Composting the Past for the Future in the Bahamas: A Case Study of Contemporary Reuse and Transformation of Historic Spaces

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Reinvent, Reclaim, Redefine: Considerations of "Reuse" in Archaeological Contexts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Farmers and gardeners in the Bahamas have long practiced swidden agriculture to replenish the thin soil layers sitting atop limestone bedrock. These methods recycle the organic materials of the landscape to produce something new and generative. In similar fashion, the historical materials that dot the landscape of rural islands are recycled into new constructions that make life in rural islands like Eleuthera possible. Drawing on DeSilvey’s formulation of “compostheritage” (2017), this paper considers how the abandonment and decay of organic materials and the built environment is not a definitive end to the lives and uses of historic places and objects but is part of a process of transformation wherein old things breathe new life into the living landscape of the island. The paper considers the materiality of the early nineteenth-century Millar Plantation Estate and surrounding late nineteenth-century post-emancipation settlements where stone walls once associated with the plantation are deconstructed and reappear in garden walls, road markers, cemeteries, and more. Composting materials ties the past to the present and makes it visible in daily life, but it also has a future-oriented capacity. Archaeological ethnography reveals intersections of past/present/future embedded in the historical and contemporary materiality of this place.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Reinvent, Reclaim, Redefine: Considerations of "Reuse" in Archaeological Contexts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 41518.0