Caciques and Cemi Idols

University of Alabama Press

2009

xviii, 306 pages

Caribbean archaeology and ethnohistory

9780817381172

Contents; List of Illustrations and Tables; Preface; PART I. INTRODUCTION AND THEORETICAL PREMISES; 1. Introduction; 2. Believers of Cemíism: Who Were the Taínos and Where Did They Come From?; 3. Webs of Interaction: Human Beings, Other Beings, and Many Things; 4. Personhood and the Animistic Amerindian Perspective; 5. Contrasting Animistic and Naturalistic Worldviews; PART II. THE FORM, PERSONHOOD, IDENTITY, AND POTENCY OF CEMÍ IDOLS; 6. The Cemí Reveals Its Personhood and Its Body Form; 7. Cemí Idols and Taínoan Idolatry; 8. Cemís and Personal Identities PART III. THE SOCIAL RELATIONS AND CIRCULATION OF CEMÍ IDOLS AND HUMAN BEINGS9. The Power and Potency of the Cemís; 10. The Display of Cemís: Personal vs. Communal Ownership, Private vs. Public Function; 11. Face-to-Face Interactions: Cemís, Idols, and the Native Political Elite; 12. Hanging On to and Losing the Power of the Cemí Idols; 13. The Inheritance and Reciprocal Exchange of Cemí Icons; 14. Cemís: Alienable or Inalienable; To Give or To Keep; PART IV. STONE COLLARS, ELBOW STONES, THREE-POINTERS, STONE HEADS, AND GUAÍZAS; 15. Stone Collars, Elbow Stones, and Caciques 16. Ancestor Cemís and the Cemíification of the Caciques17. The Guaíza Face Masks: Gifts of the Living for the Living; 18. The Circulation of Chiefs' Names, Women, and Cemís: Between the Greater and Lesser Antilles; PART V. THE BATTLES FOR THE CEMÍS IN HISPANIOLA, BORIQUÉN, AND CUBA; 19. Up in Arms: Taíno Freedom Fighters in Higüey and Boriquén; 20. The Virgin Mary Icons and Native Cemís: Two Cases of Religious Syncretism in Cuba; 21. Religious Syncretism and Transculturation: The Crossroads toward New Identities; PART VI. CONCLUSIONS; 22. Final Remarks; References Cited

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 g

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