A Cave of Art and God
Friday, July 22nd, 2016July 22, 2016
On July 19, a team of British and Puerto Rican researchers published an article in the journal Antiquity detailing drawings on the walls and ceilings of a cave on the Puerto Rican island of Mona (Isla Mona in Spanish). Cave drawings are not especially rare on islands in the Caribbean, but the rich imagery of this cave, called Cave 18, proved to be something special. Many of the inscriptions were made by native Taíno people, and some date back nearly 1,000 years. Most of the inscriptions, however, date from the 1500′s, during the early years of the region’s Spanish conquest. And many of the inscriptions were made by Spanish colonists, side-by-side with Taíno drawings. Most of the inscriptions depict a variety of religious and spiritual symbols, with space given to both Taíno and Spanish beliefs. The researchers claim the inscriptions are evidence of mutual religious exchange and tolerance, a rare occurrence at a time when the Spanish sought to convert native peoples to Christianity, often through the use of force.
Cave 18′s inscriptions include many crosses, Christian phrases written in Latin and Spanish, names of Christian Saints, and Christograms (abbreviations of the name of Christ). There are also many Taíno symbols, including complex figures with human and animal features, human faces, wavy lines, and different styles of crosses. The Spanish inscriptions were made with a metal dagger or other sharp object. They are easily distinguished from Taíno etchings made with fingers in the soft limestone. The mix of religious symbols suggests that the Taíno were able to communicate and explain their religious beliefs while receiving Spanish suggestions at the same time.
Mona Island lies some 41 miles (66 kilometers) west of Puerto Rico. The Taíno people lived there and in other areas of the Caribbean. They were the first Native Americans encountered by Christopher Columbus after he arrived in the region in 1492. Christian Spanish missionaries soon established themselves among the Taíno, and native spiritual beliefs were largely repressed. Cave 18, however, shows not all Spanish colonists treated religion with so heavy a hand. Unfortunately for the Taíno, the Spanish arrival proved their undoing. By 1600, most had been killed or had died of disease.
Some elements of Taíno culture survive in the Caribbean region as a result of syncretism, the bringing together or merger of two or more distinct beliefs or customs. Most scholars think that all religions have experienced at least some level of syncretism. Today, most people in Puerto Rico are Roman Catholic. However some remnants of Taíno beliefs survive in the practices of espiritismo, a form of traditional religious healing in Puerto Rico. Taíno culture survives also in our everyday language. English and Spanish words of Taíno origin include canoe (canoa), hammock (hamaca), hurricane (huracán), iguana, maize (maiz), manatee (manatí), papaya, and tobacco (tabaca).