Caribbean (Geographic Keyword)
576-597 (597 Records)
The exploitation of plants in the tropical belt by Europeans had a major influence on the distributions of many species. The Lesser Antillean islands received their fair share of new arrivals. But what plant species inhabited the Lesser Antillean islands just prior to 1492? Establishing which plant species occurred immediately before colonial times would increase our understanding of the impact of alien introductions, provide information about biogeographical range changes, and, in addition,...
When Is Creolization? (2018)
Multiple episodes of identity transformation can be seen in the archaeology of Mona island. From the emergence of "Taino-ness" (cf. R. Rodríguez) in the 12th century, to the catastrophic (after S. Mintz) eruption of colonial identities in the 16th century. We contrast the dynamics and character of creolizations from a diachronic and material perspective by looking at the archaeology of 500 years of subterranean ritual landscapes of Mona. We ask whether an expanded use of the term creolization is...
Where Are You Staying? Lodging Facilities in San Juan, Puerto Rico (2018)
In the 19th century there was a large influx of people traveling to Puerto Rico, many stayed in lodgings throughout the capital city of San Juan. This study focuses on the hotels, guest houses and hostels within the walled city, currently known as Old San Juan, during the late 19th century and early 20th century. Using primary sources that include photographs, maps, blueprints and newspaper advertisements, the goal of my research is to establish the location of this type of businesses. Also, to...
Where Is the Chief? A Reevaluation of the Concepts of Chiefdoms and Cacicazgos in Caribbean Archaeology (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Traditionally, the terms chiefdoms and cacicazgos have been used throughout the Caribbean as synonyms of stratified sociopolitical systems encountered by Europeans at the time of contact. However, recent data unearthed by the Archaeological Project of the Ceremonial Center of Tibes put into question the applicability of these categories based on generic...
Why are Archaeological Collections Relevant in the 21st Century? The Caribbean Experience (2016)
The late 19th century and beginning of the 20th century provides us with numerous examples of the acquisition of collections carried out by museums. When archaeologists talk about those collections, housed at museums worldwide, the discussions are often directed towards how the lack of context limits or nullifies their research potential. I argue that we need to go back and carefully re-examine the research prospects of these collections. This presentation considers several avenues for research...
Women’s Occupations in Early 20th Century San Juan, Puerto Rico, and its Relevance to Archaeological Research (2018)
Women are one of the many groups which had been traditionally excluded from social science studies. Because of this, when retelling historical events many of them have become invisible and/or silenced even though they played an important role in society. My investigation concentrates on women living in San Juan, Puerto Rico as reported in the 1910 census, in two distinct areas: urban blocks from within, and outside the walled city. Through primary documents, this research will present...
"A Wondrously Fertile Country": Agricultural Diversity and Landscape Change in French Guiana (2018)
As a circum-Caribbean, non-island space on the coast of northeastern South America, French Guiana presents a distinct context in which to explore plantation slavery and Caribbean commodity production. The "sugar revolution" that overtook areas of the Caribbean at various historical moments reached French Guiana during the nineteenth century, yet monocultural production of the crop never took hold. Instead, plantations producing a variety of agricultural commodities including cotton, coffee,...
Work and Models of Efficiency in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Sugar Factories: A Caribbean Case Study. (2015)
Industrial design can increase labor management and mobility, increase efficiency, and structure worker behavior. As the industrial period evolved during the eighteenth century experiments in factory layouts produced efficient modes of production. But when the labor is enslaved, efficiency may not always be defined in terms of time or cost. This paper presents the industrial foot-print and spatial design of factories at several sugar plantations spanning over two centuries of operation on a...
Working With Under-Represented Archaeological Heritages of St Croix, USVI (2023)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Folkeliv” and Black Folks’ Lives: Archaeology, History, and Contemporary Black Atlantic Communities", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. This paper will present initial findings from fieldwork on St Croix as part of a Danish-funded, multi-year, heritage project that began in early 2020. When funded, this project was intended to work with the NPS, who have established projects on the island, to examine the...
A Yard and It’s Belongin’s: Archaeological Research of Laborer Houseyards on the Morne Patat Estate, Dominica (2017)
Caribbean ‘yards’ and their associated structures have long been of interest to archaeologists determined to understand how the domestic spaces of enslaved laborers both embodied and reflected kinship ties, labor arrangements, and socio-political shifts. Often regarded as an elemental feature of Caribbean society, houseyards are the spaces where the repeated acts of daily life took place, as a result, understanding how enslaved laborers utilized and altered their domestic space over generations,...
You are what you eat? - Did food consumption reflect status, ethnical or cultural differentiation on the island of Saba between the late 18th to the early 20th century? (2016)
Social position, ethical origin, cultural background and diet are found to be strongly intertwined, therefore faunal remains provide a unique opportunity to explore differences in diet between different ethnical groups and/or social classes. Hence we studied the zoological remains from the pre- and post-emancipation of three archaeological sites on Saba (late 18th to the early 20th century), which were inhabited by different groups of people, such as impoverished people of European descent,...
You Come from Where? Ceramics and Cultural Exchange at Palmetto Junction (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Advances in the Archaeology of the Bahama Archipelago" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Palmetto Junction site on Providenciales, Turks & Caicos Islands provides an abundant and diverse ceramic assemblage. These artifacts help describe movements of people, goods, and ideas among Lucayan Taino groups in the Bahama archipelago and affiliated Greater Antillean settlements to the south. The assemblage includes...
Yucatecan and Mesoamerican Influences on Taino Ceremonial Iconography (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The iconographic corpus of the Taino cultures has been the focus of recent scholarship, yet as a whole remains understudied within Caribbean archaeology. Scholars in the past attempted to demonstrably link the Taino to the Late Postclassic Maya with limited success. However, Yucatecan influences are evident within the spatial layout of Taino ceremonial...
Zamia Starch in Santo Domingo: a Contribution To the Ethnobotany of the Dominican Republic (1957)
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Zooarchaeological Fish Remains and Signals of Resource Depression from Jamaica and Beyond (2015)
This poster presents an analysis of archaeofaunal fish remains from Bluefields Bay, Jamaica and findings of resource depression from the Caribbean. The Jamaican collection derives from recent excavations of a shell midden in Belmont, encompassed by the Bluefields Bay marine sanctuary. Preliminary radiocarbon results suggest the site dates to the late Taino occupation of Jamaica known as Meillacan Ostionoid (900-1500 AD). The Jamaican collection contains over 17,000 bones, with 8,961 specimens...
A Zooarchaeological Meta-analysis of Ceramic Age Marine Fish Harvesting across the Caribbean Archipelago: Generating Baselines for Assessing “Stability” (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Stability and Resilience in Zooarchaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Zooarchaeological baselines of human-animal engagements and their outcomes are increasingly critical to modeling what community stability looked like in the past and what we can learn from it today. Concomitantly, zooarchaeological baselines also provide critical measures of biodiversity distribution, loss, or persistence through time for use...
Zooarchaeological Records and Isotopic Systematics of Bahamian Hutia (Geocapromys ingrahami): are the Bahamas a distinct isotopic province? (2016)
Although the Bahamas are not geologically part of the Caribbean, they are culturally associated with the rest of the Caribbean Islands. Due to their unique geology the Bahamas can potentially be a distinct Pb and Sr isotopic province when compared to the rest of the Caribbean islands. Here we present the results of isotopic analysis of archaeological Bahamian hutia specimens from two pre-Columbian sites on Crooked Island (Crooked Island-8 and Crooked Island 14) located in the Bahamas, and one...
The Zooarchaeology and Isotopic Ecology of the Bahamian Hutia (Geocapromys ingrahami) (2017)
Bahamian hutia (Geocapromys ingrahami) are small sized rodents endemic to the Bahamas. Fossil and subfossil records indicate broad geographic distribution of the rodent across the Bahamas in the past, while today Bahamian hutia naturally occur on one island. Bahamian hutia have received little attention archaeologically resulting in critical gaps in our understanding of both natural and anthropogenic patterns in Bahamian hutia distribution and life history. In conjunction with "traditional"...
The Zooarchaeology of the Christiansted National Historic Site St. Croix, USVI (2021)
This is an abstract from the "To Move Forward We Must Look Back: The Slave Wrecks Project at 10 Years" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Christiansted National Historic Site, located in the town of Christiansted on St Croix, US Virgin Islands, was a Danish military compound that served as a major trading hub dealing in the trade of enslaved Africans. As such, the compound was home to both Danish soldiers and the enslaved Africans on whom they...
Zooarchaeology of the Vertebrate Fauna of Tibes: Uniformity in Transition (2016)
This paper presents the results of a recent zooarchaeological analysis of vertebrate remains from the Tibes Ceremonial Center near Ponce, Puerto Rico. Two excavation units contained intact and undisturbed deposits with the potential to provide information pertaining to social dynamics and socio-cultural change at the site. Radiocarbon dates from the two units indicate that each archaeological deposit occurred during times of perceived dynamic social and cultural activities on the island. During...
Zoomorphs in Caribbean Rock Art (2016)
While Caribbean rock art is characterized by its high percentage of human-like facial and body images, realistically-depicted and stylized zoomorphic motifs are also present. Fish, turtles, birds and marine mammals are among the animals found amidst anthropomorphic, geometric and abstract designs. We identify a number of zoomorphic forms and describe their distributional patterns from our current set of rock art sites particularly Puerto Rico. We also discuss the roles or functions these...
ZooMS Analysis of Sea Turtle Bone Disks from Brimstone Hill Fortress, St. Kitts, West Indies (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The bone button industry of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries at Brimstone Hill Fortress on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Kitts is well documented. Here, British soldiers and enslaved Africans manufactured single-hole bone disks that likely served as cores for cloth covered buttons. Tens of thousands of these disks and removals have been...