The Chief Is Dead, Long Live... Who? Descent and Succession in the Protohistoric Chiefdoms of the Greater Antilles

Abstract

The rules of succession described in the early Spanish chronicles for Caribbean chiefdoms have been used by many scholars to reconstruct a Taino kinship system. This article argues that these conclusions were reached by using unfounded assumptions, especially confusing rules of succession with rules of descent. Furthermore, it is suggested here that Taino rules of succession were not simply about the right to govern through descent but were a form of customary law that was manipulated by chiefs to consolidate and stabilize power. Thus the vagueness present in the rules of succession could have been an integral part of the transmission system of the position of high office among the protohistoric chiefdoms of the Greater Antilles.

Jamaican Taíno Settlement Configuration at the Time of Christopher Columbus

“…Much debate and discussion has centered on the nature of Taíno (writ large) kinship and postmarital residence patterns (Keegan and Maclachlan 1989; Curet and Oliver 1998; Curet 2002; Keegan 2006). Within this debate it has been a given that settlement configuration and house form reproduce these relationships closely.…”

Caribbean Indigenous Experiences of Erasure: Movement, Memory and Knowing

“…Taino Peoples in the Caribbean are the First Peoples in what is known as the western hemisphere to experience the full impact of colonization (Curet 2002). According to Reynoso (2017 para 1), Taino People of Hispaniola (known now as Haiti and the Dominica Republic) were among the first to experience the devastation of Spanish imperialism and exploitation due to the creation of the white supremacist empire.…”