Caciques and Cemi Idols: The Web Spun by Taino Rulers Between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico

by José R. Oliver

Overview

Cemís are both portable artifacts and embodiments of persons or spirit, which the Taínos and other natives of the Greater Antilles (ca. AD 1000-1550) regarded as numinous beings with supernatural or magic powers. This volume takes a close look at the relationship between humans and other (non-human) beings that are imbued with cemí power, specifically within the Taíno inter-island cultural sphere encompassing Puerto Rico and Hispaniola. The relationships address the important questions of identity and personhood of the cemí icons and their human “owners” and the implications of cemí gift-giving and gift-taking that sustains a complex web of relationships between caciques (chiefs) of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.   Oliver provides a careful analysis of the four major forms of cemís—three-pointed stones, large stone heads, stone collars, and elbow stones—as well as face masks, which provide an interesting contrast to the stone heads. He finds evidence for his interpretation of human and cemí interactions from a critical review of 16th-century Spanish ethnohistoric documents, especially the Relación Acerca de las Antigüedades de los Indios written by Friar Ramón Pané in 1497–1498 under orders from Christopher Columbus. Buttressed by examples of native resistance and syncretism, the volume discusses the iconoclastic conflicts and the relationship between the icons and the human beings. Focusing on this and on the various contexts in which the relationships were enacted, Oliver reveals how the cemís were central to the exercise of native political power. Such cemís were considered a direct threat to the hegemony of the Spanish conquerors, as these potent objects were seen as allies in the native resistance to the onslaught of Christendom with its icons of saints and virgins.  

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780817381172
Publisher:	University of Alabama Press
Publication date:	09/15/2009
Series:	Caribbean Archaeology and Ethnohistory
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	306
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

José R. Oliver is Lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London.

Table of Contents

Contents
List of Illustrations and Tables 000
Preface 000
Part I. Introduction and Theoretical Premises
Chapter 1. Introduction 000
Chapter 2. Believers of Cemiism: Who Were the Tainos and Where Did They
Come From? 000
Chapter 3. Webs of Interaction: Human Beings, Other Beings, and Many
Things 000
Chapter 4. Personhood and the Animistic Amerindian Perspective 000
Chapter 5. Contrasting Animistic and Naturalistic Worldviews 000
Part II. The Form, Personhood, Identity, and Potency of Cemi Idols
Chapter 6. The Cemi Reveals Its Personhood and Its Body Form 000
Chapter 7. Cemi Idols and Tainoan Idolatry 000
Chapter 8. Cemis and Personal Identities 000
Part III. The Social Relations and Circulation of Cemi Idols and Human
Beings
Chapter 9. The Power and Potency of the Cemis 000
Chapter 10. The Display of Cemis: Personal vs. Communal Ownership,
Private vs. Public Function 000
Chapter 11. Face-to-Face Interactions: Cemis, Idols, and the Native
Political Elite 000
Chapter 12. Hanging On to and Losing the Power of the Cemi Idols 000
Chapter 13. The Inheritance and Reciprocal Exchange of Cemi Icons 000
Chapter 14. Cemis: Alienable or Inalienable; To Give and To Keep 000
Part IV. Stone Collars, Elbow Stones, Three-Pointers, Stone Heads, and
Guaizas
Chapter 15. Stone Collars, Elbow Stones, and Caciques 000
Chapter 16. Ancestor Cemis and the Cemiification of the Caciques 000
Chapter 17. The Guaiza Face Masks: Gifts of the Living for the Living
000
Chapter 18. The Circulation of Chief's Names, Women, and Cemis: Between
the Greater and Lesser Antilles 000
Part V. The Battles for the Cemis in Hispaniola, Boriquen, and Cuba
Chapter 19. Up in Arms: Taino Freedom Fighters in Higuey and Boriquen
000
Chapter 20. The Virgin Mary Icons and Native Cemis: Two Cases of
Religious Syncretism in Cuba 000
Chapter 21. Religious Syncretism and Transculturation: The Crossroads
to New Identities 000
Part VI. Conclusions
Chapter 22. Final Remarks 000
References Cited 000
Photo Credits and Copyrights 000