THE ORIGIN OF THE HAMMOCK

​Yesterday I saw some beautiful hammocks on sale at the Blind Welfare Institute Outlet Store on Coffee Street , San Fernando.
Did you know that the hammock is in fact a legacy of the first people who found them to be easy beds when moving from place to place. They were skilled at weaving cotton to make hammocks.The word “hammock” was derived from the Taino hamaca or yamaca, and the first hammocks are thought to have been woven out of tree bark.
According to source cited below the hammock was lightweight and easy to set up . It was safer than sleeping on the floor, where one could be vulnerable to snakes and other crawling creatures. It was also quite versatile since it could be used as a bed, chair, a sack, or a fishing net.
Today hammocks are still used by farmers like this group in their makeshift camp in the forests of Quinam. In my travels I also noticed hammocks being used by Indigenous Kogi Tribes in Columbia.
Some people use them as a place for relaxation , somewhere you could take a short snooze.

Source: Patricia Bissessar, Virtual Museum of TT, January 2021