Yaya
- Yaya’s name is “formed by the duplication of “ia,” which in the Arawak language means “spirit, essence, first cause.”-Sebastian Robiou Lamarche, author of The Mythology and Religion of the Tainos.
- Yaya was both male and female. Yaya was a hermaphroditic being.
- Yaya was known as the origin of the universe.
- Yaya kills his son Yayael and places his remains in a gourd vessel made from a calabash tree.
- Tainos believed in many gods and deities, and Yaya was one of them.
What I’ve Learned
According to Sebastian Robiou Lamarche, author of The Mythology and Religion of the Tainos, Pleiades, the famous Star cluster, also known as the seven sisters, was monitored heavily by the Tainos, and it was because of its relation with agriculture. Without agriculture, we have no civilization.