The Earliest Inhabitants: The Dynamics of the Jamaican Taino

10. Beans (Phaseolus spp.)
11. Tobacco (Nicotiana rustica)
According to ethnographic sources, the Taínos cultivated cassava, sweet
potato, yampi, arrowroot, coco, maize, pineapple, peanuts, squash, beans and
tobacco in their conucos or gardens. Fernández de Oviedo describes their cultivation
of maize:
In Hispaniola both the Indians and Spaniards have two kinds of bread, for the
Christians eat the same bread as the Indians. One sort is made of maiz (maize),
which is a grain, and the other is cassava, which is a root of the manioc. Corn
is planted and harvested in the following manner....The Indians first cut down
the cane and trees where they wish to plant it. After the trees have been felled
and the field grubbed, the land is burned and the ashes left as a dressing for
the soil. An Indian takes in his hand a stick (coa) as tall as he is, and plunges the
point into the earth, then he pulls it out, and in the hole he has made places
with his other hand about seven or eight grains of corn. Then he takes another
step forward and repeats the process. (1959, 13–14)
Fernández de Oviedo also states that when the Indians and Christians planted
pineapples, they put them in regular rows like vine stalks in a vineyard
(1959, 99). Cultivation of domesticated crops was clearly important to Taíno
subsistence.
Evidence of Cultivation: The Cassava
Alexander (1969), in an article discussing evidence of plant domestication,
states that the evidence can be divided into cultural and non-cultural. Direct
cultural evidence includes precise literary references, drawings, paintings and
carvings, specialized tools and cultivation systems. Indirect cultural evidence
includes the actual remains of plant cultigens preserved by carbonization,
matrix impressions, silica skeletons, and the bones, teeth, horns or antlers of
animals (ibid.).
In determining evidence of the domestication and cultivation of species,
Alexander suggests that the crop be assessed in terms of the following factors:
clearing of the land; preparation of the land; planting or sowing; harvesting;
processing and storing; and cooking and preparations for eating.
The Taínos’ prized crop was yuca, the cassava or manioc (henceforth
referred to as cassava). Cassava was not indigenous to Jamaica. Angulo Váldes
states that roots and tubers dominated rainforest farming on the mainland,
where the main staple was cassava, which began to be used for bread around
2000 BC (Veloz Maggiolo 1997). There are two species of cassava – sweet and
bitter. The latter is poisonous and, according to Fernández de Oviedo (1959,
108 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS