Diet
The Lucayans grew root crops and hunted, fished and gathered wild foods. The staple crop of the Lucayans was manioc (cassava). The Spanish reported that the Tainos also grew sweet potatoes, cocoyams, arrowroot, leren, yampee, peanuts, beans and cucurbits, and the Lucayans probably took most, if not all, of those crops with them to the Bahamas. Maize was a recent introduction to the Greater Antilles when the Spanish arrived, and was only a minor component of the Taino and, presumably, Lucayan diets. The Lucayans may have grown papayas and pineapples, and gathered wild guava, mammee apple, guinep and tamarind fruit.
There were few land animals available in the Bahamas for hunting: hutias (Taino utia), rock iquanas, small lizards, land crabs and birds. While Tainos kept dogs and Muscovy ducks, only dogs were reported by early observers, or found at Lucayan sites. Less than twelve percent 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.
Read more about this topic: Lucayan People
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