History Essay

Maya Wheeler U6C

History

Similarities and differences between the Maya and the Taino agricultural practices before their contact with the Europeans in 1492.

The Maya and the Taino were two of the many indigenous groups present here in the New World previous to European arrival, namely Christopher Columbus, in 1492. The Maya were settled in Central and South America- Yucatan, Honduras and Belize, to name a few. Their location presented them with several challenges in the way of rough terrain and infertile soil. The Maya settled in areas of dense jungle and marshland. The ingenuity of the Mayan people however, allowed them to overcome their area and invent ways to make the best of it. They employed slash and burn farming, terracing and raised field farming. Though crops were their main food source, the Maya still added a bit of meat to their diet ever so often. The Taino made their home in the Caribbean on islands in the Greater Antilles like Trinidad and Hispaniola. They did not encounter any challenges with their chosen location, thus their agriculture lifestyle was different. The Taino farming technique was environmentally friendly. They grew their crops in a conuco. The Taino incorporated more meat into their diet in the forms of fish, birds and agouti. There exists more similarities than differences between the Maya and Taino agricultural practices. The Mayan agricultural practices were more complex and variated as they used slash and burn farming, terracing and raised field farming as opposed to the Taino, who made use of conuco farming and the meat variety caught while hunting or fishing.

A similarity between the Maya and the Taino is that both societies had one main crop that they cultivated, along with other types. The Mayan main crop was maize but they also grew manioc, sunflower seeds, beans, squash and tobacco. The Mayans worshipped the maize god and believed that their ancestors were made from maize dough. They grew corn in an abundance and when it...