Editing Lucayan people (section)

==Society==

=== Genetics ===
In 2018, researchers successfully extracted DNA from a tooth found in a burial context in Preacher's Cave on Eleuthera Island. The tooth was [[Radiocarbon dating#Accelerator mass spectrometry|directly dated]] to around 776–992 AD. Genetic analysis revealed that the tooth belonged to a woman. When compared against contemporary populations, the ancient individual shows closest genetic affinity to [[Arawak]]an speakers from the Amazon and [[Orinoco Basin]]s, with closest affinity to the [[Palikur]]. The individual was assigned to mtDNA [[Haplogroup B (mtDNA)|Haplogroup B2]].{{Sfn|Schroeder|Sikora|Gopalakrishnan|Cassidy|2018|p=2341–2346}}

=== Customs ===
Lucayan society was based on [[Matrilineal succession|descent through the mother's line]], which was typical of Taíno culture as a whole. The Spanish reported that a woman resided with her husband's family, but Keegan argues that this was not [[patrilocal residence]] in the strict sense, but rather residence in the husband's uncle's household ([[avunculocal residence]]).{{Sfn|Keegan|1992|pp=91, 102–103}}

=== Houses ===
Lucayans, like other Taínos, lived in multi-household houses. Descriptions of Lucayan houses by the Spanish match those of houses used by Taínos in Hispaniola and Cuba: shaped like a round tent, tall, made of poles and thatch, with an opening at the top to let smoke out. Columbus described the houses of the Lucayans as clean and well-swept. The houses were furnished with cotton nets (some kind of hammocks) for beds and furnishings, and were used mainly for sleeping. Each house sheltered an extended family.{{Sfnm|Keegan|1992|1pp=166–167|Sauer|1966|2p=62}}

There are no surviving reports of the size of Lucayan houses, but estimates of about 20 people per house in Taíno communities in pre-contact Cuba are cited by Keegan as a reasonable estimate for Lucayan houses. While not mentioned for Lucayan houses, the houses in Cuba were described as having two doors. Classic Taíno villages in Hispaniola and eastern Cuba typically had houses arranged around a central plaza, and often located along rivers with access to good agricultural land. Lucayan villages were linear, along the coast, often on the [[Windward and leeward|leeward]] side of an island, but also found on the windward side wherever [[tidal creek]]s provided some protected shoreline.{{Sfnm|Keegan|1992|1pp=166–167|Sauer|1966|2p=62}}

=== Pre-European contact diet ===
The Lucayans grew root crops and hunted, fished and gathered wild foods. At least half of the diet came from plant foods.{{Sfn|Keegan|Carlson|2008|pp=3-5, 74}}

The staple crop of the Lucayans was manioc ([[cassava]]), followed by sweet potato. Sweet manioc was eaten like sweet potato, by peeling and boiling. Bitter manioc, which has a dangerous amount of [[hydrogen cyanide]], was prepared by peeling, grinding, and mashing. The mash was then filtered through a basket tube to remove the hydrogen cyanide as a poisonous juice. The filtered mash was dried and sieved for flour, which was used to make pancake-like bread cooked on a flat clay griddle. The poisonous hydrogen cyanide juice was boiled, which released the poison, and the liquid base mixed with [[Chili pepper|chili peppers]], vegetables, meat, and fish to make a slow-boiling stew that prevented the spoiling of its ingredients.{{Sfn|Keegan|Carlson|2008|pp=3-5, 74}}

The Spanish also reported that the Lucayans grew sweet potatoes, [[Xanthosoma|cocoyams]], arrowroot, [[Goeppertia allouia|leren]], [[Dioscorea trifida|yampee]], peanuts, beans and cucurbits. The Lucayans probably took most, if not all, of their crops with them to the Bahamas.{{Sfn|Craton|1986|p=20}} The Lucayans may have grown papayas, pineapples, guava, [[Mammea americana|mammee apple]], [[Melicoccus bijugatus|guinep]] and tamarind fruit.{{Sfnm|Craton|1986|1p=20|Keegan|1992|2pp=124–126}}

There were few land animals available in the Bahamas for hunting: [[Bahamian hutia|hutias]] (Taíno ''utia''), [[Cyclura|rock iguanas]], small lizards, land crabs and birds. While Taínos kept dogs and [[Muscovy duck]]s, only dogs were reported by early observers, or found at Lucayan sites. Less than 12% of the meat eaten by Lucayans came from land animals, of which three-quarters came from iguanas and land crabs. 

More than 80 percent of the meat in the Lucayan diet came from marine fishes, almost all of which grazed on seagrass and/or coral. Sea turtles and marine mammals ([[West Indian monk seal]] and porpoise) provided a very small portion of the meat in the Lucayan diet. The balance of dietary meat came from marine mollusks.{{Sfnm|Craton|1986|1p=25|Keegan|1992|2pp=126–127}} The main meats were fishes and mollusks from the grass flat and patch reef habitats that are found between the beach and the barrier reef, and include parrotfish, grouper, snapper, bonefish, queen conch, urchins, nerites, chitons, and clams.{{Sfn|Keegan|Carlson|2008|pp=3-5, 74}}

[[Maize]] was a recent introduction to the Greater Antilles when the Spanish arrived, and was only a minor component of the Taíno and, presumably, Lucayan diets.{{Sfn|Craton|1986|p=20}}

=== Fiber and other plant products ===
The Lucayans grew cotton (''[[Gossypium barbadense]]'') and tobacco, and used other plants such as agave, [[furcraea]] and [[hibiscus]] for fiber in fishing nets. One of Columbus's sailors received {{convert|12|kg|lb}} of cotton in trade from a single Lucayan on Guanahani. Although Columbus did not see tobacco in use by the Lucayans, he did note that they traded a type of leaf that they regarded as valuable. [[Bixa]] was used to produce a reddish body paint and jagua ([[Genipa]] or [[Mamoncillo]]) for black body paint.{{Sfnm|Keegan|1992|1pp=225|Sauer|1966|2pp=56, 61}}

=== Conch tools ===
Conch shells (pronounced as "konk", known as ''cobo'' in [[Taíno|Taino]]) were a hard material in plentiful supply on the islands. They included several species of conch, including the [[Aliger gigas|queen conch]] and the [[Charonia variegata|Atlantic Triton]]. Lucayans used them to make tools such as canoe gouges, hoes, hammers, picks, net mesh gauges, and fishhooks. They were also made into beads shaped like disks, carved into amulets, and used as inlay for sculptures.{{Sfn|Keegan|Carlson|2008|pp=3-5, 74}}

Trumpet-like instruments that were played by blowing were also made of conch. A specific term, ''guamo'', existed for trumpets made from the largest snail available, the Atlantic Triton. These were used, similarly to church bells, to call people into action as well as for religious rites. 

=== Other technology ===<!-- Needs to be sorted by use or by origin rather than a general "Artifact" category".  -->

The Lucayans carved canoes, spears, bowls and ceremonial stools from wood. Stone chopping, cutting and scraping tools were imported from Cuba or Haiti. Most pottery was of the type called "Palmetto Ware", including "Abaco Redware" and "Crooked Island Ware". This was produced in the islands using local red clay soils tempered with burnt conch shells.  Palmetto Ware pottery was usually undecorated. There are no known differences that can be used to date or sequence Palmetto Ware pottery. Some (usually less than one percent of collected sherds in most of the Bahamas, about ten percent in the Caicos Islands) sand-tempered pottery was imported from Cuba and/or Haiti. The Lucayans made fish hooks from bone or shell and harpoon points from bone. The Lucayans probably did not use bows and arrows. The first mention by the Spanish of encountering Indians using bows and arrows was at [[Samaná Bay]] in northeastern Hispaniola.{{Sfnm|1a1=Albury|1y=1975|1pp=17–18|2a1=Craton|2y=1986|2pp=20, 25|3a1=Granberry|3a2=Vescelius|3y=2004|3pp=43|4a1=Keegan|4y=1992|4pp=52–53, 77|5a1=Sauer|5y=1966|5p=31}}

One of the few artifacts of Lucayan life that has been found in a variety of areas in the Bahama archipelago is the [[Taíno ritual seat|duho]]. {{lang|tnq|italic=no|Duhos}} are carved seats found in the houses of [[Taíno]] caciques or chiefs throughout the Caribbean region. Duhos "figured prominently in the maintenance of Taíno political and ideological systems . . . [and were] . . . literally seats of power, prestige, and ritual."<ref>Conrad, Geoffrey W., John W. Foster, and Charles D. Beeker, "Organic artifacts from the Manantial de la Aleta, Dominican Republic: preliminary observations and interpretations", ''Journal of Caribbean Archaeology''. 2:6, 2001.</ref> {{lang|tnq|italic=no|Duhos}} made of wood and stone have both been found, though those made of wood tend not to last as well as the stone chairs and are, therefore, much rarer. There are intact wooden {{lang|tnq|italic=no|duhos}} in the collections of the [[Musée de l'Homme]] in Paris and [[British Museum]] in London (the latter found on the island of [[Eleuthera]]).<ref>[https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=659469&partId=1&place=9650&plaA=9650-3-2&page=1 British Museum Collection]</ref>

=== Religion ===
{{Full article|Zemi}}
The Taino pantheon of cemís, also known as zemís, play an active role in the lives of humans, and distinguish between the cultural, pleasing human theme and the anti-cultural, nonhuman, foul theme.{{Sfn|Keegan|Carlson|2008|p=6}} The term refers to both the spirits and the objects that represent spirits.{{Sfn|Keegan|Carlson|2008|p=88}}

They include fruitfulness spirits [[Yúcahu|Yocahu]], the male giver of manioc, and Attabeira, the mother goddess. Attending to them were the twin spirits Maquetaurie Guayaba, the lord of the dead, and Guabancex, the mistress of the hurricane. The twin spirits were also attended to by sets of twins.{{Sfn|Keegan|Carlson|2008|p=6}}

During arieto ceremonies, food was offered to the zemi, and shamans (behique) would give a piece of cassava bread to participants, which were kept preserved until the following year.{{Sfn|Keegan|Carlson|2008|p=88}}