One Island, Two Stories: Tradition, Ritual and Identity in Barbuda, West Indies

Summary

Barbuda, the small sister island to Antigua, provides a unique geographically bound island context for the study of human-environmental interactions over the last 6000 years. Today, Barbuda’s national animal is the fallow deer, Dama dama dama, a species that is native to a small area of Anatolia but that has been transported around the world by people. According to historical accounts, fallow deer were imported to Barbuda, from England, by the Codrington family, the island’s primary leaseholders during the Colonial period, who sought to establish both a British colony and lifestyle upon the island. In addition to fallow deer a number of other species were imported such as chickens, turkeys, horses, cats, donkeys, etc. While colonial powers were replicating the idea of home in the British perspective, archaeological evidence and current island practices suggest enslaved peoples used both local and introduced species. The subsistence, tradition and identity of both peoples shaped the Barbuda and Barbudans of today and will be investigated through the analysis of faunal remains from relevant sites.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• The Environmental Legacies of Colonialism in the Neotropics

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