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Portfolio Category: Magic-Religious Beliefs

Small stone zemi

Small stone zemi
Shamans played an important role in Taíno society as medical practitioners, using an hallucinogenic preparation named "Cohoba" to get in trance and to contact the spirits for help to determine the cause of the illnesses. The Shaman recited sacred chants accompanied of maracas to play a rhythm. He produced a stone amulet and which he…
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Little bone zemi with skull head

Little bone zemi with skull head
The Taíno placed strong importance on ancestor worship. They believed in afterlife and great care was given to the dead. Skull designs represent dead ancestors. Zemies who represented ancestors were objects of great power and were perceived as supernatural beings who could help the person who possessed them.
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Wooded Duho

Wooded Duho
This wooden seat was used by chiefs in the Caribbean Taino culture during ceremonial communication with the spirit world. Wooden seat carved in the shape of an ancestor spirit by the Taino, one of the pre-European, native Caribbean peoples. This wooden seat known as a duho was sculpted by a Taino artisan. The Taino were…
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Duhos – Ritual Seat

Duhos – Ritual Seat
This wooden seat was used by chiefs in the Caribbean Taino culture during ceremonial communication with the spirit world. It is sculpted from the dense tropical hardwood guayacan (Guaiacum officinale) and is in the form of a powerful male figure crouching on all fours. When Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492, much of the Caribbean was…
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Stone pestle with anthropomorphic decoration

Stone pestle with anthropomorphic decoration
Stones pestles carved with human or avian images were used for ceremonial purposes, specifically to grind Cohoba powder. In Taino culture the Cohoba ritual was the most important. The idea was to get in contact with the spirits to obtain from them information about the future and to cure illnesses. The seeds from the tree…
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