Neo-Taino Nations - Sexual Mores

Sexual Mores

Neo-Taíno sexual freedom is well documented by such as Bartolomé de las Casas, Fernández de Oviedo and Américo Vespucio. Father de las Casas writes: "The Indian women of Cuba, as once did women of many places, went naked. Married women wore a small skirt or apron, called an enagua, which did not cover their breasts and rarely reached the knee. These women in the marriage ceremony, took to the marriage chamber all the friends of the husband, and later emerged to the cry Manikato, the cry of victory." (Father Bartolomé de la Casas, circa 1500). Yet there are some who question this in a debate recalling the old controversies surrounding Margaret Mead.

The legend of the mermaid is said to arise from the Ciboney account of seductive, sexually generous Aycayia, the incarnation of beauty and of sin who gave men pleasure but robbed them of will. She and her six lusty sisters were punished, and Aycayia was condemned to the care of an ancient crone Guanayoa, and sent to an isolated place called Punta Majagua. This exile did not improve the situation because she was constantly "visited" by men. Finally, sent to sea, she was said to have transmuted into a mermaid.