Entertainment

     The Taino culture used music for many things. They used it to make the most terrible work more tolerable, to help remember and retell their history, to celebrate special occasions, and to communicate with spiritual guides. Other importances for music was they would sing to gain help in healing, to get protection against natural forces, and ensure good harvest, hunts and fishing expeditions. They believed music was so important that the most valuable gift you could give someone was the gift of music.

     The Taino people use dance at many celebrations and in spiritual guidence.

Sport

     Both men and women played this game, sometimes on cooperative teams, sometimes on same-sex teams. The game of batos was so widespread and popular that different villages even played against each another from time to time.

    Large stones surrounded the field for their ball game, called batos. Spectators could sit on these stones, but the cacique (the cheif) had a place of honor on a carved stool. Players were divided into two teams, with almost any number on either side; some are said to have had more than 20 players on occasion.

      The game was played with a ball, which would be thrown and hit from side to side by members of each team. Hits with the ball could be made with many parts of the body, including the hips, knees, heads, and shoulders, but not the hands. It is close to the game of soccer. They believe that the ball was probably made from an elastic black substance that was created by boiling the roots of certain trees and herbs.

This is an image of the batey, which is a field lined with rock around the outer edges. This held most of the ceremonies, games and other spiritual events. 

Smoke

       It may not come as much of a surprise that the word"tobacco" is inherited from the Taínos, who called their pipes"tabaco." However, the word for the plant may also be familiar to smoke aficionados: cohiba.

        Pipes were often used at feasts and celebrations and were made of a Y-shaped tube. These tubes were inserted into the nose so that the smoke could be inhaled deeply. One side-effect of this method was a loss of consciousness, which was quick to come.