Taino Ritual Seat
Encyclopedia
The Taíno ritual seat is a seat made in the form of a man on all fours. It was made by the Taino
people near Santa Domingo, Caribbean
.
The seat is made from the dense hardwood called Lignum vitae
. It this case the Lignum vitae is from the Guaiacum officinale
tree. This tree's flowers are the national flower of Jamaica
.
The illustration shows the seat which is made in the form of a man. His head and hands are to the right and his legs are to the left. The head is decorated with gold and the figure is complete with genitals.
This seat is one of two of these Taíno seats called Duho in the British Museum. The other is also modelled anthromorphically on a man, but in that case the resemblance to a man on his stomach is more proportional.
Some of the first people that Christopher Columbus met in the American continent were the Taito people. Their 7,000 year old civilisation did not benefit from the meeting as many were enslaved or died of disease. However when they met the people spent some of their time using hallucinogenic drugs. The drug and the pipes that were used are called cohoba
. One of these chiefs used this seat to smoke these drugs. The sculpture pictured has a bowl above the figures head. This bowl was used to hold cohoba
during rituals involving the Zemi
gods.
These chairs were probably made before Comumbus landed on theses islands and they are the remains of a culture that existed before the arrival of Europeans and their enslaved Africans.
which was a series of radio programmes that started in 2010 and that were created in a partnership between the BBC
and the British Museum.
Taíno people
The Taínos were pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. It is thought that the seafaring Taínos are relatives of the Arawak people of South America...
people near Santa Domingo, Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
.
Description
The first thing to note is this seat's size. The seat in only 13 cm by 44 cm and 22 cm high.The seat is made from the dense hardwood called Lignum vitae
Lignum vitae
Lignum vitae is a trade wood, also called guayacan or guaiacum, and in parts of Europe known as pockenholz, from trees of the genus Guaiacum. This wood was once very important for applications requiring a material with its extraordinary combination of strength, toughness and density...
. It this case the Lignum vitae is from the Guaiacum officinale
Guaiacum officinale
Guaiacum officinale, commonly known as Roughbark Lignum-vitae, is a species of tree in the caltrop family, Zygophyllaceae, that is native to the Caribbean and the northern coast of South America.-Description:...
tree. This tree's flowers are the national flower of Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
.
The illustration shows the seat which is made in the form of a man. His head and hands are to the right and his legs are to the left. The head is decorated with gold and the figure is complete with genitals.
Importance
Some of the first people that Christopher Columbus met in the American continent were the Taito people. Their 7,000 year old civilisation did not benefit from the meeting as many were enslaved or died of disease. However when they met the people spent some of their time using hallucinogenic drugs. The drug and the pipes that were used are called cohoba
Cohoba
Cohoba is an old Taino Indian transliteration for a ceremony in which psychedelic ground seed of the cojóbana tree was snufed in twin nasal Y-shaped pipe also called Cohoba...
. One of these chiefs used this seat to smoke these drugs. The sculpture pictured has a bowl above the figures head. This bowl was used to hold cohoba
Cohoba
Cohoba is an old Taino Indian transliteration for a ceremony in which psychedelic ground seed of the cojóbana tree was snufed in twin nasal Y-shaped pipe also called Cohoba...
during rituals involving the Zemi
Zemi
A Zemi or Cemi is a Taíno concept, meaning both a deity, or ancestral spirit, and a sculptural object that houses the spirit. They were also created by neighboring tribes in the Caribbean and northern South America.-Theology:...
gods.
These chairs were probably made before Comumbus landed on theses islands and they are the remains of a culture that existed before the arrival of Europeans and their enslaved Africans.
History of the World
This chair from the British Museum was chosen to be one of the History of the World in 100 ObjectsA History of the World in 100 Objects
A History of the World in 100 Objects was a joint project of BBC Radio 4 and the British Museum, comprising a 100-part radio series written and presented by British Museum director Neil MacGregor...
which was a series of radio programmes that started in 2010 and that were created in a partnership between the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and the British Museum.