The museum I chose to visit for this assignment was the National Museum of the American Indian. Once exploring the different cultures from the American continent, the artistry of one particular race of native Americans caught my interest. In one exhibition, an array of artifacts were on display, belonging to a race of native Americans known as the Taino people. The term Taino, as I read from the description, was used by the Spanish colonists when they arrived in the Americas in search for gold and other forms of exotic wealth. The term was recorded in the Spanish Chronicles in 1493, possessing the meaning of “good people”. It was interesting, since in we learned in the past years of our studies, the Spanish colonists were notorious for using the natives as cheap labor, and brought upon devastation to the stone age cultures with their foreign diseases and overwhelming technological advantage, so maybe this term was used to try and mitigate the impression that colonists had on the natives and try to uphold peace.
The Taino objects were mostly constructed out of stone, wood, and ceramics, implying that their geological features of the wooded and hydrated areas granted them much of the materials to develop forms of art. What’s interesting is that even though the assimilation of cultures took place during the colonial era, the native Americans’ arts were not really influenced in any way by the colonists’ arrival. Though it did change some of their choices for material after the introduction of certain foreign plants and animals were brought over by the colonists. During the cultural exchange the European colonists obtained new standard crops such as maize and sweet potato. Many of the artifacts were taken from their rightful places by the colonists, hence why most of these items featured on display are donated by various buyers from the past, though intensive care by these collectors might actually have kept these pieces intact for longer, had these objects not been taken, they might not have survived until today.
As I continued on, one object caught my eye. This object is known as the “Taino Carved Stone”. The time period in which it was created and used was estimated to be around 1200-1500 AD. This object appeared to look like a monolith with engravings that depict a figure within its borders, probably a depiction of an ancestral figure and this object was probably used at ceremonial sites. The Taino had traditions of song and dance ceremonies, as well as sports, and these sites held significant importance to their culture. Upon analyzing and comparing this piece to the other sculptures and crafts by the Taino, I found that most of these pieces of arts were used in ceremonial purposes. The Taino were a humble race of people, and the objects they produce for their own survival are pretty standard, not eye catching, but when it comes to honoring the higher power in their society, the amount of artisan craft can be clearly seen through their stone-cutting and ceramics.
