Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T11:17:19.238Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“Gods… Adorned with the Embroiderer’s Needle”: The Materials, Making and Meaning of a Taino Cotton Reliquary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Joanna Ostapkowicz  and
Lee Newsom
Joanna Ostapkowicz
Affiliation:
World Museum Liverpool, William Brown Street, Liverpool, L3 8EN, UK ([email protected])
Lee Newsom
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A unique cotton Taíno reliquary—the only extant example currently known—provides an unprecedented window onto the complex mortuary and ritual ceremonies of the pre-Hispanic Caribbean. This study explores its cultural context as recorded by the early Spanish and French chroniclers and missionaries who were witness to the use and beliefs surrounding these objects in both the Greater and Lesser Antilles. It provides the first AMS radiocarbon date for the reliquary, placing it within a firmer historical context. It also examines the woven sculpture in some detail, providing a review of the manufacture process and a detailed study of the components—cotton, animal hair, lianas, gourd, resins and shell—that went into its creation. From the wrapping of important cemís (representations of spirits) in cotton, to the binding of the skeletal remains of venerated ancestors within elaborate weavings, cotton had an intrinsic value as a material that wrapped and bound the ancestors to the living and the living to each other.

Un exclusivo relicario taíno de algodón—el único ejemplar conocido hasta la fecha—provee una mirada sin precedentes hacia las complejas ceremonias y rituales del Caribe prehispánico. El presente estudio explora el registro cultural asociado al relicario a través de los registros realizados por los primeros cronistas y misioneros españoles y franceses, quienes fueron testigos de los usos y creencias que rodearon a estos objetos tanto en las Antillas Mayores como Menores. Este objeto provee una de las primeras dataciones por radiocarbono (AMS), localizándolo dentro de un claro contexto histórico. Al mismo tiempo, se examina la estructura del tejido en cierto detalle, brindando una revisión del proceso de manufactura y un detallado estudio de los componentes—algodón, pelo animal, lianas, calabaza, resinas y conchas—utilizados para su creación. Desde la envoltura de importantes cemís en el algodón, hasta la unión de restos de esqueletos provenientes de venerados ancestros dentro de elaborados tejidos, el algodón tuvo un valor intrínseco como material que “envolvió y unió” a los ancestros con los vivos, y a los vivos entre sí.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 23 , Issue 3 , September 2012 , pp. 300 - 326
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 by the Society for American Archaeology.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Alegría, Ricardo E. 1980 Etnografia taína y los conquistadores. In Proceedings of the 8th International Congress for the Study of Pre-Columbian Cultures of the Lesser Antilles, edited by Suzanne M. Lewenstein, pp. 430–446. Anthropological Research Papers No. 22. Arizona State University, Phoenix.Google Scholar
Alegría, Ricardo E. 1981 El uso de la incrustatión en la escultura de los indios antillanos. Centro de estudios avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe con Fundación García Arévalo. I.G. Manuel Pareja, Barcelona.Google Scholar
Allsworth-Jones, Phillip 2008 Pre-Columbian Jamaica. Caribbean Archaeology and Ethnohistory, L. Antonio Curet, series editor. The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
AMT (Amici del Museo di Torino) ca. 1975 Gli Zemi delle Antille: 4B, Museo di antropologia ed etnografia, Torino. Libreria Editrice Universitaria Levrotto & Bella, Torino.Google Scholar
Báez Díaz, Tomás 1977 La mujer aborigen y la mujer en la Colonia: su participatión en la etapa histórica que termina en el 1795. Firma del Tratado de Basilea, Premio Shell, Santo Domingo.Google Scholar
Bernáldez, Andrés 1967 History of the Catholic Sovereigns Don Ferdinand and Doña Isabella. In Select Documents Illustrating the Four Voyages of Columbus, edited by Cecil Jane, pp. 114–168. 2 nd ed. Hakluyt Society, Kraus Reprint, Millwood, New York.Google Scholar
Biscione, Marco 1997 Epilogue: The Beaded Zemi in the Pigorini Museum: History and Problems of Interpretation. In Taíno: Pre-Columbian Art and Culture from the Caribbean, edited by Fatima Bercht, Estrellita Brodsky, John Alan Farmer, and Dicey Taylor, pp. 158–163. The Monacelli Press, New York.Google Scholar
Boomert, Arie 2000 Trinidad, Tobago and the Lower Orinoco Interaction Sphere: An Archaeological/Ethnohistorical Study. Cairi Publications, Alkmaar.Google Scholar
Breton, Rev. Fr. Adrien Le 1997 Historic Account of Saint Vincent the Indian Youroumaÿn, the Island of the Karaÿabes, by Rev. Fr. Adrien Le Breton S.J. (1662–1736). The Mayreau Environmental Development Organization, Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.Google Scholar
Collingwood, Peter 1974 The Techniques of Sprang: Plaiting on Stretched Threads. Faber and Faber, London.Google Scholar
Colón, Fernando 1992 [1538?] The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by his Son Ferdinand. Translated by Benjamin Keen [1959]. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Crespo-Torres, Edwin F. 2010 Ancient Bones Tell Stories: Osteobiography of Human Remains from Tibes. In Tibes: People, Power, and Ritual at the Center of the Cosmos, edited by Antonio Curet and Lisa M. Stringer, pp. 191–208. The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Cronau, Rudolf 1892 Amerika. Die Geschichete seiner Entdeckung von der altesten bis auf die neueste Zeit. Abel and Mueller, Leipzig.Google Scholar
Curet, Antonio, and Oliver, José R. 1998 Mortuary Practices, Social Development, and Ideology in Precolumbian Puerto Rico. Latin American Antiquity 9:217–239.Google Scholar
du Tertre, R. P., Jean-Baptiste, 1667 Histoire Générale des Antilles Habitées par les François, Tome II: Contenant L’Histoire Naturelle. Thomas Lolly, Paris.Google Scholar
Feest, Christian 1986 Zemes Idolum Diabolicum. Archiv für Völkerkunde, 40:181–198.Google Scholar
Feest, Christian 1991 Beaded Belt. In Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration, edited by Jay A. Levenson, pp. 580–581. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Fewkes, Jesse Walter 1891 On Zemes from Santo Domingo. American Anthropologist 4:167–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fewkes, Jesse Walter 1903 ms. 4408(45a) Diary of Archaeological notes and drawings, Nov. 15–Jan. 16/03, 1 vol, ca. 155pgs, Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo. Ms. on file at the National Anthropology Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Fewkes, Jesse Walter 1907 The Aborigines of Porto Rico and Neighbouring Islands. In 25th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1903–04. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
García Arévalo, Manuel A. 1997 The Bat and the Owl: Nocturnal Images of Death. In Taíno: Pre-Columbian Art and Culture from the Caribbean, edited by Fatima Brecht, Estrellita Brodsky, John Alan Farmer, and Dicey Taylor, pp. 112–23. The Monacelli Press and El Museo del Barrio, New York.Google Scholar
Girotti, Marilena, and Meaglia, Donatella 2001 Zemi in cotone del Museo di Antropologia di Torino: Storia del ritrovamento e descrizione. In Zemi a Torino. Museo di Antropologia ed Etnografia dell’Università di Torino, Turin.Google Scholar
Guidi, Annalena, and Grazia Appendino, M. 1973 I Taíno ed I loro zemi. Rivista di Etnografia, XXVII:3–11.Google Scholar
Hedges, S. Blair 2001 Caribbean Biogeography: An Overview. In Biogeography of the West Indies: Patterns and Perspectives, edited by Charles. A. Woods and Florence. E. Sergile, pp. 15–34. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.Google Scholar
Holsbeke, Mireille (editor) 1996 The Object as Mediator: On Transcendental Meaning of Art in Traditional Cultures. Etnografisch Museum Antwerp, Antwerp.Google Scholar
Hoogland, Menno L. P., and Hofman, Corinne L. 1993 A 14th-Century Taíno Settlement on Saba, Netherlands Antilles. Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia 26:163–181.Google Scholar
Kerchache, Jacques (editor) 1994 L’Art Taïno: L’Art des Sculpteurs Tainos Chefs-D’cevre des Grandes Antilles Precolombiennes. Musees de la Ville de Prais, Musée du Petit Palais, Paris.Google Scholar
Langer, Reinhart Hug Michael, and Hill, George D. 1991 Agricultural Plants. 2 nd ed. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Las Casas, Fray Bartolomé de 1951 Historia de las Indias. Biblioteca Americana, Cronistas de Indias series, 3 vols. Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico City Google Scholar
Las Casas, Fray Bartolomé de 1967 Apologética historia sumaria. Universidad Nacional Autónomade México, Institute de Investigaciones Históricas, México, D.F.Google Scholar
Las Casas, Fray Bartolomé de 1997 Chapter 120: Concerning the idols worshipped by the Indians of the Island of Hispaniola. In Taíno: Pre-Columbian Art and Culture from the Caribbean, edited by Fatima Brecht, Estrellita Brodsky, John Alan Farmer and Dicey Taylor, pp. 112–23. Translated by Susan C. Griswold. The Monacelli Press and El Museo del Barrio, New York.Google Scholar
Little, Elbert L., and Wadsworth, Frank H. 1964 Common Trees of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Agricultural Handbook No. 249. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington.Google Scholar
Loven, Sven 1979 Origins of Tainan Culture, West Indies. 2 nd ed. AMS Press, New York.Google Scholar
Martina, María Cristina, Cesarani, Federico, Boano, Rosa, Massa, Emma Rabino, Venturi, Claudio Carlo, and Gandini, Giovanni 2010 Scenes from the Past: Multidetector CT of an Antillean Zemi Idol. Radiographics 30:1993–1999.Google Scholar
Masali, Melchiorre, and Pia, Gabriella Erica 1991 I materiali taíno del Museo di Antropologia di Torino: lo Zemi di cotone. In Gli Indios di Hispaniolae la prima Colónizzazione europea. L’Universo, supp. al No. 1/1991:85–90.Google Scholar
Mastache, Guadalupe 2005 Weaving in Ancient Mexico. Arqueología Mexicana. Editión Especial, Vol 19.Google Scholar
Martyr D’Anghera, Peter 1970 [1530] De Orbe Novo: The Eight Decades of Peter Martyr D’Anghera. Translated by Francis Augustus Mac-Nutt. 2 vols. Burt Franklin, New York.Google Scholar
Meaglia, Donatella, and Girotti, Marilena 2001 Zemi a Torino. Museo di Antropologia ed Etnografia dell’Universita di Torino, Turin.Google Scholar
Murra, John V. 1962 Cloth and Its Functions in the Inca State. American Anthropologist 64:710–728.Google Scholar
Newsom, Lee Ann 2008 Caribbean Paleoethnobotany: Present Status and New Horizons (Understanding the Evolution of an Indigenous Ethnobotany). In Crossing the Borders: New Methods and Techniques in the Study of Material Culture in the Caribbean, edited by Conine L. Hofman, pp. 173–194. The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Newsom, Lee Ann, and Wing, Elisabeth S. 2004 On Land and Sea: Native American Uses of Biotic Resources in the West Indies. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Nicholls, Robert W. 2006 Remarkable Big Trees in the U.S. Virgin Islands. University of the Virgin Islands and the Urban and Community Forestry Assistance Program, VI. Department of Agriculture, St Thomas.Google Scholar
Olazagasti, Ignacio 1997 The Material Culture of the Taíno Indians. In The Indigenous People of the Caribbean, edited by Samuel Wilson, pp. 131–139. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Oliver, Josí R. 2000 Gold Symbolism among Caribbean Chiefdoms: Of Feathers, Cibas and Guanín Power among Taíno Elites. In Precolumbian Gold: Technology, Style and Iconography, edited by Colin McEwan, pp. 196–219. British Museum Press, London.Google Scholar
Oliver, Josí R. 2009 Caciques and Cemí Idols: The Web Spun by Taíno Rulers Between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Ostapkowicz, Joanna 1998 Tafno Wooden Sculpture: Duhos, Rulership and the Visual Arts in the 12th–16th Century Caribbean, unpublished PhD dissertation, University of East Anglia, Norwich.Google Scholar
Ostapkowicz, Joanna, Ramsey, Christopher Bronk, Brock, Fiona, Higham, Tom, Wiedenhoeft, Alex C., Ribechini, Erika, Lucejko, Jeannette J., and Wilson, Samuel 2012 Chronologies in Wood and Resin: AMS 14C Dating of pre-Hispanic Caribbean Wood Sculpture. Journal of Archaeological Science 39:2238–2251.Google Scholar
Ostapkowicz, Joanna, Wiedenhoeft, Alex, Ramsey, Christopher Bronk, Ribechini, Erika, Wilson, Samuel, Brock, Fiona, and Higham, Tom 2011 ‘Treasures… of Black Wood, Brilliantly Polished’: Five Examples of Guaiacum Sculpture from the Tenth to Sixteenth Century Caribbean. Antiquity 85(329):942–959.Google Scholar
Oviedo, y Valdés, Gonzalo Fernández de 1992 [1535–49] Historia general y natural de las Indias. 5 vols. Biblioteca de Autores Españoles. Ediciones Atlas, Madrid.Google Scholar
Pané, Fray Ramón 1999 An Account of the Antiquities of the Indians. Edited by José Juan Arrom, and translated by Susan C. Griswold. Duke University Press, London.Google Scholar
Petraco, Nicholas, and Kubic, Thomas 2004 Color Atlas and Manual of Microscopy for Criminalists, Chemists, and Conservators. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.Google Scholar
Pignoria, Lorenzo 1626 Imagini de gli dei Indiani. In Seconda Novissima Editione delle Imagini de gli dei delli Antichi, edited by Vencenzo Cartari, pp. 545–589. Nella stamparia di Pietro Paolo Tozzi, Padoua.Google Scholar
Rehm, Sigmund, and Espig, Gustav 1991 The Cultivated Plants of the Tropics and Subtropics: Cultivation, Economic Value, Utilization. Verlag Josef Margraf, Weikersheim, West Germany.Google Scholar
Ripley, Geo 1980 El cemítaíno de algodón. Boletín de Museo del Hombre Dominicano 13:115–124.Google Scholar
Rochefort, Charles de 1666 The History of the Caribby-Islands, Viz. Barbados, St. Christopher, St. Vincents, Martinico, Dominicano, Barbouthos, Monserrat, Mevis, Antego &c… in two books. The first containing the natural: the second the moral history of those Islands. Translated by John Davis. J. M. for Thomas Dring and John Starkey, London.Google Scholar
Rodríguez, Miguel 1997 Religious Beliefs of the Saladoid People. In The Indigenous People of the Caribbean, edited by Samuel M. Wilson, pp 80–87. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Roe, Peter G. 1989 The Best Enemy is a Defunct, Drilled and Decorative Enemy: Human Corporeal Art (Frontal Bone Pectorals – Belt Ornaments, Carved Humeri and Pierced Teeth) in Precolumbian Puerto Rico. In Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Congress for Caribbean Archaeology, pp. 854–873. Curacao.Google Scholar
Rouse, Irving 1992 The Taínos: Rise and Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Royo Guardia, Fernando 1974 El culto de cráneos y los cemíes de algodón entre antillanos precolombinos. Revista de Arqueologia y Etnología I(II):4–5.Google Scholar
Sauer, Carl Ortwin 1992 The Early Spanish Main. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Schaffer, William C., Carr, Rorbert S., Day, Jane S., and Pateman, Michael P. 2010 Lucayan-Taíno burials from Preacher’s Cave, Eleuthera, Bahamas. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 22:45–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seelye, Elizabeth Eggleston 1892 The Story of Columbus. D. Appleton and Co., New York.Google Scholar
Stark, Barbara L., Heller, Lynette, and Ohnersorgen, Michael A. 1998 People with Cloth: Mesoamerican Economic Change from the Perspective of Cotton in South-central Veracruz. Latin American Antiquity 9:1–30.Google Scholar
Sued-Badillo, Jalil 1993 La mujer indígena y su sociedad. Editorial Cultural, San Juan, Puerto Rico.Google Scholar
Symcox, Geoffrey 2002 Repertorium Columbianum: Volume XII: Italian Reports on America, 1493–1522: Accounts by Contemporary Observers. Brepols Publishers, Tumhout, Belgium.Google Scholar
Taylor, Dicey, Biscione, Marco, and Roe, Peter G. 1997 Epilogue: The Beaded Zemi in the Pigorini Museum. In Taino: Pre-Columbian Art and Culture from the Caribbean, edited by Fatima Bercht, Estrellita Brodsky, John Alan Farmer and Dicey Taylor, pp. 158–168. The Monacelli Press, New York.Google Scholar
Teerink, B.J. 1991 Atlas and Identification Key: Hair of West-European Mammals, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Tejera, Emilio 1977 Indigenismos. Editoria de Santo Domingo, Santo Domingo.Google Scholar
Timyan, Joel 1996 Bwa yo: Important Trees of Haiti. South-Eastem Consortium for International Development, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Vallejo, Juan de 1913 Memorial de la vida de Fray Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros. Imprenta Baily-Bailliere, Madrid.Google Scholar
Vega, Bernardo 1987 [1971] Descubrimiento de la actual localizatión del único zemi de algodón antillano aún existente. In Santos, Shamanes y Zemíes, Fundación Cultural Dominicana, Santo Domingo.Google Scholar
Walker, Jeffrey B. 1993, Stone Collars, Elbow Stones and Three-Pointers, and the Nature of Taino Ritual and Myth, PhD dissertation, Washington State University, Pullman. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Walker, Jeffrey B. 2005 The Paso del Indio Site, Vega Baja, Puerto Rico: A Progress Report. In Ancient Borinquen: Archaeology and Ethnohistory of Native Puerto Rico, edited by Peter E. Siegel, pp. 55–87. The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Wing, Elizabeths. 2001 Native American Use of Animals in the Caribbean. In Biogeography of the West Indies: Patterns and Perspectives, edited by Charles A. Woods and Florence E. Sergile, pp.481–518. 2 nd ed. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.Google Scholar
Yde, Jens 1965 Material Culture of the Waiwái. National Museum of Copenhagen, Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Ostapkowicz and Newsom Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material

Download Ostapkowicz and Newsom Supplementary Material(PDF)
PDF 3.6 MB