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Exploring the Early Americas The Jay I. Kislak Collection
Taíno Amulet (55a)

Shell amulet. Haiti or Dominican Republic.
Taíno, AD 700–1500.
Carved shell.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (55a–55d)

Additional Images

Taíno Amulet (55a)
Taíno Amulet (55a)
Taíno Amulet (55c)
Taíno Amulet (55c)
Taíno Amulet (55b)
Taíno Amulet (55b)
Taíno Amulets (55d)
Taíno Amulets (55d)

Taíno Amulet 

The Taíno, a subgroup of the Arawakan Indians from northeastern South America, inhabited the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico). The Taíno created a complicated religious system that included a hierarchy of deities, which included Yucahu, the supreme Creator and the lord of cassava and the sea and Atabey, the goddess of fresh water and human fertility, as well as Yucahu's mother. The Taíno believed that zemis, gods of both sexes, represented by both human and animal forms, provided protection.