Crossing the Borders: New Methods and Techniques in the Study of Archaeological Materials from the Caribbean

176 / Newsom
Table 13.1. Continued
• Oviedo observed that two types of maize were grown in the Greater Antilles (and see
Table 13.2 notes), one that matured in three months and the other after about four:
“Este maíz desde a pocos días nace, porque en cuatro meses se coge, y alguno hay más
temprano, que viene desde a tres” (Oviedo y Valdes 1996:93). [translation, courtesy
R. Rodríguez Ramos: “This corn from to few days it is born, because in four months it
catches/matures, and some is earlier, that comes from (ripens) at three.”]
Home or “dooryard” gardens
• “They planted small trees of manzanillas for purgative use adjacent to their houses,
as something they esteemed greatly” (Las Casas in Sauer 1966:57) (emphasis
added).
• “wee traveyled two or three miles further, passing through many goodly Gardens,
wherein was abundance of Cassada [stet.], Potatoes, Tobacco, Cotton-wool-trees, and
Guiava trees . . . (John Nicholl, 1606–1607 voyage of the Olive Branch [Hulme and
Whitehead 1992:72]) (emphasis added).
• “The Indians of this island had a bad vice among others, which is taking a smoke they
called tobacco, to leave the senses. This herb was most precious by the Indians, and it
was planted in their orchards and farm lands” (Oviedo 1556, quoted in Nieves-Rivera
et al. 1995) (emphasis added).
have special magical properties (e.g., the Yanomamö of the Orinoco region in
Venezuela use certain plants and botanical concoctions for charms and “casting
spells” [Chagnon 1997:69]; similarly, consider that the black and red body paints
used by Caribbean Indians [Table 13.2] was deemed to effect more than simple
decoration)—were central to indigenous ritual and curative practices. It is reasonable
to assume that such plants or even varieties that were restricted in use may
have been grown in separate areas of the home gardens or “special beds” (Sauer
1966:57).
Who in Taíno society were the gardeners? Who precisely undertook field preparation
and who was responsible for the daily care, cultivation, and harvest of
plant resources, both domestic and wild? Unfortunately, Caribbean ethnohistoric
sources are silent or vague on the roles of adult men and women or different ages
and social classes (see Keegan 1997b) in terms of the agricultural cycle, much less
ethnobotanical practices as a whole. Among many Amazonian groups (e.g., see
Chagnon 1997:69–71) men prepare the fields, and women are the planters and shepherds
of crops and garden produce. A similar division of labor may have existed
in the Caribbean such as Keegan suggests (2007:61), but the evidence remains to
be discovered. Perhaps also such special purpose plants as mentioned above were
exclusively maintained by individuals such as the behiques— the specialists under
whose purview was the sacred knowledge of their use and practice, whether male
or female— representing both an additional venue of plant care and control, and
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