Caribbean Folk Religions

Across the Greater Antilles, Taíno people honoured zemis, ancestral spirits and sacred figures represented in stone, wood and other materials. Ceremonial performances called areitos combined dance, music and speech to preserve stories and mark events such as harvests and the deaths of chiefs.

Columbus encountered Taíno communities in the Bahamas in 1492. Spanish conquest, forced labour and disease devastated their populations, while some ceremonial objects appear to have been hidden in caves from the newcomers.