Oliver Jose R. Oliver Caciques and Cemi Idols

Annotation

Cems are both portable artifacts and embodiments of persons or spirit, which the Tanos and other natives of the Greater Antilles (ca. AD 1000-1550) regarded as numinous beings with supernatural or magic powers. This volume takes a close look at the relationship between humans and other (non-human) beings that are imbued with cem power, specifically within the Tano inter-island cultural sphere encompassing Puerto Rico and Hispaniola. The relationships address the important questions of identity and personhood of the cem icons and their human "owners" and the implications of cem gift-giving and gift-taking that sustains a complex web of relationships between caciques (chiefs) of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola. Oliver provides a careful analysis of the four major forms of cems-three-pointed stones, large stone heads, stone collars, and elbow stones-as well as face masks, which provide an interesting contrast to the stone heads. He finds evidence for his interpretation of human and cem interactions from a critical review of 16th-century Spanish ethnohistoric documents, especially the Relacin Acerca de las Antigedades de los Indios written by Friar Ramn Pan in 1497-1498 under orders from Christopher Columbus. Buttressed by examples of native resistance and syncretism, the volume discusses the iconoclastic conflicts and the relationship between the icons and the human beings. Focusing on this and on the various contexts in which the relationships were enacted, Oliver reveals how the cems were central to the exercise of native political power. Such cems were considered a direct threat to the hegemony of the Spanish conquerors, as these potent objects were seen as allies in the native resistance to the onslaught of Christendom with its icons of saints and virgins.