Puerto Rico: San Juan, Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico is a tropical island ecosystem that is the eastermost and smallest of the Greater Antilles. Puerto Rico was founded in 1492 by

Chritstopher Columbus, naming it San Juan Bautista. The Tainos, were the indigenous inhabitants, before Columbus discovered this valuable island. The word "Taino" comes directly from Columbus which means "good" or "noble," to distinguish themselves from Island-Caribs. The Tainos were believed to be part of the migration from Northern South America. The Tainos were Amerindians who were diminished when the Europeans arrived due to diseases and intolerable treatment given by the Spaniards. By the 16th century the Tainos as a name

were almost non-existent.

The Tainos were fishermen, farmers, or hunters. Their main sources of food focused on vegetables, meat, and fish. Tainos would eat small animals for instance; bats, earthworms, and turtles. They grew maize, squash, beans, and tobacco. The Tainos didn't acquire a written language but it's evident that they spoke a form of Arawak and used words like: tabaco (tobacco) and Huracan (hurricane). They functioned in a hierachial society. The Tainos were divided into three social classes: "nytainos" upper class, "naborias" laborers, "bohique" priest or medicine man. The Taino women were in charge of agricultural responsiblites and artificer jobs. The women could also become chiefs. They lived in towns called "yucayeques," each had its own chief.

The Tainos believed in a pantheon of gods headed by Yuchahu' whose counterpart was Jurac'an. They believed that the souls of the dead go to the underworld, and when night comes they take form of bats and eat fruit "guayaba". Also anthroplolgists emphasize on the fact that some or all of the Petwo Voodoo rites may have origin in Taino religion. The Tainos traditional background which embellished their festivity were held at the "areyto" which is a ritual dance for celebrating an event and transpiring beliefs within the group. Tainos would induce vomiting with a swallowing stick to serve as a physical and symbolic purging to get rid of the impurties of the body. There is an abudant amount of myths referring to the Taino's religious beliefs but the myth that was most intriguing to me was the one the Taino origin of the sea: A father found out that his son wanted to kill him so he killed his son and put the bones in a gourd. The son's bones turned into a fish and the gourd broke one day which so much water came out of it that it covered the whole earth with fish of all sizes. Today many people are trying to get recognition of being descendants of the Taino especially Puerto Ricans. The United Confederation of Taino People was established to review these many allegations.