Caciques and Cemi Idols: The Web Spun by Taino Rulers Between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico » (2)

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

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.

List of Illustrations and Tables ix

Preface xiii

Part I Introduction And Theoretical Premises

1 Introduction 3

2 Believers of Cemíism: Who Were the Taínos and Where Did They Come From? 6

3 Webs of Interaction: Human Beings, Other Beings, and Many Things 43

4 Personhood and the Animistic Amerindian Perspective 48

5 Contrasting Animistic and Naturalistic Worldviews 53

Part II The Form, Personhood, Identity, and Potency of Cemí Idols

6 The Cemí Reveals Its Personhood and Its Body Form 59

7 Cemí Idols and Taínoan Idolatry 64

8 Cemís and Personal Identities 67

Part III The Social Relations And Circulation of Cemí Idols And Human Beings

9 The Power and Potency of the Cemís 73

10 The Display of Cemís: Personal vs. Communal Ownership, Private vs. Public Function 77

11 Face-to-Face Interactions: Cemís, Idols, and the Native Political Elite 83

12 Hanging On to and Losing the Power of the Cemí Idols 87

13 The Inheritance and Reciprocal Exchange of Cemí Icons 103

14 Cemís: Alienable or Inalienable; To Give or To Keep 109

Part IV Stone Collars, Elbow Stones, Three-Pointers, Stone Heads, And Guaízas

15 Stone Collars, Elbow Stones, and Caciques 121

16 Ancestor Cemís and the Cemíification of the Caciques 141

17 The Guaíza Face Masks: Gifts of the Living for the Living 148

18 The Circulation of Chiefs' Names, Women, and Cemís: Between the Greater and Lesser Antilles 157

Part V The Battles For The Cemís in Hispaniola, Boriquén, And Cuba

19 Up in Arms: Taíno Freedom Fightersin Higüet;ey and Boriquén 191

20 The Virgin Mary Icons and Native Cemís: Two Cases of Religious Syncretism in Cuba 221

21 Religious Syncretism and Transculturation: The Crossroads toward New Identities 232

Part VI Conclusions

22 Final Remarks 247

References Cited 257

Photo Credits and Copyrights 281

Index 287