Carved Taino Shaman from Dominican Republic

This is a carving of an Taino shaman figurine. The Taino are the indigenous people of the Caribbean. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of Cuba, Trinidad, Jamaica, Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and Puerto Rico.

Shamans and spirituality were central to the Taino culture, and these figurines are representative of that culture. This shows a typical 'holy man', or shaman, in a squatting position, with the hollow p