It has been reported by the Spanish chroniclers that the Tainos cultivated manioc, sweet potato, yautia, lleren, peanut, maize, beans, cucurbits, chili pepper, and fruit trees. Carbonized remains of manioc and maize along with other plant remains have been identified by archaeobotanists in the Bahamian sites. Also a variety of wild or quazi-domesticated local plants were in use.
As is the case with modern tropical horticulturalist, life revolved around garden cycles. These cycles were attuned to the movements of the sun and stars. Stone alignments were used to chart the passage of the sun between equinox and solstice and the rising and settling of certain stars were also recorded. The most notable examples of on-the-ground observatories are site MC-6 on Middle Caicos and la Plaza de Chacuey in the Dominican Republic.
Garden plots of one to two hectares per household were cleared at regular intervals. Clearing involved the use of stone axes or shell tools to slash brush, fell trees, and girdle large trees so they would drop their leaves. After clearing, the brush was left for several months to dry and was then burned. In tropical forests the nutrients that cultigens need in order to grow are stored in the vegetation already growing in the area. The soil, on the other hand, is relatively sterile. Burning the slashed vegetation is a timesaving way of releasing some of these nutrients into the soil for use b the cultivated crops. Unfortunately even more are destroyed in the fire.
Planting was done with a sharpened digging stick called a coa. Manioc was planted in small mounds of loose earth called montones. After planting, the gardens were weeded, mature crops harvested, and replanting was made on a continuous basis until the garden was abandoned. Unlike temperate gardens that die in the winter, tropical gardens can be maintained for years, but eventually garden production declined and new gardens had to be prepared. The old garden was left to fallow until the forest reclaimed it, at which time it could again be cleared.
Intercropping other cultigens increased yields in long-term manioc gardens. For example, sweet potatoes, maize, cocoyams, and fruit trees can be planted in ways that do not interfere with the growth of the manioc plants. Not only do these crops add diversity to the diet, they increase total yields for only the additional cost of planting and harvesting. Moreover, they aid in preventing weed growth, protect the soil from the direct impact of sun and rain, and they fill areas that would otherwise go unused. Despite its messy appearance, this type of gardening is the most efficient way to cultivate tropical soils.
The garden crops grew and matured at different rates. As a result the Lucayan diets changed continuously with the seasons. Non-bitter maniocs and the other root crops were available throughout the year. Boiling was the usual method of cooking. Biter maniocs, so called because they contain toxic levels of cyanogenic glucosides, had to be peeled, grated and squeezed before it could be eaten. The pulp was squeezed in a basket tube, like a Chinese finger puzzle, to extract the juice. The toxins were released when the juice was exposed to air. Boiled juice, called cassirepe, was the base for pepper pots. The pulp was dried for use as a starch (flour) or was toasted to make farina (today an ingredient in tapioca). The reward for so much additional processing effort is that the flour and faina can be stored indefinitely. The flour was baked on large, round, pottery griddles called burenes to make a pancake-like cassava bread.
Manioc was intensively cultivated on mounds at the time of Spanish contact, where it produced high yields. Average yields of manioc in Brazil today are reported as 14.2 million Calories per hectare. Using a generous estimate of human caloric needs (2000 Calories per day), 20 adults could have been supported on one hectare of land for an entire year. Because manioc does not require fertile soils for efficient tuber production a single plot can be cultivated for many years.
The principle shortcoming of manioc is its low protein content. Since human nutritional requirements cannot be satisfied with manioc alone, other sources of protein had to be sought. In addition to the animal protein sources, a number of cultigens could have been added to the garden as protein supplements (e.g., maize, beans, groundnuts), but they are only available during specific seasons. For instance, maiz, the Taino word for Indian corn, was reportedly grown for roasted ears and to some extent for a bread grain. But it was not a major foodstuff, and was apparently a late introduction.
In addition to “outfield” garden plots, there were house gardens closer to and around the dwellings. House gardens contained new varieties of cultigens, herbs and spices, medicinal and narcotic plants, vegetable dyes, fruit trees, and other cultigens that required special attention or were needed frequently in small quantities.
Hunting Land Animals
Typical of most islands in the West Indies there are few land animals. Bats and a cat-sized rodent called a hutia were the only native mammals. Other land animals included iguanas, crocodile, land crabs, and a variety of birds and small reptiles. These were hunted with bow-and-arrow or spears. Columbus described the spears, as having a “fish tooth” was actually a stingray spine. There are no other good alternatives. No stone spear or arrow points have ever been found. The Tainos kept Muscovy ducks and dogs, and they may have domesticated the hutia. They also ate a variety of grubs and insects.
Meats were roasted in the fire or barbecued on a wooden grill (barbacoa is a Taino word). The Lucayans used another traditional form of tropical forest coking called the “pepper pot”. Pepper pot is a stew kept simmering over a low fire to which meats and vegetables are added to replenish the pot. The name comes from chili peppers used to cure the meat. The large thick clay pots were well suited to this type of cooking.
The inference from economic models is that land animals were pursued whenever they were encountered because their return rates (food value per work effort) were greater than that obtained from the gardens or the sea. These animals could not, however, satisfy all of the Lucayans’ food requirements. Their combined population densities are estimated at 1,861,950 calories per hectare, which could support only two individuals for a year if every animal was captured (an impossibility). Still, intensive use of land animals would rapidly reduce the frequency with which they were encountered with the result being a decline in the amount of meat available.
Game often was taken in or near gardens. Studies in Central America have shown that animals, like hutia, are attracted to gardens because they offer choice foods. The forest is a difficult place to traverse, and hunting trips in the forest were probably infrequent. Moreover, since all of these small game were regular visitors to the coastal strip, the most efficient strategy would have been to forage in this area. Travel along the coast is less difficult, and other foods would also have been encountered on or near the beach.
The one animal worth hunting in the forest is a land crab, which congregate in the low areas that provide for moist burrows. These locations could be identified, and hunting could be accomplished with guaranteed results. But even land crabs can be taken on the coastal strip, especially when they congregate for mating. By focusing efforts near the beach, when land animals were not available the Lucayans could turn quickly to the sea.
Fishing and Collecting Shellfish
Marine fishes were the most important source of meat in the Lucayan diet. Zooarchaeologists have calculated that fishes accounted for more than 75% of the meat that was eaten.
Fishes were captured with hook and line, nets, basket traps, spears, bow and arrow, and weirs. The latter involved building check dams across the mouth of tidal creeks that allowed fishes to enter at high tide but prevented their escape when the tide changed. Two fishhooks were recovered from the Gordon Hill Cave site on Crooked Island. We also know about how fish were captured by studying fish behavior. For example, parrotfish and surgeonfish are grazers and are only rarely caught in hook-and-line. Today they are commonly caught in fish traps, which points to these techniques as the one used by the Lucayans. In addition to fishes, marine turtles (mostly green sea turtles), porpoises, West Indian monk seals, and manatees have been found in West Indian sites.
Turtle eggs were likely also of importance. Turtles were captured when they came ashore to lay eggs, or they could have been hunted with nets, spears, and bow-and-arrow. Several turtle bones from the Coralie site (Turks and Caicos Islands) have holes with breakage patterns that were identified as spear holes by forensic anthropologists.
Another source of meat is marine invertebrates. The shells of clams and snails are the most abundant refuse in prehistoric sites. The most important mollusks were queen conch, West Indian to shell, clams, tellins, chitons, oysters, and nerites. A wide variety of other mollusks have also been identified in small numbers. Despite this abundance, most mollusks contain very little meat. Conchs are the largest, yielding almost a quarter pound of meat per adult snail. In comparison, it would take 100 chitons to yield one pound of meat. Sea urchins and spiny lobsters were also eaten.
Lucayan Health and Nutrition
The physical examinations of skeletons from the Bahamas indicate that the Lucayans enjoyed good health and nutrition. They certainly did not suffer from the nutritional and diet-related disorders of other prehistoric horticulturalists, and they also lack the dental pathologies observed Saladoid and Ostionoid burials at the Maisabel site, Puerto Rico. The teeth of the Maisabel skeletons were in terrible shape. Middle-aged people have mouths more typical of old people, and one individual may have died after contracting an illness through a massive abscess in his jaw. A physical anthropologists that studied the skeletons, concluded that sand adhering to foods, exoskeleton and shell adhering to invertebrates, and high percentage of carbohydrates in the diet conspired to destroy the teeth. In contrast, Lucayan skeletons have beautiful teeth.
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/Taino/jatibonuco.html
http://icarus.online.discovery.com/area/exploration/cenote/artifacts.html
http://www.dos.state.fl.us/flafacts/
http://www.earthwatch.org/x/Xkeegan.html
http://www.webspan.net/~dolphi
http://www.elmuseo.org/
http://members.dandy.net/~orocobix/faq2.html
Hoffman, Charles, Bahama Prehistory: Cultural Adaptation to an Island Environment, (Ph Dissertation), University of Arizona, 1967.
Roosevelt, Anna, Prehistoric Maize and Manoic Subsistence Along the Amazon and Orinoc, Academic Press, New York, 1980.
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