Language of the Voiceless: Traces of Taino Language, Food, and Culture in the Americas From 1492 to the Present

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only difference between these two sites is the presence of a pre-Tainan iron weapon in
one versus a wooden macana at the other. However, another important note about a
possible Taino- pre-Columbian maize connection and how this plant could have gotten
to the Caribbean from the mainland is from another pre-Tainan excavation at a site
named Maíta. In this site, there seem to be an individual with different cranial
modification, more related to the Mayas of the mainland among the remains 130 . It is
astounding that both sites, Maísi and Maíta, with such unusual archaeologies share
the same maí > ‘garden” prefix in their names. Moreover, both names are toponymic in
nature, which could be related to events or specific characteristic conditions of the area
to which they give the name.
However, going back to our analysis of BDC’s text, it is unique that the term
maíz is employed, not only as a lexicalized term in all the variants of the text, but as
common pluralized Spanish word, maizales. It seems that for some reason the writer
did not choose to use the Nahuatl term milpa to refer to the plantation, but instead, he
used the lexicalized Taino term as if writing for an audience familiarized with this word.
Number of Mentions of the word maíz in The True History of the Conquest
of New Spain including the cross reference of the three manuscripts: 176
Other Primary Sources Mentions of the possible origin of the word maíz:
a)— In Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Historia de Indias Volumen I:
130
(Duijvenbode, 2012)