Although male caciques ruled Taíno society, they inherited the right to rule from female relatives, some of whom were cacicas (chiefs) themselves. Women also played a significant role in Taíno culture as artists. Sixteenth-century accounts report that they wove costumes and hammocks, made ceramic vessels for food preparation and feasting, and commissioned and owned duhos, the ceremonial seats used by caciques, nobles, and shamans. Duhos were often carved in human or animal form and had elaborately incised designs. Prestige and power were intimately linked to the ownership and use of these seats; sculptures of zemies (spirits and ancestors) were sometimes placed beside caciques on separate duhos, suggesting that many chiefs owned at least two.
Duhos carved in wood or stone were highly polished and embellished with incrustations of gold, shell, and bone that have rarely survived. About one hundred duhos are known today; most were discovered in caves, where they were either buried with the deceased or hidden from the Spanish. They were carved with high backs or low backs, including some that are flat seats. Such distinctions may indicate relative degrees of status among the ancient Taíno because the Spanish saw caciques using only high-backed duhos. Other members of the nobility and shamans probably used low-backed duhos. Those with carved human figures may have represented ancestors of caciques in the case of high-backed duhos, and shamanic spirit-helpers in the case of low-backed examples modeled as fierce anthropomorphic creatures.
Caciques and nitaínos were further distinguished by their clothing, jewelry, and other accessories. They wore garments of the finest woven cotton and beaded belts with geometric designs. For important occasions they donned capes made from the colorful plumage of tropical birds: parrots, toucans, herons, and eagles. They also wore beautifully worked shell jewelry - including necklaces and pectoral ornaments - and amulets made from gold, semiprecious stones, shell, and bone.
The exhibition highlights a beautifully worked shell necklace with a bat ornament, a skull pendant, and a richly detailed pectoral that may depict the hurricane god. An array of amulets illustrates the variety and refinement of these small but important personal ornaments that were sometimes combined into necklaces. Taíno amulets exhibit distinct forms - emaciated figures with skeletal faces, human figures in crouching positions, pairs of twins, and animals such as frogs, crocodiles, and bats. Although their meanings remain unknown, they were probably stylized portraits of caciques or nobles and spirits from the otherworld.
Caciques carried boldly carved scepters and daggers of polished stones as symbols of their authority. These accessories are based upon the celt - an ovoid stone axe - common to many pre-Columbian cultures from the earliest times onward. Celts were often hafted into wooden shafts to become axes. Although normally utilitarian tools made from crude stones, celts owned by rulers and nobles were made of jade and other greenstones or polished dark stones, and decorated with carved designs. The greenstone celt, ax scepters, and daggers in the exhibition are elaborate versions of tools used by the Taíno.
Caciques were polygamous, and formed political alliances by marrying women from other cacicazgos. Spanish chronicles attest to the caciques' power over almost every aspect of Taíno society. They controlled the collection and distribution of food and trade goods; they organized community festivals known as areytos; and they decided when to go to war. In addition, caciques functioned as spiritual leaders who contacted the supernatural through hallucinogenic trances.
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