Taíno is a term referring to a historic Indigenous people of the Caribbean, whose culture has been continued today by their descendants and Taíno revivalist communities. Indigenous people in the Greater Antilles did not refer to themselves as Taínos, as the term was coined by the anthropologist Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1836. The Indigenous peoples of the Greater Antilles are sometimes referred to as Island Arawaks. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of what is now Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Haiti, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and the northern Lesser Antilles. The Lucayan branch of the Taíno were the first New World peoples encountered by Christopher Columbus, in the Bahama Archipelago on October 12, 1492. The Taíno historically spoke a dialect of the Arawakan language group. They lived in agricultural societies ruled by caciques with fixed settlements and a matrilineal system of kinship and inheritance. Taíno religion centered on the worship of zemis.
Some anthropologists and historians have argued that the Taíno were no longer extant centuries ago, or that they gradually merged into a common identity with African and Hispanic cultures. However, many people today identify as Taíno or have Taíno descent, most notably in subsections of the Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Dominican nationalities. Many Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Dominicans have Caribbean-Indigenous mitochondrial DNA, suggesting Taíno descent through the direct female line. While some communities describe an unbroken cultural heritage passed down from the old Taíno peoples, often in secret, others are revivalist communities who seek to incorporate Taíno culture into their lives.
Distance between:
Rome to Taino331 Miles / 532 Kms Milan to Taino34 Miles / 55 Kms Venice to Taino181 Miles / 291 Kms
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