Mitología y religion de los taínos by Sebastian Robiou Lamarche is yet another study of Taino mythology and religion that analyzes Ramón Pané. Building off the pioneering scholarship of Arrom and Robiou Lamarche's past research, the author divides Taino mythology into 4 cycles while offering plausible interpretations of various episodes. The usual themes of the gemelos divinos, the origin of women, Guahayona as a cultural hero, and perhaps astronomical significance of Taino myths are expounded with South American parallels. Unfortunately, we found this essay to be a too similar to other studies of Ramón Pané and Taino mythology to be distinctive. The useful glossary and the distinct visuals and pictures designed by the author's daughter were certainly interesting, however. In short, Taino myth and religion, at least the fragments of it recorded by Ramón Pané and revealed by ethnohistoric and archaeological analysis, demonstrate that Taino religion and cosmovision was central to the established of a hierarchical cacicazgo that developed to its greatest degree in Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. The triad of cohoba, cacique, and cemi were the lynchpins of Taino religion and myth, and all can be said to justify a political order in which the "solarized" cacique emerged supreme. Perhaps one day new sources or studies of Taino material culture and iconography can tell us more about this cosmovision.
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