Definition
Areito or areyto (plural areitos) was a ceremony associated with ancestor worship performed by the Taíno people of the Caribbean. These important ceremonies involved dances and music and played an important role in Taíno social, political, and religious live.
Areitos usually took place in the main plaza of a village or in the area in front of the chief’s house. These areas worked as dance grounds and were limited by an earthen embankment or by a series of standing stones, often decorated with carved images of zemis, mythological beings or noble ancestors.
The purpose of areito ceremonies was for the living to communicate with the spirit world. This was attained through music, dances and reaching ecstatic states through hallucinogenic substances. Areitos took place on many different occasions, to celebrate birth, marriages or mourn death, to declare war or peace, or to celebrate the arrival or departure of important visitors.
The first Europeans to meet the Taínos described these ceremonies in many instances. The ceremonial plaza of Caguana, one of the most important Taino settlements in Puerto Rico, was one of the preferred settings for such events.
Caribbean archaeologists and historian also propose that throughout Caribbean prehistory, areyto ceremonies changed meaning, becoming more and more a form of veneration and prestige acquisition for the different local leaders (caciques), and their families and less a form of ancestor worship.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to Caribbean, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Atkinson, Lesley-Gail (ed.), 2006, The Earliest Inhabitants. The Dynamics of the Jamaican Taíno. University of West Indies press
Saunders Nicholas J., 2005, The Peoples of the Caribbean. An Encyclopedia of Archaeology and Traditional Culture. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, California. Wilson, Samuel, 2007, The Archaeology of the Caribbean, Cambridge World Archaeology Series. Cambridge University Press, New York.