At the Frontier of Big Climate, Disaster Capitalism, and Endangered Cultural Heritage in Barbuda, Lesser Antilles

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "At the Frontier of Big Climate, Disaster Capitalism, and Endangered Cultural Heritage in Barbuda, Lesser Antilles" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) of the Caribbean are vulnerable to the effects of climatic change. The damaging impacts of contemporary sea-level rise and increasing hurricane activity have had a significant influence on the region’s physical, economic, and sociocultural landscapes. In 2017, Category 5 Hurricane Irma made a direct hit on the island of Barbuda, of the nation Antigua & Barbuda, which resulted in the evacuation of the island’s entire population and widespread devastation. This symposium focuses on the first year of an NSF IRES international research effort to study current issues in Caribbean archaeology, historical anthropology, geoarchaeology, bioarchaeology, osteobiography, photogrammetry, site management, garbology, and community cultural heritage. Collaborators in this project explore the long durée in a transdisciplinary perspective from the first peopling to the present day. The peer mentorship of junior colleagues is at the core of this endeavor, so as they move into their chosen fields, they are better prepared to address the unprecedented effects of the Anthropocene in a holistic perspective.

Other Keywords
Historic • Coastal and Island Archaeology  • Cultural Resources and Heritage Management • Digital Archaeology: Photogrammetry • Geoarchaeology • Historical Archaeology • Climate Change • Coastal Erosion • Colonialism • Coastal Archaeology

Geographic Keywords
Department of Martinique (Country) • Republic of El Salvador (Country) • Department of Guadeloupe (Country) • Cayman Islands (Country) • Antigua and Barbuda (Country) • Turks and Caicos Islands (Country) • Belize (Country) • Anguilla (Country) • Republic of Honduras (Country) • Republic of Haiti (Country)

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  • Documents (9)
Documents
  • Colonial Period Occupations and Historical Archaeology on Barbuda (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Allison Bain.

    This is an abstract from the "At the Frontier of Big Climate, Disaster Capitalism, and Endangered Cultural Heritage in Barbuda, Lesser Antilles" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A variety of colonial period structures are scattered across the island of Barbuda. Spanning the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, they include wells, lime kilns, a Martello Tower, as well as the remains of a dozen buildings at the Highland House site, amongst others....

  • Community-Defined Heritage and Uncertain Futures (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Hannah Quaintance.

    This is an abstract from the "At the Frontier of Big Climate, Disaster Capitalism, and Endangered Cultural Heritage in Barbuda, Lesser Antilles" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation considers heritage as defined by members of stakeholder communities that have experienced a history of displacement as well as the pressures of disaster capitalism/neoliberal development. It explores the value of community-defined concepts of heritage to...

  • Fostering Preservation and Public Engagement of a Colonial-Era Site on Barbuda with Photogrammetry (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Heather Richards-Rissetto. Ethan Jensen. Allison Bain. Sophia Perdikaris.

    This is an abstract from the "At the Frontier of Big Climate, Disaster Capitalism, and Endangered Cultural Heritage in Barbuda, Lesser Antilles" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The threats to cultural heritage on the Caribbean island of Barbuda are multifaceted, stemming from natural disasters, rising sea levels, political and economic policies, and infrastructure development. While such threats are not new, their increasing and combined...

  • Island Garbology: Methodology, Challenges, and Contributions to the Archaeology of Barbuda (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Rachel Archambault.

    This is an abstract from the "At the Frontier of Big Climate, Disaster Capitalism, and Endangered Cultural Heritage in Barbuda, Lesser Antilles" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Islands like Barbuda are particularly sensitive to waste management policies and behaviours; in addition to having to manage their waste daily, they also suffer the effects of tourism and the marine litter washed up on their coasts. These challenges are certainly not new,...

  • The Osteobiography of Human Remains from the Seaview and Indian Town Trail Archaeological Sites (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Maggie Klemm. William Belcher.

    This is an abstract from the "At the Frontier of Big Climate, Disaster Capitalism, and Endangered Cultural Heritage in Barbuda, Lesser Antilles" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Climate change and privatization activities related to disaster capitalism threaten land ownership rights and landscape preservation in Barbuda. Barbuda is home to multigenerational residences, businesses, schools, and buildings of cultural significance. Also, on this land...

  • Overview of a Photogrammetry / Map-Stories Approach to Heritage Management on Barbuda (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Ethan Jensen. Heather Richards-Rissetto.

    This is an abstract from the "At the Frontier of Big Climate, Disaster Capitalism, and Endangered Cultural Heritage in Barbuda, Lesser Antilles" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological sites on the island of Barbuda are increasingly under threat from natural disasters and human practices. Photogrammetry is a promising tool to preserve detailed spatial data of threatened sites for future study and present sites to both researchers and the...

  • Overview of the Archaeological Work in Barbuda: A 20-Year Retrospective (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sophia Perdikaris.

    This is an abstract from the "At the Frontier of Big Climate, Disaster Capitalism, and Endangered Cultural Heritage in Barbuda, Lesser Antilles" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Barbuda has been the focus of transdisciplinary investigation since 2005. Central to our work in Barbuda is our collaborative relationship with the outmost experts of the island, the Barbudan people. The foundation for all work on island is that of mutual respect for our...

  • Sea-Level Rise, Climate Change, and the Geoarchaeology of Barbuda: A Systematic Survey of Seaview / Indian Town Trail (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Isabel Rivera-Collazo.

    This is an abstract from the "At the Frontier of Big Climate, Disaster Capitalism, and Endangered Cultural Heritage in Barbuda, Lesser Antilles" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Sea-level rise, coastal erosion, and other climate-related hazards pose threats to coastlines around the world. Understanding these nuanced processes sheds light on the risks that local communities and heritage managers face, as well as on the longer-term impacts of human...

  • We Carry It Within Us: Shared Colonial History and Control of Caribbean Cultural Heritage Collections (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Edith Gonzalez.

    This is an abstract from the "At the Frontier of Big Climate, Disaster Capitalism, and Endangered Cultural Heritage in Barbuda, Lesser Antilles" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. To quote James Baldwin, “History, as nearly no one seems to know, is not merely something to be read. And it does not refer merely, or even principally, to the past. On the contrary, the great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously...