The genesis for this edited volume was the opening session of the 71st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 2006. The session,entitled“InterislandandContinental Interaction in the Caribbean” was organized by Antonio Curet and welcomed attendees to the first ever SAA in the Caribbean. It included papers on both pre-Columbian and Colonial era archaeology (full disclosure, I participated in the session, but not the volume).Thevolume follows thesame inclusive approach to the past, alternating between pre-Columbian and historic archaeological perspectives. The editors divide the book’s 11 chapters into three major thematic sections including: “Peoples and Boundaries: Systematics and the Practice of Caribbean Archaeology”; “Tracing Exchange: Intensities

Islands at the Crossroads: Migration, Seafaring, and Interaction in the Caribbean

This is an anthology of writings about the Amerindian inhabitants of the Caribbean, from such diverse sources as the first reports of Columbus, French missionary tracts, the diaries of English colonial administrators, and modern ethnographers, travel writers and film makers. The written and visual material has been carefully selected to illustrate the development of non-Amerindian knowledge of, and attitudes to, the society and culture of the so-called "Island Caribs", who once dominated the whole of the Lesser Antilles and continue to act today as a potent symbol of resistance to, and independence from, the modern nation-state.

Wild Majesty : encounters with Caribs from Columbus to the present day : an anthology

Basil A. Reid, Myths and Realities of Caribbean History, Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 2009, xiv + 154 pp.In early May 2009, when I presented an overview of this book at its launching in Kingston, Jamaica,1 1 applauded it as an essential "reworking of some our most entrenched ideas about indigenous Caribbean people". I further asserted that Reid's book would replace much obsolete and erroneous information in extant secondary- and tertiary-level textbooks on Caribbean archaeology and history. Since the release the book has become an invaluable new teaching and learning resource in undergraduate archaeology courses at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. I can, therefore, more adamantly endorse these early statements about the work.Reid develops his eleven chapters as thematic discussions, which reflect prevalent beliefs about pre-colonial peoples that still dominate our imaginations, but which have been disproved, corrected, or qualified by new archaeological discoveries and investigative approaches. Among the most vivid beliefs is the "myth" of cannibalistic practices amongst the Island-Carib peoples of the Lesser Antilles (p. 88ff). This claim, advanced and promulgated by historical accounts, was never supported by witnesses, European or otherwise. And, up to today, despite the large amount of archaeological data collected from numerous sites across the Caribbean, it remains unverified by physical (material) evidence. Reid, in discussing the scientific evidence that would support cannibalism in the archaeological record (evidence of butchering and charring/cooking of human bone, for example), shows precisely why archaeology is unable to support this persistent historical allegation. He identifies the anthropological and philosophical notion of otherness or "othering" as the main explanation for the invention and perpetuation of the myth of cannibalism (p. 98). In its simplest terms, the creation of the "other", or "them" as different from "us", allowed Europeans to justify more easily the colonization and persecution of certain groups such as the IslandCaribs. However, in an interesting twist, Reid identifies a particular Taino myth that equates Columbus and his crew with cannibals. Here it seems we have a reversal of the normal application of otherness, but hidden within the mythological construct of an indigenous group. The implication of the myth is that "if cannibals had truly been known to the Tainos, they would not have confused them with . . . early Europeans" (p. 98). Reid's able treatment of cannibalism, like so many other discussions in his book, highlights the use of multi-disciplinary conversations for the benefit of archaeological interpretation, as well as the necessary interdependence between history and archaeology in developing more reliable versions of pre-Columbian time and its varied players.Through its exploration of other "myths", the book is an excellent proponent for the expulsion of old terminologies pertaining to preColumbian peoples. Many of these, unfortunately, still persist at the nonspecialist level. As archaeologists have expanded their scope of inquiry into the twenty-first century, and as the number and variety of specialists multiply, we continue to sharpen our distinctions amongst the diverse cultural groups that once inhabited the region. Thus the term "Taino" now replaces "Arawak" (in Jamaica, for example), and currently applies to those populations who were the last to emerge in the Caribbean region, and who developed solely within the Greater Antilles. Taino material cultures and lifestyles are now archaeologically distinguishable from those of their remote Amerindian and Arawakan ancestors in the southern Caribbean, and thus archaeologists have streamlined their terminologies to reflect this new awareness. Another outdated expression that crops up in the literature is "Ciboney". This word has now more correctly been replaced with "Guanahatabey", which refers to the indigenous populations of westernmost Cuba. …

Myths and Realities of Caribbean History

Historically, the cultural landscape of northern Haiti has been severely impacted by Amerindian, Spanish, and African cultures. Historical accounts often consider only the transformations that left visible imprints in the environment, neglecting or overlooking other social changes. This research provides a new set of data, built upon results from mainly archaeological surveys. A landscape biographical approach is applied to capture the historic development of the Fort-Liberte region, Haiti. The discussion shows that the history of the region can be understood as a landscape palimpsest resulting from complex relations between different cultural groups over time.

Complex landscape biographies: palimpsests of Fort-Liberté, Haiti

Evidence for chronological change in intra-site subsistence strategies is very rare in the Amerindian record of the Lesser Antilles. The study of the vertebrate assemblage from the archeological site of Roseau in the Guadeloupe Islands underlines the complexity and variability of Ceramic Age Amerindian subsistence behavior. This study establishes a more precise chronology of the previously identified strata of the site, and demonstrates that the Contact period was only represented by rare archeological artifacts dispersed in the stratigraphy. The results from this assemblage indicate that the earlier occupations of the site exhibit a more intensive exploitation of aquatic vertebrate resources compared to later occupations, which have a larger focus on terrestrial fauna, especially rodents and iguanas. This unusual pattern highlights how subsistence behaviors in the Lesser Antilles during the Late and Final Ceramic periods were highly variable. This new evidence of strong inter-site variability shows that the behaviors of Amerindians are not only dependent of large-scale environmental conditions but also influenced by more complex socio-cultural and local environmental parameters.

/pdf/the-pre-columbian-site-of-roseau-guadeloupe-f-w-i-intra-site-2e7y80ddoo.pdf

The pre-Columbian site of Roseau (Guadeloupe, F. W. I.): intra-site chronological variability of the subsistence strategies in a Late Ceramic archeological vertebrate assemblage

The Caribbean Sea was a conduit for human mobility and the exchange of goods and ideas during the whole of its pre-colonial history. The period cal. AD 1000-1800, covering the Late Ceramic Age and ...

https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/access/item%3A3160827/view

Island networks: transformations of inter-community social relationships in the Lesser Antilles at the advent of European colonialism

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Island networks: transformations of inter-community social relationships in the Lesser Antilles at the advent of European colonialism