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Taíno Mythology
The Taíno were a historic indigenous people of the Caribbean whose culture has been continued today by Taíno descendant communities and Taíno revivalist communities. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of what is now Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Haiti, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and the northern Lesser Antilles. The Lucayan branch of the Taíno were the first New World peoples encountered by Christopher Columbus, in the Bahama Archipelago on October 12, 1492. The Taíno 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 claimed that the Taíno were exterminated centuries ago or they gradually went extinct by blending into a shared identity with African and Spanish cultures. However, many p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agüeybaná El Bravo (statue)
''Agüeybaná El Bravo'' is a stone statue to the memory of Agüeybaná II, the last Taíno cacique in Puerto Rico, for his bravery in fighting the Spanish invaders during the sixteenth century. It is located at Plaza Agüeybaná El Bravo in Barrio Playa, at the southeast corner of the intersection of PR-2/Ponce Bypass and Avenida Hostos, just south of sector Caracoles in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Background Agüeybaná El Bravo (English: Agüeybaná The Brave) . 14701511 also known as Agüeybaná II, was one of the two principal and most powerful ''caciques'' of the Taíno people in " Borikén" when the Spaniards first arrived in Puerto Rico on 19 November 1493. Agüeybaná II led the Taínos of Puerto Rico in the Battle of Yagüecas, also known as the " Taíno rebellion of 1511" against Juan Ponce de León and the Spanish Conquistadors. It was the last Taíno rebellion against the Spanish Conquistadores, and Agüeybaná II was killed during the battle. In a show of solidarity w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indigenous Peoples Of The Caribbean
At the time of first contact between Europe and the Americas, the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean included the Taíno of the northern Lesser Antilles, most of the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas, the Kalinago of the Lesser Antilles, the Ciguayo and Macorix of parts of Hispaniola, and the Guanahatabey of western Cuba. The Kalinago have maintained an identity as an indigenous people, with a reserved territory in Dominica. Introduction Some scholars consider it important to distinguish the Taíno from the neo-Taíno nations of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Hispaniola, and the Lucayan of the Bahamas and Jamaica. Linguistically or culturally these differences extended from various cognates or types of canoe: canoa, piragua, cayuco to distinct languages. Languages diverged even over short distances. Previously these groups often had distinctly non-Taíno deities such as the goddess Jagua, strangely enough the god Teju Jagua is a major demon of indigenous Paraguayan mythology. Stil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is only a small portion of the DNA in a eukaryotic cell; most of the DNA can be found in the cell nucleus and, in plants and algae, also in plastids such as chloroplasts. Human mitochondrial DNA was the first significant part of the human genome to be sequenced. This sequencing revealed that the human mtDNA includes 16,569 base pairs and encodes 13 proteins. Since animal mtDNA evolves faster than nuclear genetic markers, it represents a mainstay of phylogenetics and evolutionary biology. It also permits an examination of the relatedness of populations, and so has become important in anthropology and biogeography. Origin Nuclear and mitochondrial DNA are thought to be of separate evolutionary origin, with the mtDNA being derived ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
People Of The Dominican Republic
Dominicans ( es, Dominicanos, links=no) are the citizens of Dominican Republic and their descendants in the diaspora. Dominican is historically the name for the inhabitants of the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo, the site of the first Spanish settlement in the Western Hemisphere. The origins of the Dominican Republic, its people and culture consist predominantly in a European basis, with Native Taíno and African influences. The majority of Dominicans reside in the Dominican Republic, while there is also a large Dominican diaspora, mainly in the United States and Spain. The total population of the Dominican Republic in 2016 was estimated by the National Bureau of Statistics of the Dominican Republic at 10.2 million, with 9.3 million of those being natives of the country, and the rest being of foreign origin. The country has a right of blood citizenship law. Name Historically the Dominican Republic was known as Santo Domingo, the name of its present capital and its patron ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cubans
Cubans ( es, Cubanos) are people born in Cuba and people with Cuban citizenship. Cuba is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic, religious and national backgrounds. Racial and ethnic groups Census The population of Cuba was 11,167,325 inhabitants in 2012. The largest urban populations of Cubans in Cuba (2012) are to be found in Havana (2,106,146), Santiago de Cuba (506,037), Holguín (346,195), Camagüey (323,309), Santa Clara (240,543) and Guantánamo (228,436). According to Cuba's Oficina Nacional de Estadisticas ONE 2012 Census, the population was 11,167,325 including: 5,570,825 men and 5,596,500 women. Source. European In the 2012 Census of Cuba, 64.1% of the inhabitants self-identified as white. Based on genetic testing (2014) in Cuba, the average European, African and Native American ancestry in those auto-reporting to be white were 86%, 6.7%, and 7.8%. The majority of the European ancestry comes from Spain. During the 18th, 19th and early par ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Puerto Ricans
Puerto Ricans ( es, Puertorriqueños; or boricuas) are the people of Puerto Rico, the inhabitants, and citizens of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and their descendants. Overview The culture held in common by most Puerto Ricans is referred to as a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of Spain, and more specifically Andalusia and the Canary Islands. Puerto Rico has also received immigration from other parts of Spain such as Catalonia as well as from other European countries such as France, Ireland, Italy and Germany. Puerto Rico has also been influenced by African culture, with many Puerto Ricans partially descended from Africans, though Afro-Puerto Ricans of unmixed African descent are only a significant minority. Also present in today's Puerto Ricans are traces (about 10-15%) of the aboriginal Taino natives that inhabited the island at the time of the European colonizers in 1493. Recent studies in population genetics have concluded that Puerto Rican gene poo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zemis
A zemi or cemi was a deity or ancestral spirit, and a sculptural object housing the spirit, among the Taíno people of the Caribbean.Bercht et al, 23 They were also created by indigenous South Americans.Bercht et al, 24 Theology Taíno religion, as recorded by late 15th and 16th century Spaniards, centered on a supreme creator god and a fertility goddess. The creator god is Yúcahu Maórocoti and he governs the growth of the staple food, the cassava. The goddess is Attabeira, who governs water, rivers, and seas. Lesser deities govern natural forces and are also zemis.Bercht et al, 23 Boinayel, the Rain Giver, is one such zemi, whose magical tears become rainfall."Deity Figure (Zemi) Dominican Republic; Taino (1979.206.380)" In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cacique
A ''cacique'' (Latin American ; ; feminine form: ''cacica'') was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, the indigenous inhabitants at European contact of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. The term is a Spanish transliteration of the Taíno word ''kasike''. Cacique was initially translated as "king" or "prince" for the Spanish. In the colonial era the conquistadors and the administrators who followed them used the word generically, to refer to any leader of practically any indigenous group they encountered in the Western Hemisphere. In Hispanic and Lusophone countries, the term also has come to mean a political boss, similar to ''caudillo,'' exercising power in a system of ''caciquismo''. Spanish colonial-era caciques The Taíno word ''kasike'' descends from the Taíno word ''kassiquan'', which means "to keep house". In 1555 the word first entered the English language, defined as "prince". In Taíno culture, the ''kasike'' rank was her ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arawakan Languages
Arawakan (''Arahuacan, Maipuran Arawakan, "mainstream" Arawakan, Arawakan proper''), also known as Maipurean (also ''Maipuran, Maipureano, Maipúre''), is a language family that developed among ancient indigenous peoples in South America. Branches migrated to Central America and the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean and the Atlantic, including what is now the Bahamas. Almost all present-day South American countries are known to have been home to speakers of Arawakan languages, the exceptions being Ecuador, Uruguay, and Chile. Maipurean may be related to other language families in a hypothetical Macro-Arawakan stock. Name The name ''Maipure'' was given to the family by Filippo S. Gilij in 1782, after the Maipure language of Venezuela, which he used as a basis of his comparisons. It was renamed after the culturally more important Arawak language a century later. The term ''Arawak'' took over, until its use was extended by North American scholars to the broader Macro-Arawakan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucayan Archipelago
The Lucayan Archipelago (named for the original native Lucayan people), also known as the Bahama Archipelago, is an island group comprising the Commonwealth of The Bahamas and the British Overseas Territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands. The archipelago is in the western North Atlantic Ocean, north of Cuba and the other Antilles, and east and southeast of Florida. William Keegan writes: "Modern political considerations aside, the islands form a single archipelago with common geological, ecological, and cultural roots." Though part of the West Indies, the Lucayan Archipelago is not located on the Caribbean Sea. Proposed federation In 2010, the leaders of The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands discussed the possibility of forming a federation. Countries and territories * The Bahamas * Turks and Caicos Islands (United Kingdom) The Mouchoir Bank, the Silver Bank, and the Navidad Bank are a submerged continuation of the archipelago, to the southeast of the Turks and Ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus * lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo * es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón * pt, Cristóvão Colombo * ca, Cristòfor (or ) * la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was an Italian explorer and navigator who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, opening the way for the widespread European Age of Discovery, exploration and colonization of the Americas. His expeditions were the first known European contact with the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. The name ''Christopher Columbus'' is the anglicisation of the Latin . Scholars generally agree that Columbus was born in the Republic of Genoa and spoke a dialect of Ligurian (Romance language), Ligurian as his first language. He went to sea at a young age and travelled widely, as far north as the British Isles and as far south as what is now Ghana. He married Port ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New World
The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 33: "[16c: from the feminine of ''Americus'', the Latinized first name of the explorer Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512). The name ''America'' first appeared on a map in 1507 by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, referring to the area now called Brazil]. Since the 16c, a name of the western hemisphere, often in the plural ''Americas'' and more or less synonymous with ''the New World''. Since the 18c, a name of the United States of America. The second sense is now primary in English: ... However, the term is open to uncertainties: ..." The term gained prominence in the early 16th century, during Europe's Age of Discovery, shortly after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci concluded that America (now often called ''the Am ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
_MET_DP295635.jpg "Click for more on -> Zemis")
