#1263: Taino and Ginen Questions : Benson comments

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: LeGrace Benson <legracebenson@clarityconnect.com>

Two heavily-illustrated books on the art of th eTai'no are: TAINO;
Pre-Colombian Art and Culture form the Caribbean , Fatima Bercht, et.al,
New York:Monacelli Press,1997 and L'Art Taino,
Jacques Kerchache Paris: Paris Musees, 1994. A text on the topic is Irving
Rouse,THE TAINOS; Rise and Decline of the People who greeted Colombus. New
Haven and London: Yale University Press. 1992. There are numerous articles
in several journals, including ones devoted to geography and natural
history, but little appears n print fully and clearly linking Taino to
Vodou except for certain words and abjects, all of which are in dispute.  A
person in Haiti with a lively interest in this who might be able to provide
more useful information is Jean Didier Gardere.  I believe he can be
contacted at Professionale d'Assurance, S.A. Route de Delmas #65 Boite
Postale 636 Port-au-Prince. He has himself discovered certian artefacts
from the Taino period. Whether or not he connects what he knows explicitly
with Vodou practices, I do not know.  Suzanne Lehman at the Institute for
the Preservation...etc of Haitin Culture in Petionville has some Taino
objects and has spoken with informats who told her how these object were
found and used in Vodou and , I beleive, also in Bizongo.  There is
circumstantial evidence that the Taino probably passed along their herbal
and medicinal knowledge to marrons, much of which is integral to healings
in Vodou.
Hope these leads are helpful.    
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