Guanín (Taíno)

In the Taino culture of the Antilles, a guanín (pronounced gua-NIN) meaning "The Noble of Nobles" was a badge of honor of tribal leadership and authority, worn by the Caciques (chiefs) and by the Nitaino (nobility). It was a small disc that could be worn around the neck or some other part of the body. The brightness of the metal indicated that the leader had a connection with spiritual powers.[1]

It was made of a mixture of gold and copper. Flakes of gold were extracted from rivers, and pounded with rocks until they merged together. The origin of smelting the gold with copper is not clear.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Reniel Rodríguez Ramos (26 December 2011). "CARIBBEAN / Guanin". Encyclopedia of Puerto Rico. Retrieved 29 January 2016.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 1/29/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.