Zemi

A zemi (or cemi) was both a deity or ancestral spirit and the physical object that held that spirit for the Taíno people of the Caribbean. The plural term for these spirits is zemis or cemis.

In Taíno theology, as recorded by Spanish observers in the late 1400s and 1500s, worship focused on a supreme creator god and a fertility goddess. The creator, Yúcahu Maórocoti, controlled the growth of cassava, the people’s main food. The goddess Attabeira (or Atabey) was a mother goddess associated with fertility, fresh water, and the moon. Lesser spirits, also called zemis, oversaw natural forces. One example is Boinayel, the Rain Giver, whose magical tears turned into rainfall. Ancestral spirits were also zemis, especially those of chiefs (caciques). Their bones or skulls were sometimes built into sculptural zemis or placed in reliquary urns. These ancestral remains were kept in shrines and given offerings like food. Medicine people, known as bohuti or buhuithu, would consult zemis for advice and healing. During these ceremonies, images of the zemi could be painted or tattooed onto the priest’s body. Reliquary zemis were believed to help their own descendants in particular.

Sculptural zemis, sometimes called amuletic zemis, came in many forms. The most distinctive Taíno art form was the three-point stone zemi. One side often had a human or animal head, while the opposite side showed hunched legs, sometimes called “frog’s legs” because of their pose. The fierce face of the creator god was frequently depicted. Small ceramic three-point zemis have been found by archaeologists in the Lesser Antilles, primarily associated with the Greater and Lesser Antilles. Small amuletic zemis were worn on warriors’ foreheads for protection in battle. These objects were made from many materials—bone, clay, wood, shell, sandstone, and stone. They have been discovered in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and other Caribbean islands. Some are quite large, up to 100 centimeters tall. Many are human effigies, though some show birds, snakes, alligators, or other animals, and even twin human figures appear. Wooden zemis survived mostly in dry caves. It is thought that the Taíno hid their ceremonial objects in caves to keep them from the Spanish, or destroyed them to prevent capture.

Two of the most elaborate surviving zemis are now in European museums.