and Jamaica sooner than the rest of the Spanish- speaking Caribbean and that also meant those places had many more enslaved Africans coming,” said Woodaman.
As a result, their identities leans more towards their African heritage, with several remnants of the Taíno in ancestral and traditional practices.
“In Haiti and Jamaica, there’s a lot of ideas of black nationalism interwoven into their consciousness but the connection is there just not as strong and different,” he said.
“In Jamaica, it’s the Maroons and how they honor those ancestors, and in Haiti, Vodun has Taíno elements and Haiti named itself after the native name of the island.”
Woodaman said the goal of the exhibit was to shed light on the Taíno heritage, the movement that has grown stateside, and how their traditions can help modern times.
“People should come because indigenous knowledge is still valuable to the present and may in fact offer some incredible solutions to the Caribbean, especially when we think about things like post-Maria,” he said.
“Taíno: Native Heritage and Identity in the Caribbean” at National Museum of the American Indian [1 Bowling Green at State Street in Financial District, (212) 514-3700, www.nmai.si.edu]. On display July 28 through Oct. 2019.
Archaeologists say early Caribbeans were not 'savage cannibals', as colonists wrote
Researchers in Antigua hope to correct ‘speculative and erroneous’ colonial accounts that depict the Carib people as ferocious man-eaters
Gemma Handy
Tue 24 Apr 2018
For centuries, historians held that the Caribbean’s earliest inhabitants were peaceful farmers who were wiped out by the ferocious man-eating Carib people. But archaeologists in Antigua say new evidence from one of the most important sites in the region is helping to correct “speculative and erroneous” accounts passed down from early colonists.The excavation at a 12-acre site in Indian Creek has prompted a reassessment of older narratives, said Dr Reg Murphy, who is leading a team from Syracuse University, Farmingdale State College and Brooklyn College.
Colonial-era historians said that the Arawak people were exterminated in about 1300 AD by the Caribs, who were demonized as man-eaters – and then themselves displaced – by the first European settlers .
“We hope to reevaluate those long-held assumptions,” said Murphy. “From analysing their diet we have found no evidence that Caribs ever ate humans.”
The site is one of few known to have supported every age of mankind from the Arawaks to the present day.
“We think Amerindians migrated up the smaller islands like Antigua, then separated out when they reached bigger islands like Puerto Rico,” he said. “But was there one culture or a multitude of cultures? That’s one of the questions we hope to answer.”
The area closest to the rugged road linking Indian Creek to the tourist hub of English Harbour reveals scattered fragments of Wedgwood and Delftware china from 18th-century colonists. Further into the thorny thickets, these are replaced by much older remains of clay serving bowls and flint tools.
“You can often tell the function by looking at the form,” Murphy said, picking up a blue-coloured scrap. “This has a folded rim, indicating the period from around 200BC to 600AD, and this might have been a griddle for making cassava bread.”
The former cotton fields of Indian Creek were first excavated by a team from Yale University in the 1960's, but since then, technology has evolved greatly to include methods like aerial imaging, electronic surveying and electron microscopes.
“The Yale study looked at pottery and charcoal to determine the era and the migration sequence only,” Murphy said. “Ours is much more intensive: we are scrutinizing tiny bones, pollen and microflakes. We’re interested in food remains, the people themselves, their craftsmanship, their health.”
Once so ruinous for colonial-era sugar cultivation, the site’s barren, infertile environment has become archaeologists’ boon.
“The land was so hostile it wasn’t used for sugar for long. They never used any big ploughs, so it’s still largely intact,” said Murphy.
A lingering mystery is why – despite the harsh terrain – traditionally migratory Amerindians stayed living at the site for almost 2,000 years.
“The site is a long way from the waterfront and the marine resources on which they were completely dependent,” said Murphy. “We don’t know what was so special about here, or how they could have survived in this scrubby area.”
Still, much can be gleaned about their day-to-day existence by scrutinizing microscopic scratches on excavated tools. Residues of foods such as fish and corn have also contributed valuable information about Amerindians’ diet.
It is the Caribs who are of particular interest to Murphy’s assistant Carlyn Valmond, who is of Carib – or “Kalinago” – descent herself.
“I started studying the Caribs because I couldn’t believe the history I was reading,” she said. “We have learned that far from being cannibals, they largely lived on shell animals and fish.”
The image of the Caribs as savage cannibals is entirely based on colonial accounts, said Murphy. “We know nothing about them except what the Europeans told us – and they had their own agenda,” he said.
“We, as descendants of slavery, have only been in Antigua since the 1630's, but there were people here for thousands of years before us – people who have no voice. It’s up to us to tell their story.”
Researchers in Antigua hope to correct ‘speculative and erroneous’ colonial accounts that depict the Carib people as ferocious man-eaters
Gemma Handy
Tue 24 Apr 2018
For centuries, historians held that the Caribbean’s earliest inhabitants were peaceful farmers who were wiped out by the ferocious man-eating Carib people. But archaeologists in Antigua say new evidence from one of the most important sites in the region is helping to correct “speculative and erroneous” accounts passed down from early colonists.The excavation at a 12-acre site in Indian Creek has prompted a reassessment of older narratives, said Dr Reg Murphy, who is leading a team from Syracuse University, Farmingdale State College and Brooklyn College.
Colonial-era historians said that the Arawak people were exterminated in about 1300 AD by the Caribs, who were demonized as man-eaters – and then themselves displaced – by the first European settlers .
“We hope to reevaluate those long-held assumptions,” said Murphy. “From analysing their diet we have found no evidence that Caribs ever ate humans.”
The site is one of few known to have supported every age of mankind from the Arawaks to the present day.
“We think Amerindians migrated up the smaller islands like Antigua, then separated out when they reached bigger islands like Puerto Rico,” he said. “But was there one culture or a multitude of cultures? That’s one of the questions we hope to answer.”
The area closest to the rugged road linking Indian Creek to the tourist hub of English Harbour reveals scattered fragments of Wedgwood and Delftware china from 18th-century colonists. Further into the thorny thickets, these are replaced by much older remains of clay serving bowls and flint tools.
“You can often tell the function by looking at the form,” Murphy said, picking up a blue-coloured scrap. “This has a folded rim, indicating the period from around 200BC to 600AD, and this might have been a griddle for making cassava bread.”
The former cotton fields of Indian Creek were first excavated by a team from Yale University in the 1960's, but since then, technology has evolved greatly to include methods like aerial imaging, electronic surveying and electron microscopes.
“The Yale study looked at pottery and charcoal to determine the era and the migration sequence only,” Murphy said. “Ours is much more intensive: we are scrutinizing tiny bones, pollen and microflakes. We’re interested in food remains, the people themselves, their craftsmanship, their health.”
Once so ruinous for colonial-era sugar cultivation, the site’s barren, infertile environment has become archaeologists’ boon.
“The land was so hostile it wasn’t used for sugar for long. They never used any big ploughs, so it’s still largely intact,” said Murphy.
A lingering mystery is why – despite the harsh terrain – traditionally migratory Amerindians stayed living at the site for almost 2,000 years.
“The site is a long way from the waterfront and the marine resources on which they were completely dependent,” said Murphy. “We don’t know what was so special about here, or how they could have survived in this scrubby area.”
Still, much can be gleaned about their day-to-day existence by scrutinizing microscopic scratches on excavated tools. Residues of foods such as fish and corn have also contributed valuable information about Amerindians’ diet.
It is the Caribs who are of particular interest to Murphy’s assistant Carlyn Valmond, who is of Carib – or “Kalinago” – descent herself.
“I started studying the Caribs because I couldn’t believe the history I was reading,” she said. “We have learned that far from being cannibals, they largely lived on shell animals and fish.”
The image of the Caribs as savage cannibals is entirely based on colonial accounts, said Murphy. “We know nothing about them except what the Europeans told us – and they had their own agenda,” he said.
“We, as descendants of slavery, have only been in Antigua since the 1630's, but there were people here for thousands of years before us – people who have no voice. It’s up to us to tell their story.”
Las imágenes pintadas en las cuevas datan, al menos, del año 400 antes de Cristo y se extienden hasta el siglo 18
4 de marzo de 2018
Por Gerardo E. Alvarado León
El estudio más abarcador hasta la fecha sobre la temporalidad del arte rupestre en Puerto Rico reveló que este tipo de expresión cultural empezó antes de lo pensado históricamente y permaneció mucho tiempo después.
En concreto, se halló que la actividad humana sobre las paredes de las cuevas de la isla se remonta, al menos, al año 400 antes de Cristo y trasciende el período colonial hasta el siglo 18, lo que reflejaría una presencia prolongada de grupos indígenas.
El estudio, liderado por el arqueólogo Reniel Rodríguez, de la Universidad de Puerto Rico (UPR) en Utuado, analizó seis cuevas ubicadas en Morovis, Arecibo, Utuado y Juana Díaz. Se tomaron muestras y fecharon 30 pictografías o imágenes pintadas en las paredes de las cuevas.
Los petroglifos o imágenes talladas en las paredes de las cuevas, que son la otra representación más conocida del arte rupestre, no fueron parte del estudio.
Metodología
Rodríguez indicó que, en Puerto Rico, existían “algunas ideas” en cuanto a la antigüedad del arte rupestre, pero se basaban en métodos que no necesariamente permitían asignarle una “fecha calendárica”.
“Por eso, este estudio contempló hacer un análisis cronométrico (de medida de tiempo) de la distribución del arte rupestre en la isla. Quería evaluar la hipótesis de que el arte rupestre había iniciado en el año 600 después de Cristo, por grupos pretaínos, que empezaron con manifestaciones incipientes hasta llegar a las más complejas que se ven, por ejemplo, en el Centro Ceremonial de Caguana”, dijo a El Nuevo Día.
Por tratarse de un estudio “invasivo”, Rodríguez y su equipo de trabajo colectaron “la menor cantidad posible” de pigmento (uno a dos miligramos por imagen). Cada pictografía se retrató antes y después de la extracción de la muestra, para “ubicar con exactitud” el área impactada y su forma original y remanente.
4 de marzo de 2018
Por Gerardo E. Alvarado León
El estudio más abarcador hasta la fecha sobre la temporalidad del arte rupestre en Puerto Rico reveló que este tipo de expresión cultural empezó antes de lo pensado históricamente y permaneció mucho tiempo después.
En concreto, se halló que la actividad humana sobre las paredes de las cuevas de la isla se remonta, al menos, al año 400 antes de Cristo y trasciende el período colonial hasta el siglo 18, lo que reflejaría una presencia prolongada de grupos indígenas.
El estudio, liderado por el arqueólogo Reniel Rodríguez, de la Universidad de Puerto Rico (UPR) en Utuado, analizó seis cuevas ubicadas en Morovis, Arecibo, Utuado y Juana Díaz. Se tomaron muestras y fecharon 30 pictografías o imágenes pintadas en las paredes de las cuevas.
Los petroglifos o imágenes talladas en las paredes de las cuevas, que son la otra representación más conocida del arte rupestre, no fueron parte del estudio.
Metodología
Rodríguez indicó que, en Puerto Rico, existían “algunas ideas” en cuanto a la antigüedad del arte rupestre, pero se basaban en métodos que no necesariamente permitían asignarle una “fecha calendárica”.
“Por eso, este estudio contempló hacer un análisis cronométrico (de medida de tiempo) de la distribución del arte rupestre en la isla. Quería evaluar la hipótesis de que el arte rupestre había iniciado en el año 600 después de Cristo, por grupos pretaínos, que empezaron con manifestaciones incipientes hasta llegar a las más complejas que se ven, por ejemplo, en el Centro Ceremonial de Caguana”, dijo a El Nuevo Día.
Por tratarse de un estudio “invasivo”, Rodríguez y su equipo de trabajo colectaron “la menor cantidad posible” de pigmento (uno a dos miligramos por imagen). Cada pictografía se retrató antes y después de la extracción de la muestra, para “ubicar con exactitud” el área impactada y su forma original y remanente.
Genes of ‘extinct’ Caribbean islanders found in living people
By Lizzie Wade
Feb. 19, 2018
Jorge Estevez grew up in the Dominican Republic and New York City hearing stories about his native Caribbean ancestors from his mother and grandmother. But when he told his teachers that he is Taino, an indigenous Caribbean, they said that was impossible. “According to Spanish accounts, we went extinct 30 years after [European] contact,” says Estevez, an expert on Taino cultures at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, who is based in New York City.
Many scientists and historians continue to believe the Taíno were wiped out by disease, slavery, and other brutal consequences of European colonization without passing down any genes to people in the Caribbean today. But a new genetic study of a 1000-year-old skeleton from the Bahamas shows that at least one modern Caribbean population is related to the region’s precontact indigenous people, offering direct molecular evidence against the idea of Taino “extinction.”
“These indigenous communities were written out of history,” says Jada Benn Torres, a genetic anthropologist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville who studies the Caribbean’s population history and has worked with native groups on several islands. “They are adamant about their continuous existence, that they’ve always been [on these islands],” she says. “So to see it reflected in the ancient DNA, it’s great.”
The skeletal remains come from a site called Preacher’s Cave on Eleuthera, an island in the Bahamas. Archaeologists began excavating there in the early 2000s to probe the Bahamas’ first European arrivals: Puritans who took refuge in the cave after a shipwreck. As they dug, they also found older artifacts associated with the island’s precontact indigenous culture, including a handful of well-preserved burials.
At the time, Hannes Schroeder, an ancient DNA researcher at the Natural History Museum of Denmark and the University of Copenhagen, was on the lookout for skeletons from the Caribbean he could test for DNA—even though he knew success was a long shot. DNA deteriorates faster in hot, humid environments than it does in cold, dry ones. Hunting for ancient DNA in the Caribbean “was uncharted waters,” he says. He tested teeth from five of the Preacher’s Cave burials, and in the end just one had DNA intact enough to sequence. But by the standards of ancient DNA from the tropics, that tooth was a bonanza.
It belonged to a woman who lived about 1000 years ago, according to radiocarbon dating. Schroeder’s team sequenced each nucleotide base of her genome an average of 12.4 times, providing the most complete genetic picture of a precontact Taino individual to date, they report this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “It’s a feat of working with tropical samples,” says Maria Nieves-Colón, a geneticist who studies ancient and modern Caribbean populations at the National Laboratory of Genomics for Biodiversity in Irapuato, Mexico, and at Arizona State University in Tempe.
The Taino woman’s DNA shores up archaeological evidence about her ancestors and her culture. When Schroeder’s team compared her genome to those of other Native American groups, they found she was most closely related to speakers of Arawakan languages in northern South America. Early Caribbean ceramics and tools are strikingly similar to ones found in excavations there, archaeologists have long argued.
The two lines of evidence suggest that about 2500 years ago, the woman’s ancestors migrated from the northern coast of South America into the Caribbean, rather than reaching the islands via the Yucatán Peninsula or Florida. It seems that once people arrived, they didn’t stay put. Archaeologists know that ceramics and other goods were traded between islands, indicating frequent trips. Moreover, the Taino woman’s genome doesn’t contain long repetitive sequences characteristic of inbred populations. Her community, therefore, was likely spread out across many islands and not confined to 500-square-kilometer Eleuthera. “It looks like an interconnected network of people exchanging goods, services, and genes,” says William Schaffer, a bioarchaeologist at Phoenix College who helped excavate the remains in Preacher’s Cave.
Genetic studies of modern populations have found that many people from Puerto Rico, Cuba, and several other Caribbean islands carry significant indigenous ancestry, in addition to genes inherited from European and African populations. Still, it’s possible that these living people descend not from the Taino, but rather from other Native Americans who, like many Africans, were forcibly brought to the islands as slaves. But when Schroeder compared the genomes of modern Puerto Ricans to the ancient Taino woman’s genome, he concluded that they descend in part from an indigenous population closely related to hers. “It’s almost like the ancient Taino individual they’re looking at is the cousin of the ancestors of people from Puerto Rico,” Nieves-Colón says. Growing up in Puerto Rico, she, like Estevez, was always told that the Taino died out. “You know what? These people didn’t disappear. In fact, they’re still here. They’re in us.”
Estevez, who founded the cultural organization Higuayagua Taíno of the Caribbean, didn’t need an ancient DNA study to tell him who he is. Thanks to his family’s oral history and cultural practices, he says, he has always had a strong connection to his indigenous ancestry. But he hopes the new study will convince skeptics that Taino people are alive and kicking. “It’s another nail in the extinction coffin,” he says.
Posted in: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/02/genes-extinct-caribbean-islanders-found-living-people
By Lizzie Wade
Feb. 19, 2018
Jorge Estevez grew up in the Dominican Republic and New York City hearing stories about his native Caribbean ancestors from his mother and grandmother. But when he told his teachers that he is Taino, an indigenous Caribbean, they said that was impossible. “According to Spanish accounts, we went extinct 30 years after [European] contact,” says Estevez, an expert on Taino cultures at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, who is based in New York City.
Many scientists and historians continue to believe the Taíno were wiped out by disease, slavery, and other brutal consequences of European colonization without passing down any genes to people in the Caribbean today. But a new genetic study of a 1000-year-old skeleton from the Bahamas shows that at least one modern Caribbean population is related to the region’s precontact indigenous people, offering direct molecular evidence against the idea of Taino “extinction.”
“These indigenous communities were written out of history,” says Jada Benn Torres, a genetic anthropologist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville who studies the Caribbean’s population history and has worked with native groups on several islands. “They are adamant about their continuous existence, that they’ve always been [on these islands],” she says. “So to see it reflected in the ancient DNA, it’s great.”
The skeletal remains come from a site called Preacher’s Cave on Eleuthera, an island in the Bahamas. Archaeologists began excavating there in the early 2000s to probe the Bahamas’ first European arrivals: Puritans who took refuge in the cave after a shipwreck. As they dug, they also found older artifacts associated with the island’s precontact indigenous culture, including a handful of well-preserved burials.
At the time, Hannes Schroeder, an ancient DNA researcher at the Natural History Museum of Denmark and the University of Copenhagen, was on the lookout for skeletons from the Caribbean he could test for DNA—even though he knew success was a long shot. DNA deteriorates faster in hot, humid environments than it does in cold, dry ones. Hunting for ancient DNA in the Caribbean “was uncharted waters,” he says. He tested teeth from five of the Preacher’s Cave burials, and in the end just one had DNA intact enough to sequence. But by the standards of ancient DNA from the tropics, that tooth was a bonanza.
It belonged to a woman who lived about 1000 years ago, according to radiocarbon dating. Schroeder’s team sequenced each nucleotide base of her genome an average of 12.4 times, providing the most complete genetic picture of a precontact Taino individual to date, they report this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “It’s a feat of working with tropical samples,” says Maria Nieves-Colón, a geneticist who studies ancient and modern Caribbean populations at the National Laboratory of Genomics for Biodiversity in Irapuato, Mexico, and at Arizona State University in Tempe.
The Taino woman’s DNA shores up archaeological evidence about her ancestors and her culture. When Schroeder’s team compared her genome to those of other Native American groups, they found she was most closely related to speakers of Arawakan languages in northern South America. Early Caribbean ceramics and tools are strikingly similar to ones found in excavations there, archaeologists have long argued.
The two lines of evidence suggest that about 2500 years ago, the woman’s ancestors migrated from the northern coast of South America into the Caribbean, rather than reaching the islands via the Yucatán Peninsula or Florida. It seems that once people arrived, they didn’t stay put. Archaeologists know that ceramics and other goods were traded between islands, indicating frequent trips. Moreover, the Taino woman’s genome doesn’t contain long repetitive sequences characteristic of inbred populations. Her community, therefore, was likely spread out across many islands and not confined to 500-square-kilometer Eleuthera. “It looks like an interconnected network of people exchanging goods, services, and genes,” says William Schaffer, a bioarchaeologist at Phoenix College who helped excavate the remains in Preacher’s Cave.
Genetic studies of modern populations have found that many people from Puerto Rico, Cuba, and several other Caribbean islands carry significant indigenous ancestry, in addition to genes inherited from European and African populations. Still, it’s possible that these living people descend not from the Taino, but rather from other Native Americans who, like many Africans, were forcibly brought to the islands as slaves. But when Schroeder compared the genomes of modern Puerto Ricans to the ancient Taino woman’s genome, he concluded that they descend in part from an indigenous population closely related to hers. “It’s almost like the ancient Taino individual they’re looking at is the cousin of the ancestors of people from Puerto Rico,” Nieves-Colón says. Growing up in Puerto Rico, she, like Estevez, was always told that the Taino died out. “You know what? These people didn’t disappear. In fact, they’re still here. They’re in us.”
Estevez, who founded the cultural organization Higuayagua Taíno of the Caribbean, didn’t need an ancient DNA study to tell him who he is. Thanks to his family’s oral history and cultural practices, he says, he has always had a strong connection to his indigenous ancestry. But he hopes the new study will convince skeptics that Taino people are alive and kicking. “It’s another nail in the extinction coffin,” he says.
Posted in: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/02/genes-extinct-caribbean-islanders-found-living-people
Native American Calling Radio Show Interviews Taínos
On November 2, 2017 Taínos across the United States were interviewed by the radio show Native American Calling regarding the current situation in Boriken (Puerto Rico) and the plight of Taínos more than a month after Hurricane Maria devastates the island.
Guests:
Rafael "Guamoel" Torres (Taíno) – spokesperson for the Manicato Taíno Cultural Center of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Roberto "Mukaro" Borrero (Taíno Nation) – programs and communications coordinator for the International Indian Treaty Council and UTCP
Joanne Nani Lewis (Taíno) – Jaguars warriors of Bohio Atabey
Break Music: Taino-Arawak Welcome Song (song) Joan Henry (artist) Kanogisgi – Song-Carrier (album)
WEBSITE: http://www.nativeamericacalling.com/
On November 2, 2017 Taínos across the United States were interviewed by the radio show Native American Calling regarding the current situation in Boriken (Puerto Rico) and the plight of Taínos more than a month after Hurricane Maria devastates the island.
Guests:
Rafael "Guamoel" Torres (Taíno) – spokesperson for the Manicato Taíno Cultural Center of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Roberto "Mukaro" Borrero (Taíno Nation) – programs and communications coordinator for the International Indian Treaty Council and UTCP
Joanne Nani Lewis (Taíno) – Jaguars warriors of Bohio Atabey
Break Music: Taino-Arawak Welcome Song (song) Joan Henry (artist) Kanogisgi – Song-Carrier (album)
WEBSITE: http://www.nativeamericacalling.com/
Taíno Cave Art Has Been Discovered on Mona Puerto Rico
MIKE MCRAE 31 OCT 2017
Thousands of art pieces produced by a vanished civilization have been uncovered on a Caribbean island, shining a light on a long-lost culture from the days before Europeans arrived.
The mix of faces, hybrid human-animal beings, and complex geometric designs marking the walls of Mona Island's caves has revealed details about the beliefs and lifestyle of a people whom Columbus mistook for Indians, helping their descendants connect with a history buried by time.
Mona Island is a 57 square kilometre (22 square mile) crop of uninhabited limestone and wilderness a little to the west of Puerto Rico.
Today it's a nature reserve. Wind back the clock five centuries, and it was thriving with an indigenous population who would soon be invaded by the violence and illnesses of the outside world.
The descendants of the Taíno live on, but their historians have been left to pull what they can from the Caribbean's archaeology to develop an understanding of their practices and beliefs from the days before European contact.
Fortunately, the Taíno of Mona Island literally left their mark on the walls of the island's caves, painting and scraping images into the limestone.
While examples of the artwork were already known to archaeologists, the astonishing preservation of many of the pieces had led researchers to mistaken their age.
Their uniqueness has also led anthropologists to question their connection with the island's indigenous cultures.
Researchers have now pushed deeper in some 70 caves on Mona Island, uncovering thousands of additional pieces in the gloomy depths of just under half of them.
"Most of the precolonial pictographs are in very narrow spaces deep in the caves," says Victor Serrano from the University of Leicester, a student working with the researchers in the field.
It mightn't be a coincidence that the highest concentration of pre-Columbus cave art was found in some tight spots inside one of the densest networks of caves in the Caribbean.
"For the millions of indigenous peoples living in the Caribbean before European arrival, caves represented portals into a spiritual realm, and therefore these new discoveries of the artists at work within them captures, the essence of their belief systems and the building blocks of their cultural identity," says researcher Jago Cooper from the British Museum.
Caves are significant features of Taíno religion and mythology, with the Sun and Moon emerging from underground.
Not only do the swirling patterns and monstrous hybrid forms provide hints on the religious and supernatural beliefs of this particular Taíno population, the techniques behind their construction contain valuable information.
Most of the images were described as extractive, formed used tools or even fingers to remove the rock's dark patina and reveal the lighter layers beneath.
But a few were paintings or drawings, made charcoal or bat guano which had been mixed with plant resins and had slowly absorbed dustings of pigment from the cave's floor.
Paintings were found to be created in stages, either by adding new details or touching up faded imagery.
Importantly, the artwork was confirmed to date back to the centuries prior to European contact, affirming that while the technology and iconography stood out as different in the region, it was certainly pre-Columbian Taíno in origin.
Such rich galleries of art inside a unique network of caves makes it easy to imagine that Mona Island was a sacred destination in the Caribbean at the time of Columbus's arrival.
Not only is this research an academic win, it is important for modern families who connect with Taíno culture to develop a richer understanding of their ancestral past.
"As a Puerto Rican these groups of people that visited and lived in Mona Island are my ancestors, and their story is of utmost importance," says Serrano.
The Taíno introduced the world to foods like sweet potato, corn, and pineapple. Their words – such as hurricane, canoe, and tobacco – live on in modern languages.
Research such as this provides important insights into a people who influenced the world in such a short time before their culture was wiped from history.
This research was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.
Indigenous Peoples Week Announced
October 10, 2017 - Lancaster Pennsylvania becomes the first city in the United States to unanimously declare, through its city council, the first week of October as Indigenous Peoples Week.
Several dozen Native Americans and their supporters gave City Council a standing ovation after it moved and seconded a resolution to establish the first week of October, retroactively, as Indigenous Peoples Week in Lancaster.
It's all in an effort to honor Native Americans.
The goal of the resolution is to celebrate the contributions of indigenous people and teach others about their culture.
Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/lancaster-city-declares-indigenous-peoples-week/article_742b18fe-ae34-11e7-a757-43e5f95660d3.html
October 10, 2017 - Lancaster Pennsylvania becomes the first city in the United States to unanimously declare, through its city council, the first week of October as Indigenous Peoples Week.
Several dozen Native Americans and their supporters gave City Council a standing ovation after it moved and seconded a resolution to establish the first week of October, retroactively, as Indigenous Peoples Week in Lancaster.
It's all in an effort to honor Native Americans.
The goal of the resolution is to celebrate the contributions of indigenous people and teach others about their culture.
Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/lancaster-city-declares-indigenous-peoples-week/article_742b18fe-ae34-11e7-a757-43e5f95660d3.html
Yukayeke Manicato is officially recognized by Lancaster Pennsylvania as Adopt The Block sponsor
Lancaster, PA - The city of Lancaster Pennsylvania erected two signs on the 300 block of Beaver Street recognizing Yukayeke Manicato as Adopt The Block sponsors.
For the past eight years, Yukayeke Manicato has volunteered to clean up the block surrounding the Manicato Taíno Cultural Center through its initiative called Atabey (Mother Earth) 360.
Yukayeke Manicato recognizes Atabey 360 founder Toa Kao for her initiative to create awareness in maintaining our neighborhoods clean of debris.
Lancaster, PA - The city of Lancaster Pennsylvania erected two signs on the 300 block of Beaver Street recognizing Yukayeke Manicato as Adopt The Block sponsors.
For the past eight years, Yukayeke Manicato has volunteered to clean up the block surrounding the Manicato Taíno Cultural Center through its initiative called Atabey (Mother Earth) 360.
Yukayeke Manicato recognizes Atabey 360 founder Toa Kao for her initiative to create awareness in maintaining our neighborhoods clean of debris.
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