Cacique Panchito Ramírez leads a traditional Smoking of Macuyo ceremony in Caridad de los Indios, Cuba.
The narrative of Taíno extinction through-
out the centuries has meant a serious lack of dedicated academic inquiry into the subject, which propels many within the movement to become their own citizen scientists, com- paring familial and local customs with Taíno beliefs and rituals recorded in the conquest chronicles. Miguel Sagué, a pioneer of Taíno resurgence, speaks of the healing ritual of despojo (dispossession) in his native Cuba. Despojo is common in the Afro-Caribbean religion of Lukumí, using herbs, baths and prayer for energetic purification.
Sagué,
however, describes despojo as being a curative method practiced by some Cuban families, including that of his wife. In this tradition, the healer takes the afflicted person, spins him/ her around in both directions, rubs the length of their arms from shoulders to hands, and then vigorously pulls and shakes their arms and hands, to “pull out” their malady. Sagué relates this healing method to techniques of ancient Taíno healers recorded by chronicler Ramón Pané, wherein they performed it over the legs and feet rather than the upper limbs. While elaborate Taíno ceremonies and be-
lief systems did not survive the conquest era intact, Native retentions are evident in some of the syncretic, or blended, religions of the
rural Caribbean, reflecting a complex fusion of folk Catholic, Afro-diasporic and Native traditions. In these highly syncretic places, it is sometimes difficult for scholars to deduce the origins of practices that are interpretable through various cultural lenses. However, Na- tive influences are identifiable in various tra- ditions that commune with Taíno spirits, as in 21 Divisions, that adopted and ritualistically use endemic flora and foods sacred to Taíno, as in Lukumí, and that use mediumship for
Agronomist Lisandra teaches about plants and farming to students who participate in the Naguake curriculum, an Indigenous cultural and linguistic educational program in schools throughout eastern Puerto Rico. Increasing economic and ecological volatility in the Caribbean is bringing many people “back to the land.” For Naguake, this is in ways that value Native and ancestral agronomical knowledge.
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 21
PHOTO BY CHRISTINA M. GONZÁLEZ
PHOTO COURTESY OF JOSÉ BARREIRO
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