El caribe precolombino. Fray Ramón Pané y el universo taíno ed. by José R. Olivier (review)

The catalogue, edited by José R. Olivier, Colin McEwan, and Anna Casas Gilberga, presents Taino artifacts in the context of the culture that produced them. Although its title promises the reader research on pre-Columbian Taino culture, only one of the seven essays deals with pre-contact Taino practices from an archaeological perspective that does not move along the analytical axes of Spanish colonization or European collectionism.

There seem to be very different criteria and interests at play in the making of this exhibit and catalogue. Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller's essay deals with Columbus's travels in a celebratory manner. The well-known collector's thoughts appear Eurocentric in the context of the catalogue, insofar as he is mostly concerned with celebrating the figures of Columbus and the Catalan friar Ramón Pané. However, Barbier-Mueller appears to represent something of an isolated case with regard to the other authors. In his essay on Pané, Jaume Aymar i Ragolta brings out detailed information and images of the Barcelona monastery where Pané resided, Sant Jeroni de la Murtra, and general information on the Hieronymite monastic order. One goal of the catalogue is to highlight Pané's contact with the Tainos; in fact, we owe Pané the partial access we have to anonymous Taino voices from the contact period. Following Columbus's orders, the friar managed to gather information on Taino mythology and cemis (religious artifacts) from native informants, all the while dealing with language barriers and material difficulties. Consuelo Varela and Juan Gil, two specialists on Columbus, make a brief but worthy contribution to the volume, providing bibliographical and documental information that may be useful for those studying Pané's Relación and the specific circumstances of his arrival in the New World. Olivier's essay on Columbus's second voyage and his strategies for enslaving the Tainos presents a portrait of the admiral that contrasts markedly with Barbier-Mueller's admiring contribution.

The 19 illustrations at the center of the volume are undoubtedly some of its jewels. The Taino religious and cultural objects, many of them displayed to the public for the first time, have been masterfully photographed, allowing readers to observe in detail the Taino objects that are the material traces of a people and a culture destroyed by colonialism. They mark the existence of a nation that we can otherwise approach only through the writings of those who conquered and colonized it, like Columbus and Pané, and through the archaeological research that began in the eighteenth century. Paz Cabello Carro's essay draws attention to the latter effort by opportunely revising the relation between the origins of archaeological research and colonialism.

In the sole but insightful essay that deals with Taino culture from the pre-contact period, Olivier brings readers into the cohoba ritual in a welcome attempt to understand Taino culture through its material traces and on its own terms. But the editors are not ingenuous and, as Cabello Carro's essay reminds us, our research methodologies stem from their inception in colonial relations and practices. McEwan's essay further stresses the point that researching this period involves handling knowledge and objects gained in situations of violent colonial domination.

The editors also include Pane's complete Relación de las antigüedades de los yndios, a central piece for understanding the contact period that should receive more critical attention. Unfortunately, the edition presented here is modernized and does not appear to have been cared for by a specialist: in the well-intended dedication to José Juan Arrom, who pioneered studies on Pané, the former's name has been misspelled.

In sum, this catalogue confronts readers with the dense network of relationships that supported colonial domination and have determined the...