Caciques and Cemí idols the web spun by Taíno rulers between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico /

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-huma...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Oliver, José R.
Format: Electronic
Language:English
Published: Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, c2009.
Series:Caribbean archaeology and ethnohistory.
Subjects:
Online Access:View fulltext via EzAccess
Table of Contents:
  • Introduction
  • Believers of Cemíism : who were the Taínos and where did they come from?
  • Webs of interaction : human beings, other beings, and many things
  • Personhood and the animistic Amerindian perspective
  • Contrasting animistic and naturalistic worldviews
  • The Cemí reveals its personhood and its body form
  • Cemí idols and Taínoan idolatry
  • Cemís and personal identities
  • The power and potency of the Cemís
  • The display of Cemís : personal vs. communal ownership, private vs. public function
  • Face-to-face interactions : Cemís, idols, and the native political elite
  • Hanging on to and losing the power of the Cemí idols
  • The inheritance and reciprocal exchange of Cemí icons
  • Cemís : alienable or inalienable; to give and to keep
  • Stone collars, elbow stones, and caciques
  • Ancestor Cemís and the Cemíification of the caciques
  • The guaíza face masks : gifts of the living for the living
  • The circulation of chief's names, women, and Cemís : between the greater and lesser Antilles
  • Up in arms : Taíno freedom fighters in Higüey and Boriquén
  • The virgin Mary icons and native Cemís : two cases of religious syncretism in Cuba
  • Religious syncretism and transculturation : the crossroads toward new identities
  • Final remarks.