The Guanahatabey (also spelled Guanajatabey) were an Indigenous people of western Cuba at the time of European contact. Archaeological and historical studies suggest the Guanahatabey were archaic hunter-gatherers with a distinct language and culture from their neighbors, the Taíno. They might have been a relict of an earlier culture that spread widely through the Caribbean before the ascendance of the agriculturalist Taíno.
>>>PUT SHARE BUTTONS HERE<<<
👉 Guanahatabey in the context of Ciboney
The Ciboney, or Siboney, were a Taíno people of Cuba, Jamaica, and the Tiburon Peninsula of Haiti. A Western Taíno group living in Cuba during the 15th and 16th centuries, they had a dialect and culture distinct from the Classic Taíno in the eastern part of the island, though much of the Ciboney territory was under the control of the eastern chiefs. Confusion in the historical sources led 20th-century scholars to apply the name "Ciboney" to the non-Taíno Guanahatabey of western Cuba and various archaic cultures around the Caribbean, but this is deprecated.
In this Dossier
Guanahatabey in the context of Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country in the Caribbean. It comprises 4,195 islands, islets and cays, including the eponymous main island and Isla de la Juventud. Situated at the confluence of the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Atlantic Ocean, Cuba is located east of the Yucatán Peninsula, south of both Florida (the United States) and the Bahamas, west of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and north of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Havana is the largest city and capital. Cuba is the third-most populous country in the Caribbean after Haiti and the Dominican Republic, with about 10 million inhabitants. It is the largest country in the Caribbean by area. Culturally, Cuba is considered part of Latin America.
Cuba was inhabited as early as the fourth millennium BC, with the Guanahatabey and Taíno peoples present at the time of Spanish colonization in the 15th century. Cuba remained part of the Spanish Empire until the Spanish–American War of 1898, after which it was occupied by the United States and gained independence in 1902. A 1933 coup toppled the democratically elected government of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada and began a long period of military influence, particularly by Fulgencio Batista. In 1940, Cuba implemented a new constitution, but mounting political unrest culminated in the 1952 Cuban coup d'état by Batista. His autocratic government was overthrown in January 1959 by the 26th of July Movement during the Cuban Revolution. That revolution established communist rule under the leadership of Fidel Castro. The country under Castro was a point of contention during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 is widely considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into nuclear war.
Guanahatabey in the context of Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean
At the time of first contact between Europe and the Americas, the Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean included the Taíno of the northern Lesser Antilles, most of the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas; the Kalinago of the Lesser Antilles; the Ciguayo and Macorix of parts of Hispaniola; and the Guanahatabey of western Cuba. The Kalinago have maintained an identity as an Indigenous people, with a reserved territory in Dominica.
Guanahatabey in the context of Taino
The Taíno were the Arawak Indigenous peoples in most of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, whose culture has been continued today by their descendants and by Taíno revivalist communities.
They were the first New World peoples encountered by Europeans. Extending from the Lucayan Archipelago of The Bahamas through the Greater Antilles of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic), and Puerto Rico to Guadeloupe in the northern Lesser Antilles, or the Leeward Islands, they lived in agricultural societies ruled by caciques with fixed settlements under a matrilineal system of kinship and inheritance, and a religion centered on the worship of zemis. At the time of European contact, they shared land with older indigenous inhabitants, namely the Guanajatabeyes, Ciguayos, and Macorix, and were engaged in conflict with the recent Carib indigenous settlers of the southern Lesser Antilles, or the Windward Islands.
Guanahatabey in the context of Taíno people
The Taíno were the Indigenous peoples in most of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, whose culture has been continued today by their descendants and by Taíno revivalist communities. They were the first New World peoples encountered by Europeans. Part of the Arawak group of Indigenous peoples in the Americas, the Taíno are also referred to as Island Arawaks or Antillean Arawaks.
Extending from the Lucayan Archipelago of The Bahamas through the Greater Antilles of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic), and Puerto Rico to Guadeloupe in the northern Lesser Antilles, or the Leeward Islands, the Taíno historically lived in agricultural societies ruled by caciques with fixed settlements under a matrilineal system of kinship and inheritance, and a religion centered on the worship of zemis. At the time of European contact, they shared land with older Indigenous inhabitants, namely the Guanajatabeyes, Ciguayos, and Macorix, and were engaged in conflict with the recent Carib Indigenous settlers of the southern Lesser Antilles, or the Windward Islands.