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eBook
Caciques and Cemi Idols
2009
Overview
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
of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola 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.
Publisher
University of Alabama Press,The University of Alabama Press,University Alabama Press
Subject
/ Christianity and culture -- Hispaniola
/ Christianity and other religions
/ Christianity and other religions -- Hispaniola
/ Colonies
/ First contact with Europeans
/ First contact with other peoples
/ History
/ Icons
/ Icons -- Hispaniola -- History
/ Indians of the West Indies -- First contact with Europeans -- Hispaniola
/ Religion
/ Spain
/ Spain -- Colonies -- America
/ Stone implements -- Hispaniola -- History
/ Syncretism (Religion) -- Hispaniola
ISBN
0817316361, 9780817316365, 9780817355159, 0817355154
