Hispaniola: Caribbean Chiefdoms in the Age of Columbus

Although I was expecting a much lengthier tome on the Taino sociopolitical system before and during contact with Europeans, Wilson's Hispaniola: Caribbean Chiefdoms in the Age of Columbus is a good reminder and review of the 'ethnohistorical' sources on the indigenes of Hispaniola. As Wilson states in his conclusion, Hispaniola set the framework for European-Native relations throughout the Americas, so a keen understanding of the Arawak peoples and their decimation by European colonialism is important to study. Moreover, Wilson's text is a succinct overview of scholarship and writings on the Taino from the 1490s to the 1980s, providing archaeological and ethnohistorical sources in order to show the complexities of indigenous 'sociopolitical' systems on Hispaniola, the island of the Greater Antilles where the Taino polities were probably the most complex. From Columbus making contact on the northern coast of Hispaniola (modern Haiti) to the campaigns in the Vega Real, to the Adelantado's contact with Xaragua and the eventual subjugation of the entire island in a tribute system, it becomes quite clear that Hispaniola featured the most complex Taino societies, with larger villages, fine craft production of ritual goods (zemis and dujos, seemingly produced by women), and linguistic diversity.

Wilson also does an excellent job recreating Columbus's first and second voyages and how European perceptions of the Taino political system were filtered through early modern European notions of feudal kingship, Christianity, and gender norms (the practice of polygyny among the Taino elite and the alleged power of women caciques in Hispaniola & Puerto Rico certainly stood out, as well as women's general nudity). Moreover, the complexities of cacicazgos in Hispaniola from 1492 to the early 1500s are well detailed (though I would have liked more info about cacique Mayobanex and the peoples of Samana who were labelled 'cannibals' and ethnic diversity on the island). Likewise, what exactly happened with Behecchio and Anacaona was an interesting example of how some caciques were able to play off Spanish renegades to undermine the Adelantado (Columbus's brother, who represented Spanish 'rule' in Hispaniola) for a decade. The nuances of Taino inheritance among the elite also seems unclear, perhaps being a combination of patrilineal and matrilineal.

Unfortunately, we all know how the tale of indigenous peoples and political systems collapsed: disease, forced labor (for gold mining) that took cultivators away from their conucos (manioc cultivation as practiced by the Taino required constant maintenance and about a year for the crop to mature), population and food pressure to feed the growing European presence ravaged the indigenous population's autonomy and subsistence strategies. Even the strongest caciques fell over time, such as Guarionex, Anacaona, and Caonabo, due to Spanish treachery, warfare, and the killing of Taino elites. It's a shame the written sources are not detailed or sufficient enough to provide a clearer picture of how elite marriage structures and sociopolitical systems functioned (it seems like the caciques, even the strongest ones, were dominant firsts among equals rather than 'kings' or 'queens' in the European sense).

Also interesting for its relevance to European colonization in the Americas, Polynesia and parts of Africa, however, is the likely Taino perception of the Spanish as beings from the sky, as gods. Their vast caravels, horses, guns, metal weapons or tools and otherworldly appearance across the sea must have shaped Taino relations with the Spanish, just as it had done so in future decades with the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs in Mexico. If the European documents can be trusted, the capture of Caonabo as a result of tricking him with metal shackles (perceived as turey by the Taino, that is, objects from the sky or gods), demonstrates how early relations between the Taino and Europeans were shaped by the indigenous view of whites as supernatural beings, making outright war or resistance less likely.

Indeed, Wilson suggests that one of the reasons caciques like Behecchio and Anacaona may have hosted resplendent welcome feasts for the Adelantado and other Spanish leaders was due to their perceived godliness, which would explain the zemi rituals some caciques called for when visited by Europeans. The indigenous view of the bell (a bell in Isabela or one of the inland fortalezas) and other turey from Europe as divine objects clearly influenced trade relations, since the Europeans wanted gold (and later on, food) while the Taino were happy to take cheap objects of tin, thereby paving the way for an exploitative trade on unequal terms.

Last, but certainly not least, Wilson avoids providing a firm estimate for the number of people on Hispaniola in 1492, saying it was probably more than a million. Due to a number of reasons alluded to by Wilson, there is no way to arrive at an exact estimate, but what is known is the rapid decline of the Amerindian population by the 1520s. Hispaniola, as the center of Spanish expansion in the 'New World' from 1492 until the conquest of Mexico and the mainland, saw its indigenous population disappear by the middle of the 16th century and soon after, Spanish attention focused on more lucrative colonies in the hemisphere. It would seem that Anacaona and the cacicagzo of Xaragua (covering modern Haiti) was the last of the Taino sociopolitical systems to fall on the island, It's quite amazing to think how rapid the demographic decline of Hispaniola was under just a few decades of Spanish rule...