The Earliest Inhabitants: The Dynamics of the Jamaican Taino

Introduction
IN JAMAICA, THE indigenous population is still being referred
to as the Arawaks, despite the adoption of the term Taínos to distinguish the
native population of the Greater Antilles from the Arawaks of South
America. Irving Rouse defines the Taínos as “the ethnic group that inhabited
the Bahamian Archipelago, most of the Greater Antilles, and the northern
part of the Lesser Antilles prior to and during the time of Columbus” (1992,
185).
According to Rouse, in Columbus’s time the Taínos lacked an overall
name. The people referred to themselves by the names of the localities in
which they lived – for example, the Puerto Ricans called themselves
Borinquen, their name for the island, and the Bahamians called themselves
Lucayo (Rouse 1992, 5). This raises the question of what was the Taínan name
for Jamaica. Traditionally Jamaicans have been taught that Xaymaca was the
Taíno name given to the island, meaning “land abounding with springs”, from
which “Jamaica” – land of wood and water – was derived. However, D.J.R.
Walker suggests Yamaye as the possible Taíno name for the island, based on
information derived from Columbus’s journal (1992, 236–37).
The Arawaks or Taínos
The term Arawaks has been, and still is, mistakenly used to denote the aborigines
of the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas. The Arawaks were the ethnic
group that lived in the northern part of the Guianas, which formerly extended
onto the high land around the Orinoco delta (Rouse 1992, 173). According to
John Peter Bennett, the Arawaks had names for themselves and their language,
Lokono and Loko respectively (Bennett 1989, iv). For decades the terms
Arawak and Taíno have been used interchangeably; however, they are two
distinct ethnic groups.
It is not clear when the confusion occurred. However, one contributing factor
was the attribution of the name of a language family to an ethnic group
(Rouse 1987). The Taínan language is said to belong to the Arawakan
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