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Titre : Annual report of the Bureau of American ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian institution
Auteur : Bureau of American ethnology (Washington, D.C.)
Éditeur : Government printing office (Washington)
Date d'édition : 1895-1964
Contributeur : Powell, John Wesley (1834-1902). Directeur de publication
Type : texte,publication en série imprimée
Langue : Anglais
Format : application/pdf
Identifiant : ark:/12148/cb37575968z/date
Identifiant : ISSN 0097269X
Source : Bibliothèque nationale de France
Relation : http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb37575968z
Description : Périodicité : Annuel
Description : Etat de collection : n. 1 (1879)-n. 48 (1931)
Provenance : bnf.fr
Date de mise en ligne : 12/01/2009
1903 (N25)-1904. Note : Index.
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64: THE ABORIGINES OF PORTO RICO t;ETH.ANN.25
t T~ ~l- .C f~ T- ~1-.
older writings. Doctor Cronau figures two Lucayan clay pipe bowls
of a bird form identical with certain mound pipes that are now in the
Nassau library, New Providence island, Bahamas. As similar forms
have not been recorded from the more southerly West Indies and lit-
tle is known of the history of those from Bahama, it is desirable to
détermine their antiquity and to know definitely the locality in which
they were found.
In aboriginal secular smoking it was customary to roll the tobacco
leaf in much the same way that cigars are now made, and a cigar is
even now called a "tobacco" in the West Indies. The companions
of Columbus noticed the Cuban Indians smoking tobacco in this form.
Gômara says that the islanders ate tobacco, but it is more probable
that theysimply chewed the herb for ils narcotic influences, the object
being to obtain psycho-religious suggestions.
A beverage made from the root of the manioc was used in dances,
· many of which closed with a general debauch in which all the partici-
pants became intoxicated. There is every reason to suppose that this
drink was prepared in the same way as the intoxicant employed by
the Guiana Indians described by im Thurn.
RITES AND CEREMONIES
For our knowledge of thé ceremonies of -the prehistoric Porto
Ricans we must rely wholly on early authors whose accounts relate
to the Indians of Haiti rather than to those of Porto Rico.. As all
agree that there was close similarity in the inhabitants of the two
islands we are justified in the belief that the descriptions given hold
good also for the Indians of Borinquen, or Porto Rico. There is,
besides, a certain parallelism in the ceremonies of all primitive peo-
ples, a knowledge of which may be used in interpreting the ritual
of any individual tribe.
The most important communal ceremonies among the Haitians were
performed for rain and the growth of the crops, but there were cere-
monies for success in war and for curing the sick, commemoration
rites over the dead, initiation rites, and various others. In some
instances these rites took the form of elaborate dances, accompanied
by prayers, songs, and other performances. Dramatization played an
important part in all ceremonies and was especially prominent in war
dances, in which were represented the motive of the war, the depar-
ture of the warriors, ambuscades, surprise of the enemy, combat, cele-
bration of the victory, and return of the war party, accompanied with
mortuary rites of a commemorative nature, for the fallen (plate ix).
These dramatizations were called by the same name as other cere-
monial dances celebrated on important occasions. A dance, or <M'6~o,
accompanied the birth of a child and the death of a cacique. In
medicinal practice it was regarded as a means of augmenting the
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