Island Garbology: Methodology, Challenges, and Contributions to the Archaeology of Barbuda

Summary

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, but their complexity is increasing and the consequences are interfering more every day in the daily lives of locals and are visible in the heart of terrestrial and marine environments. In this context, archeology can contribute to the understanding of the formation of spontaneous dumps in the natural environment, such as piles of waste along roadsides, in forests, on banks and at the bottom of waterways. These sites are complex, constantly changing, and sometimes used sporadically for decades, leading to major documentation challenges. How can we archaeologically document such sites? As part of our research on the island of Barbuda, we use photography, visual prospecting, sampling and photogrammetry to document contemporary spontaneous dumps. This article provides a review of the strengths and weaknesses of this methodology, as well as the contributions and future of the garbology project in Barbuda.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• At the Frontier of Big Climate, Disaster Capitalism, and Endangered Cultural Heritage in Barbuda, Lesser Antilles   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38343.0