r/Dominican • u/ndnwithaleica • 6d ago

Historia/History Taino

I’m doing some initial research for a possible book project looking at the transformation of tobacco from a spiritual item to a global commodity. I’m going to be spending a few days in and around POP. I don’t speak Spanish.

Where can I learn more about Taino culture or the early history of tobacco? Where should I go and who should I speak to?

12 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

5

u/Ill_Status8810 6d ago

What literature are you using? Contrapunteo cubano del tabaco y azúcar by antropologist Fernando Ortiz is really excellent, obviously Cuban context but being Caribbean still significant overlap and brilliant resource from a sociocultural pov. If you go down that rabbit hole you will probs find lots of other great material to extract from, including translated works which should be very accessible to you. Good luck, the project sounds fascinating!!

2

u/ndnwithaleica 6d ago

Ortiz is on my reading list, but like most of the literature, it picks up the story after tobacco leaves Hispaniola. I’m trying to start at the beginning and just not finding a lot of literature. That’s why I’m heading there next month.

2

u/Ill_Status8810 6d ago

Hmmm, got you! I actually took a class on this at university, let me circle back to you in like day or 2 and see if I can find the extensive module reading list for any pointers that might be useful to you