Taino culture and history - Indigenous Caribbean Network2024-03-29T06:00:28Zhttp://indigenouscaribbean.ning.com/forum/categories/2030313:Category:7478/listForCategory?categoryId=2030313%3ACategory%3A7478&feed=yes&xn_auth=noIndoantillean language survival among borikuastag:indigenouscaribbean.ning.com,2021-07-01:2030313:Topic:2312142021-07-01T17:16:19.263ZHuana Naboli Martinezhttp://indigenouscaribbean.ning.com/profile/HuanaNaboliMartinez
<p>Indoantillean language survival among borikuas</p>
<p>Note by: Huana Naboli Martínez, July 1, 2021.</p>
<p>It has been said that the native language of Boriken was lost, as native people were "exterminated". But, recent studies have probed that native people of Boriken survive and thrive till today, eventough they had somewhat get mixed. Language was not an exception. So indigenois language survive beyond what was known or exposed before. It has been said that we boricuas do not talk a…</p>
<p>Indoantillean language survival among borikuas</p>
<p>Note by: Huana Naboli Martínez, July 1, 2021.</p>
<p>It has been said that the native language of Boriken was lost, as native people were "exterminated". But, recent studies have probed that native people of Boriken survive and thrive till today, eventough they had somewhat get mixed. Language was not an exception. So indigenois language survive beyond what was known or exposed before. It has been said that we boricuas do not talk a good spanish. But, as recent studies on ethnolinguistics has exposed,it looks that we boricuas do struggle with Spanish because we talk a mixture o castillean language with native language. That language struggling can be traduce also to a struggle with the Castillean grammar. Some time ago, I presented a research on ethnolinguistics made in the island. The research exposed that many of what boricuas say in the actual time is indigenous language. Many words that we as borikuas talk, our way of speech, has an indigenous root. But, many of those words that are native language vocabulary was not consider even a language by the 'Academia de la Lengua Espanola', it was not Spanish nor a wrong way of talk. Studies have revealed that many of those words and wasy o speech are indigenous words and ways of talking. So people grew thinking they talk a bad version of castillean, when they were really talking indigenous language. I have been working on the etymology of more than 300 words, many of those were included in a book published in 2018. The book, "Códigos Lingüísticos de la Chiba Borikua", include a series of essays about ethnolinguistics in the Archipelago known today as Puerto Rico, and a dictionary of words with etymology. It includes the analysis of words already known to be indoantillean, and of many words that were not recorded in any spaniard chronicles, and had not been identified as indigenous in previous dictionaries. I share this information here, as a start for a future discussion , which i titled: Indoantillean language survival among borikuas. I hope this note will motivate that discussion. We have more indigenous language among ourselves as boricuas than what have been said. We have a first etymological dictionary. We will work on another book o Grammar and a text for revitalizing the language. If any reader want additional information on the topic, you can contact me at hnaboli@yahoo.com .</p>
<p></p> Want to build a strong Taino connection in Haiti. Want to meet with Taino in Puerto Rico in Junetag:indigenouscaribbean.ning.com,2019-01-10:2030313:Topic:1315682019-01-10T00:02:41.143ZGreg Croninhttp://indigenouscaribbean.ning.com/profile/GregCronin
<p>Greetings. I am Greg Cronin from Colorado, but I also live in Haiti about 4 months a year. I am not indigenous to America, but I partner with many Native Americans in Colorado to involve indigenous values, knowledge, and practice to land stewardship, through Woodbine Ecology Center. I want to do the same thing in Haiti, and hope to connect with Taino who would be interested in doing this in Haiti.</p>
<p> There is an opportunity to begin discussions this June in San Juan, Puerto Rico, at…</p>
<p>Greetings. I am Greg Cronin from Colorado, but I also live in Haiti about 4 months a year. I am not indigenous to America, but I partner with many Native Americans in Colorado to involve indigenous values, knowledge, and practice to land stewardship, through Woodbine Ecology Center. I want to do the same thing in Haiti, and hope to connect with Taino who would be interested in doing this in Haiti.</p>
<p> There is an opportunity to begin discussions this June in San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the International Interdisciplinary Conference on the Environment, held June 11-14. (<a href="http://ieaonline.org/?page_id=68">http://ieaonline.org/?page_id=68</a>). </p>
<p>Respectfully,</p>
<p>Greg</p>
<p>PS. You can see some of the work I do in Haiti here: <a href="http://yonsellanmou.org/">http://yonsellanmou.org/</a>. I am proud that our NGO is majority Haitian. </p> Puertoricans in North America before colombustag:indigenouscaribbean.ning.com,2013-10-13:2030313:Topic:1002992013-10-13T03:24:14.249ZGuillermo Rosahttp://indigenouscaribbean.ning.com/profile/GuillermoRosa
<p><a href="http://www.examiner.com/article/puertoricans-came-to-north-america-before-columbus">http://www.examiner.com/article/puertoricans-came-to-north-america-before-columbus</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.examiner.com/article/puertoricans-came-to-north-america-before-columbus">http://www.examiner.com/article/puertoricans-came-to-north-america-before-columbus</a></p> GUAGUYONA AND ANAKAKUYA THE STRUGGLE FOR THE COSMIC CENTERtag:indigenouscaribbean.ning.com,2013-07-31:2030313:Topic:987852013-07-31T21:47:55.475ZMiguel Sague Jrhttp://indigenouscaribbean.ning.com/profile/MiguelSobaokoKoromosague
<p>Guaguyona and Anakakuya, Struggle for the Cosmic Center<br></br> <br></br> Tau My Relatives In the "Relacion" of Ramon Pane (a collection of ancient Taino sacred narratives) we are told that there was a leader of some kind in the ancestral cave of Casibajagua who, among other things, sent others out of the cave to seek food and medicinal herbs that were needed by the people crowded into that ancestral abode. That leader was called Guahayona. Although the scholar Lamarche has theorized that this man…</p>
<p>Guaguyona and Anakakuya, Struggle for the Cosmic Center<br/> <br/> Tau My Relatives In the "Relacion" of Ramon Pane (a collection of ancient Taino sacred narratives) we are told that there was a leader of some kind in the ancestral cave of Casibajagua who, among other things, sent others out of the cave to seek food and medicinal herbs that were needed by the people crowded into that ancestral abode. That leader was called Guahayona. Although the scholar Lamarche has theorized that this man represents the first "shaman" in Taino society, we in the Caney Circle suggest instead that Guahayona represents the first Kasike (chief). It seems to us that this legendary character fulfills the role of temporal leader more closely than the role of a spiritual one by his authoritarian behavior, before and after his epochal journey away from and back to the primordial cave.<br/> <br/> According to Pane's account, Guahayona is angered by the fact that the people whom he sent out to get things did not return. The story concludes that the leader, filled with anger, persuaded the women of the cave to abandon their responsibilities within the tribe and follow him out of the cave and away from the rest of the community. This does not appear to be the behavior of a shaman, who, even in the case of extreme misdeed, would not normally have the leadership charisma or extraordinary power of authority to organize such a large group of people to rebel against tradition and norm.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3650274695?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3650274695?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a><br/> <br/> Guahayona is a chief, a kasike, and his selfish and inconsiderate act, committed in a fit of uncontrolled emotion, severely impacts the people as a whole. At this point in the story another character surfaces. His name is Anakakuya. The narrative explains that Anakakuya, a brother-in-law of the wayward leader, resolves to go out and search for him and the women that he took away with him. This appears,on the surface,to be a righteous act until one analyzes the name of this other character for possible symbolic mythological significance. "Anakakuya" as an Arawak/Taino language term has been analyzed by both Jose Juan Arrom and Sebastian Robiou Lamarche to mean "Flower of the Center" and it refers to the North Star. The North Star is the focal point in a cluster of heavenly bodies that comprises the two constellations known as the "Big Dipper"and the "Little Dipper". All of the stars that one sees in the night sky appear to move throughout the night. They move very slowly, but they do move. The movement of the stars can be assessed if one looks up and establishes the position of recognizable star clusters at a specific moment in the night, and then one looks up about two or three hours later and checks to see where those same star clusters are. One notices that they have all moved. In fact the whole sky appears to move in a circular manner all night long and the visible heavenly bodies appear to all rotate around the North Star and its associated constellations, the Big and Little Dippers. In other words, one could make the argument that the whole sky is dancing around these two constellations, almost as if paying tribute to them, hence the name "Flower of the Center".</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3650200280?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3650200280?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a>In effect, Anakakuya's goal is to replace Guahayona on the kasike chief's stool (duho). He is an illegitimate chief.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3650326763?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3650326763?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a><br/> <br/> This concept was evident to many of the ancients. According to the researcher Linda Schele, the ancient Mayas associated the whole Big Dipper/Little Dipper group with two mythological characters called SEVEN MACAW and his wife CHIMALMAT. In ancient Maya mythology, Seven Macaw was a being that had usurped the celestial authority of the sun spirit. He arrogantly declared himself to be the sun and established a dictatorial hegemony over the whole universe supported by the negative powers of a cadre of sinister beings called the Lords of Xibalba. In the ancient Maya narration, Seven Macaw lords it over the subjugated Universe from his elevated post high atop the lofty branches of the Cosmic Tree, a legendary ceiba that stretches from its roots at the bottom of the Underworld to the highest branches spreading in the Heavens. According to Schele, this tree is represented in the night sky by the long luminous band of the Milky Way Galaxy. As it happens, The Big and Little Dipper appear in a position near the northern end of the Milky Way image in such a manner as to suggest that these two characters really are perched atop the great celestial tree.<br/> <img src="https://mayatainoprophecy.webs.com/seven%20macaw.jpg" class="fw_image_computer fwSizeProp" style="margin: 8px; width: 509px; height: 699px;" border="0"/><br/> The Mayan legend says that the great twin heroes of the Maya Creation narrative, Hun Ahpu and Ixbalanque managed to shoot the usurper down from his lofty perch through the use of blow-guns.In the realm of astronomy the spinning motion of the sky during the summer months creates the image, on certain nights, of the Big Dipper rotating down so low in the northern horizon that it actually dissappears into the sea. According to Schele, the image of this constellation disappearing into the marine horizon during the course of the night as if it were falling into the sea is the inspiration of the story of Seven Macaw's defeat at the hands of Hun Ahpu and Ixbalanque.<br/> <br/> In the Taino legend,Anakakuya does, in fact, set out to find Guahayona and the lost women. He does find them but on their trip back to the cave Guahayona tricks him. He persuades his brother-in-law to go out in their canoe to fish. While they are on the water, Guahayona points to a lovely sea-shell at the bottom of the water and tells Anakakuya to look at it. As Anakakuya leans over the gunwale of the canoe, Guahayona grabs him violently and tosses him into the water. Anakakuya drowns and Guaguyona is again left master of the situation. This drama appears to play out in the northern sky when the Big Dipper sinks behind the marine horizon on a Summer night.</p>
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<br/> <br/> Given that Lamarche equates the same Big Dipper/Little Dipper cluster of stars with Anakakuya, and that he also goes as far as to suggest that the movements of the summer sky which creates the image of the big Dipper diving below the marine horizon is a visual metaphor for Anakakuya falling into the water, we propose that Anakakuya is the Taino counterpart of the Mayan Seven Macaw. We further propose that like Seven Macaw, Anakakuya represents a counterfeit leader attempting to usurp power from the legitimate leader during his moment of weakness.<br/> <br/> Lamarche remarks that Anakakuya's death is a "sacrifice" that needs to be offered in order for the later adventures of Guahayona to take place. In Lamarche's estimation these adventures in turn must take place in order to provide the Taino people with a celestial guidepost (the North Star) which helps them navigate during the night. Lamarche asserts that upon Anakakuya's death Guahayona is given the liberty to make a legendary voyage with the aid of the North Star navigation, to the realm of the supernatural where he arrives in a state of illness, stricken with a disease. The women that accompanied him away from the cave abandoned him and created a man-free community on a desolate island called Matinino (Place With No Fathers). At the conclusion of his voyage he meets a holy woman called Guabonito. After this woman has healed him of the sickness, she gives him certain sacred stones (cibas) and the golden guanin medallion of the chief which he is to wear upon his return to his people. Along with these cibas and medallion, Lamarche contends that Guaguyona is given the ceremonial magic that is needed by the Tainos to move foward from the ancestral period to modern times.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3650353688?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3650353688?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p></p>
<p>A study of Mayan mythology gives us an insight into this issue. In the Popol Vuh, the Mayan Creation Narrative, the Mayan counterpart of the Taino Anakakuya is Seven Macaw,as I stated earlier. Seven Macaw was an illegitimate leader. Lamarche contends in his book that Anakakuya was a "cacique" (kasike) p. 31, a leader. But since he also insists that this "leader" needs to be killed for Guahayona's legendary journey to take place, and he calls Guahayona a "culture hero" p. 26, it can only be surmised that Lamarche considers Anakakuya a kind of obstacle to the legendary process and a negative entity of some kind that has to be eliminated.This coincides very appropriately with theidentification of Seven Macaw in the Mayan Creation Narrative. Seven Macaw is an illegitimate leader, set upon his throne by the Lords of Xibalba, taking advantage of the fact that the Creator spirit, the real Cosmic king, FIRST FATHER, in a moment of weakness has been defeated and murdered by them. FIRST FATHER is later revived and brought back from the dead by his off-springs Hun Ahpu and Ixbalanque, the sacredtwins of Mayan mythology.</p>
<p><br/> <br/> In the Taino legend,Guahayona can be identified with the Mayan First Father. Guahayona's sickness, which comes about partly as a result of his great sin, his great moment of weakness, can be equated to the death of the Maya First Father, which also comes about in his moment of weakness. In fact Lamarche compares the process of sickness-to-healing that Guaguyona experiences in the Taino legend with the well-known universal shamanic process of initiation in which shamans actually get sick and often actually go through a form of "death" before being brought back as fully initiated p. 32. As I mentioned earlier, we in the Caney tradition view Guaguyona as the first kasike rather than the first shaman,but our contention still holds true in light of the fact that we know that Taino kasikes did perform many spiritual leadership duties, and were considered to be a form of spiritual guide under certain conditions, even going as far as to being the leaders of important ceremonies performed in their own CANEY personal dwelling. Under these circumstances it is reasonable to assume that kasikes, also were subject to spiritual "Death-to-Rebirth" type of initiatory processes similar to shamans.<br/> <br/> We therefore see Anakakuya as an illegitimate leader, presumably put in power by negative forces i na moment of opportunistic usurpation, during the period of Guahayona's personal weakness. We see Guahayona as later "coming back to his senses" and taking the appropriate action by removing Anakakuya from his illegitimate position of power, by casting him into the primordial ocean. We also see Guahayona as suffering the sickness, ritually experiencing a form of shamanic initiation. At the conclusion of this initiation the female healer Guabonito grants him the gifts of scared stones and the gold chief's medallion (guanin) which validate his claim to the leader's seat, the sacred dujo (ceremonialstool). By doing this the Tainos express the cultural reality that in Taino societythe leader derives his authority from the head women, the clan-mothers, who are also the repositories of ancestral healing wisdom. Accordingly Guaguyona changes his nameto Albeborael Guahayona. This is in keeping with well-established universal shamanic tradition in which people who survive severe initiatory illness are presumed to be "re-born" and therefore need to be given a new name. In the Mayan legend the re-born FIRST FATHER only acquires that name after his death and re-birth. before that, he was called One-Hunahpu.<br/> <br/> The independent researcher John Major Jenkins has proposed that the struggle for power between the two leaders Seven Macaw and First Father is, in fact, the transition of belief in a Cosmic Center that took place at a specific period of the development of Mayan culture. According to Jenkins, primordially, it was common for the ancients to assume that the center of the Cosmos was the North Star because all other stars and heavenly bodies appear to rotate around it as if paying homage to it. Later shamanic inspiration led them to conclude that it was, in fact the concordance of the great Milky way Galaxy and the sun that in fact composed or represented the true Cosmic Center. This shift in belief system seems to have happened in very ancient times, and according to Jenkins, was mythologized in the legend of Hun-Ahpu (a character who represents the power of the Sun in conjunction with the galaxy)as he shoots Seven Macaw (a character who represents the North Star) from his perch atop the Central Tree. By doing this Hun-Ahpu makes way for his father to take on the task of creation, which is initiated by the sacred act of erecting a new Central Tree (a symbol of the Galaxy). This act verifies the validity of the Milky way Galaxy as the true Cosmic Center. Jenkins then associates the great leader, First Father (who as well as his son and name-sake Hun-Ahpu is a symbol of the sun) with the Milky Way Galaxy by claiming that the Galaxy is perceived by the Mayas as a kind of background "seat" or "birth-home" of the sun. He sees the celestial positioning of the Milky Way Galaxy in conjunction with the sun as a sacred association of Hun-Ahpu/First Father in his proper throne and birth-place.<br/> <br/> I propose that likewise Anakakuya may represent an illegitimate pretender to the Cosmic Center "throne", the ceremonial dujo. He is defeated and tossed into the primordial sea, making way for the true kasike to take his place on the dujo. Present day researchers contend that the ancient Tainos perceived a CentralAxis tree very similar to that of the Mayas, which comprised the center of the Cosmos. This tree was perceived to symbolically run through the center of the body of the kasike as he sat upon the ceremonial dujo. This in a way can be associated to the Maya belief of the Milky Way Central Tree being the "seat" of the solar Mayan king. Lamarche associates the Taino kasike with the solar power. This coincides with the Mayan association of First Father (a representative of all Mayan kings) with the sun. The association of the Taino kasike with the sun and of the kasike-dujo combination with the sun-Galaxy conjunction is a direct reference to the Mayan legend as representing the victory of the solar-galactic deity over the North Star usurper.<br/> <br/> In conclusion I would like to add that in the Mayan creation story Hun-Ahpu and his father FIRST FATHER are both associated to the movements of Venus during its 584-day cycle. Coincidentally, Lamarche also associates the hero Guaguyona with the Vens Cycle p. 36.<br/> <br/> Taino Ti Miguel Sobaoko Koromo</p> Mayohoucantag:indigenouscaribbean.ning.com,2013-06-01:2030313:Topic:975202013-06-01T12:27:18.407ZAkitchitay Urayoelhttp://indigenouscaribbean.ning.com/profile/AkitchitayUrayoel
<p>Takaji Relatives,</p>
<p></p>
<p> I am making Mayohoucans for our relatives. Woman and men are able to be a mayohoucan keeper.</p>
<p>I have a list of people wanting. and am willing to make one for anyone who wants one.</p>
<p>The Mayo is the sound of our people in many ways, we played them for weeks at a time. My teacher Makanaxeiti has taught me they are related to the Koki, However I hear there are no Koki's on other Islands except Boriken.</p>
<p></p>
<p>I find the mayo to be related to…</p>
<p>Takaji Relatives,</p>
<p></p>
<p> I am making Mayohoucans for our relatives. Woman and men are able to be a mayohoucan keeper.</p>
<p>I have a list of people wanting. and am willing to make one for anyone who wants one.</p>
<p>The Mayo is the sound of our people in many ways, we played them for weeks at a time. My teacher Makanaxeiti has taught me they are related to the Koki, However I hear there are no Koki's on other Islands except Boriken.</p>
<p></p>
<p>I find the mayo to be related to the Inriri (woodpecker). I am learning more on this precious instrument and asking for more teachings on the subject.</p>
<p>If anyone could share with me I would be grateful.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Taino Ti - Akitchitay Urayoel</p> The complicated identity of the Tainotag:indigenouscaribbean.ning.com,2013-05-23:2030313:Topic:974262013-05-23T14:53:43.253ZIgnacio G. Riverahttp://indigenouscaribbean.ning.com/profile/IgnacioGRivera
<p>I've been thinking about this for years. Where do we fit in? It seems like we are constantly fighting to prove that the Taino exists. We are not a federally recognized tribe...am I right? I've read that this has something to do with the fact that there is no treaty/ no reservations/ and the belief that we are extinct. Do we have nations/ tribes? Are we considered Native American? Boriken has such a long and complicated history with the United States where do we fit in when we are a…</p>
<p>I've been thinking about this for years. Where do we fit in? It seems like we are constantly fighting to prove that the Taino exists. We are not a federally recognized tribe...am I right? I've read that this has something to do with the fact that there is no treaty/ no reservations/ and the belief that we are extinct. Do we have nations/ tribes? Are we considered Native American? Boriken has such a long and complicated history with the United States where do we fit in when we are a commonwealth of it? I only ever hear of Native American, Alaskan Native and Canadian Natives..where are we? I feel so invisible. What do others think/ have to say? Thanks for reading my little rant.</p> Traditional Wisdom sadly abandoned (By Tai Pelli)tag:indigenouscaribbean.ning.com,2013-01-24:2030313:Topic:945692013-01-24T01:55:07.881ZMiguel Sague Jrhttp://indigenouscaribbean.ning.com/profile/MiguelSobaokoKoromosague
<h3 class="post-title entry-title"><a href="http://taipelli.blogspot.com/2012/06/traditional-knowledge.html?showComment=1358986151421#c9051566449292289021" target="_blank">Traditional Knowledge</a></h3>
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<div class="post-body entry-content"><div align="center">Traditional Knowledge</div>
<div align="center">06/01/2012</div>
<div>There are many aspects to this term; it is amazingly extensive with cultural elements, oral…</div>
</div>
<h3 class="post-title entry-title"><a href="http://taipelli.blogspot.com/2012/06/traditional-knowledge.html?showComment=1358986151421#c9051566449292289021" target="_blank">Traditional Knowledge</a></h3>
<div class="post-header"><div class="post-header-line-1"></div>
</div>
<div class="post-body entry-content"><div align="center">Traditional Knowledge</div>
<div align="center">06/01/2012</div>
<div>There are many aspects to this term; it is amazingly extensive with cultural elements, oral history and traditions, but I want to concentrate on something that now seems to be a “gem to be acquired” by the same ones that put it down over 40 years ago.</div>
<div>I will share my own story. I was born in New York and eventually my parents decided “I needed to learn Spanish in the island (Borikén/Puerto Rico)”, yes, that was their lame excuse to leave me behind with my grandparents during one of our trips. My Manhattan’s tall buildings were exchanged for a humble farm that cultivated everything but rice. A beautiful sugarcane field was our commercial source. The coffee field was for the consumption of the family. We had fruits, spices, bananas of every kind, we had <i>jaguas</i> (há-goo-as), <i>guamá,</i> <i>caimitos</i>, <i>mamey</i>, <i>guayaba</i>, among many other autochthonous fruits (look at the names, mostly Taíno), and every herb capable of curing or alleviating any ailment.</div>
<div>At the beginning I went along with grandma’s remedies, but eventually I became infested and I started doubting the effectiveness of their knowledge on healing with their “archaic ways of healing”. These were times of doctors and medicines and everyone had the habit of asking what you had been given to help your illness. Of course, I was a child, the elements of peer pressure were already present and I did not want to confess that grandma had made me special teas or placed some leaves of whatever it was to bring swelling down when that was the case. I learned to feel shame in their ways. I had already lived it and seen the others’ reactions. When I helped grandma clean and organize the triangle-shaped shelves, I always placed the <i>alcoholado</i> with herbs on the back of the shelf, in case we had company. I remember that whenever grandpa had his kidney problems, I had to go to a particular garden that had a variety of healing herbs for all kinds of ailments and grandpa would drink from that water saved for him in that large pitcher with herbs.</div>
<div>Whenever he came from the sugarcane field and was bitten by a venomous centipede, grandma would send for these huge leaves that had to be placed over the affected area.</div>
<div>My grandma from Mayagüez also made special teas whenever we were sick. Those were the ways! Oh! But I was from the growing generation that believed and bought into pharmaceuticals and who presented people like my grandparents and their ways as primitive and ignorant. Believe me , I had to go to that garden so many times, and look for <i>jaguas</i> by the tree for that special water they too, made me drink. Unfortunately for me, I learned very little compared to all they knew and had to offer.</div>
<div>The thing is that I was not the only one hopping onto this van wagon of so-called progress. An entire generation was being influenced and pharmaceuticals started making lots of money. People began to prefer the pill vs. the tea, the topical cream vs. the leaf on the affected site. We became the pill generation. Trusting our doctors and taking whatever they prescribed, while something else became damaged, so that they could sell you yet another pill and so on. People started dying of cancers, or as they said in the island: “unexpectedly”. But hey, they had been on five different pills for their condition!</div>
<div>I still remember how in the 70’s it seemed like everyone was dying from cancer. In my family, the Pelli’s and the Negron’s, both strong people, were falling like mangoes off a tree. Ah! The advancements and progress over those primitive ways!</div>
<div>Argh! It angers me to remember grandpa’s stories of meals of <i>funche</i> (corn meal) and <i>bacalao</i> (cod fish), or simply a coconut when there was nothing else and times were hard. Him and my great grandmother lived an entire century, when now the average life expectancy in the U.S. for example is of 89.5 years, but what they don’t share is the quality of those 89.5 years, of blood diluted with what I call the “pharma-plasmas” that instead of giving you life, extend your misery.</div>
<div>A lot of Indigenous Peoples lost their ways and habits of sustenance. I still enjoyed eating what we grew and grandpa’s agricultural system and wisdom, but eventually a lot of that changed as grandpa aged. Actually, both grandpas aged and canned food and packaged things seemed more advanced and practical than going to <i>“La Plaza del Mercado”</i>, (Farmer’s Market), which had impressed me so much when I arrived from New York. It was filled with people, chatter, fruits and vegetables, poultry, all so very fresh. I still remember the smell and the activity. Oh! Now, it is all fancied-up, but it is dead; it lost its life and there are so very few people that I prefer staying away and preserving the joyous memories of my childhood.</div>
<div>Chef Boy-ar-dee, Spam, canned tuna replaced the cod fish, going to the farm to pull some yucca, or the wonderful trip to the fish market, as local fishermen arrived in their <i>“yolas”</i> with their catch (unpretentious small-type-boats), and watching the beautiful ocean while at it.</div>
<div>However, the rules of the game changed, and some fool realized that the old way was not that primitive after all. People were healthier, stronger, and their foods had all these properties so beneficial to the human body. They also realized that the old remedies worked, and as they thought about it, dollar signs multiplied over their heads, and with this grave mentality that anything that belongs to anyone indigenous is a “free for grabs”, they did just that.</div>
<div>They started approaching people to learn about remedies. Knowledge that was shared with good intention, but the receiver was already thinking of the Sales & Marketing Strategies for it, of course, excluding the indigenous peoples from those who would benefit from it.</div>
<div>So they took again! It has not stopped!</div>
<div>Why? Why do Bolivians have to see their <i>Quinoa</i> leave their country, so that the fancy in my own city, New York, could benefit from it? The <i>Quinoa</i> is the most recent example. Bolivians used it in an array of dishes and forms. Now they can hardly acquire the nourishment that was part of their diet for centuries if not longer. Remember <i>“Uña de Gato”</i>? Same thing, mass production and mass profits.</div>
<div>Why is organic food unaffordable to Pepe González? It is all about the money, and if you have it, you can eat organic. If you are part of the bigger mass that has to stretch the dollar and make miracles with it, you have to buy the high-fat, high-salt, canned food , which is what you will be able to afford and eventually, get so sick the pharmaceutical can squeeze you out some more while you get on some type of pill.</div>
<div>Territories “officially declared” as Indigenous lands are being taken over, and as opposed to the continuance of the agricultural system that has sustained its peoples, what’s being planted is one type of tree, i.e. Eucalyptus, which drains the terrain of water, hence leaving adjacent villages without the precious liquid that sustains us all.</div>
<div>I have listened to “experts” (people that think know a lot), try to educate and encourage Indigenous Peoples to plant their food. Ok, REWIND!!!!! They are now coming to tell them to plant, so that they can eat healthier? Meaning no Spam, no foods high on fats and salt, no canned foods? Go Organic? So, isn’t this about going back to basics, going back to what had been the normal way of sustenance before these global invasions?</div>
<div>Yesterday, while at a doctor’s office, I had no choice but to amuse myself by reading every poster on the wall; all advertising some pill, of course, with the disclaimers of all the things that could go wrong, or the areas that may become affected by taking that medication, including death. Absurd!</div>
<div>I have learned to appreciate the teas and the leaves. They still work! Conventional medicine has gotten to a point where saying: “It could be this or it might be that, or I don’t know”, have become the new norm, while simultaneously handing you a prescription. However, if someone chooses to seek alternative methods, they are quick to frown or even drop them as patients not before telling them off. When someone has made a claim to have either gotten better or cured from an illness by using these methods, they are quick to criticize, mock or blatantly discredit and/or deny that such has occurred.</div>
<div>I have had my share of medical challenges, I still live with them. I have heard the I don’t know’s, the maybe it’s this, or maybe it’s that, and at my weakest moments and frustration, the memory of my grandmothers pop to mind and I am so sure, that had they been alive, one of them would have had some special tea, or placed their hands on me in that peculiar way I saw one do to so many people that sought her help, that perhaps would have cured me a long time ago, instead of having to serve a Life Sentence with Pharmaceuticals.</div>
<div>Tai Pelli</div>
</div>
<div class="post-footer"><div class="post-footer-line post-footer-line-1">Posted by <a title="author profile" href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/05873080674346084036" rel="author">Tai Pelli</a> at <br/> <a class="timestamp-link" title="permanent link" href="http://taipelli.blogspot.com/2012/06/traditional-knowledge.html" rel="bookmark"><abbr class="published" title="2012-06-01T16:37:00-07:00">4:37 PM</abbr></a></div>
</div> Taino Park en Samaná, Republica Dominicanatag:indigenouscaribbean.ning.com,2012-08-23:2030313:Topic:902312012-08-23T19:58:08.919ZMichelle I. Poncehttp://indigenouscaribbean.ning.com/profile/MichelleIPonce
<p><a href="http://www.tainopark.com/inicio_es.html" target="_blank">http://www.tainopark.com/inicio_es.html</a></p>
<p></p>
<p>Hay alguien que ha visitado este parque?</p>
<p>Que opinan de tal propuesta?</p>
<p>Conocen de otros parques "Tainos" en el Caribe?</p>
<p></p>
<p>Me encantaria conocer sus ideas/opiniones...</p>
<p></p>
<p>Gracias!!</p>
<p>Michelle I. Ponce</p>
<p>tacubando@yahoo.com</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://www.tainopark.com/inicio_es.html" target="_blank">http://www.tainopark.com/inicio_es.html</a></p>
<p></p>
<p>Hay alguien que ha visitado este parque?</p>
<p>Que opinan de tal propuesta?</p>
<p>Conocen de otros parques "Tainos" en el Caribe?</p>
<p></p>
<p>Me encantaria conocer sus ideas/opiniones...</p>
<p></p>
<p>Gracias!!</p>
<p>Michelle I. Ponce</p>
<p>tacubando@yahoo.com</p>
<p></p> Modern day Taino life and revivaltag:indigenouscaribbean.ning.com,2012-06-18:2030313:Topic:888652012-06-18T10:24:58.059ZSombrazhttp://indigenouscaribbean.ning.com/profile/Sombraz
Semign Cacona Guari guatiaos,<br />
It seems as if today many indigenous nations including our own Taino people have lost spirituality and inner peace. I have traveled to many indigenous territories and have seen this destruction time and time again, it really does break my heart. So one must ask how can one maintain a balanced scale of maintaing the old ways while managing the stress of everyday modern life?<br />
The answer is simple we must rely on each other to keep the ball rolling so to…
Semign Cacona Guari guatiaos,<br />
It seems as if today many indigenous nations including our own Taino people have lost spirituality and inner peace. I have traveled to many indigenous territories and have seen this destruction time and time again, it really does break my heart. So one must ask how can one maintain a balanced scale of maintaing the old ways while managing the stress of everyday modern life?<br />
The answer is simple we must rely on each other to keep the ball rolling so to speak. We as Taino people have affirmed we are still here yet we still have a long road ahead. Because our culture has been hidden and disguised for so long we have the difficult task of not only relearning the old ways of our yukayeques but we also have to make sure we pass it on to the next generation do they can say Daca Taino without<br />
A doubt!!!! I have started my journey back home to the Taino nation at the age of 13 and I am learning everyday. I honestly believe some are chosen my the spirits of our ancestors. I applaud all of our Taino people who carry this burden and make a positive outcome. We must remember our valiant elders such as Bo Miguel Sague, Cacike Guanikeyu Torres, Cacike Caciba Opil, and Tekin eiru Maynard who have put their blood sweat and tears revitalizing our traditions and ways of life. Now it is up to us the next generation to learn from our elders and continue to pass <br />
Down the torch for the future. What can we do as this generation Tainos that already hasn't been done to improve our structure and unite our people I am open to any suggestions . I am a warrior for our people and am ready to help bring our people to the next step jajom. Modern day Taino life and revivaltag:indigenouscaribbean.ning.com,2012-06-18:2030313:Topic:889562012-06-18T10:17:58.456ZSombrazhttp://indigenouscaribbean.ning.com/profile/Sombraz
Semign Cacona Guari guatiaos,<br />
It seems as if today many indigenous nations including our own Taino people have lost spirituality and inner peace. I have traveled to many indigenous territories and have seen this destruction time and time again, it really does break my heart. So one must ask how can one maintain a balanced scale of maintaing the old ways while managing the stress of everyday modern life?<br />
The answer is simple we must rely on each other to keep the ball rolling so to…
Semign Cacona Guari guatiaos,<br />
It seems as if today many indigenous nations including our own Taino people have lost spirituality and inner peace. I have traveled to many indigenous territories and have seen this destruction time and time again, it really does break my heart. So one must ask how can one maintain a balanced scale of maintaing the old ways while managing the stress of everyday modern life?<br />
The answer is simple we must rely on each other to keep the ball rolling so to speak. We as Taino people have affirmed we are still here yet we still have a long road ahead. Because our culture has been hidden and disguised for so long we have the difficult task of not only relearning the old ways of our yukayeques but we also have to make sure we pass it on to the next generation do they can say Daca Taino without<br />
A doubt!!!! I have started my journey back home to the Taino nation at the age of 13 and I am learning everyday. I honestly believe some are chosen my the spirits of our ancestors. I applaud all of our Taino people who carry this burden and make a positive outcome. We must remember our valiant elders such as Bo