1st Edition
The Archaeology of Caribbean and Circum-Caribbean Farmers (6000 BC - AD 1500)
Comprising 17 chapters and with a wide geographic reach stretching from the Florida Keys in the north to the Guianas in the south, this volume places a well-needed academic spotlight on what is generally considered an integral topic in Caribbean and circum-Caribbean archaeology.
The book explores a variety of issues, including the introduction and dispersal of early cultivars, plant manipulation, animal domestication, dietary profiles, and landscape modifications. Tried-and-true and novel analytical techniques are used to tease out aspects of the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean database that inform the complex and often-subtle processes of domestication under varying socio-environmental conditions. Contributors discuss their findings within multiple constructs such as neolithisation, social interaction, trade, mobility, social complexity, migration, colonisation, and historical ecology. Multiple data sources are used which include but are not restricted to rock art, cooking pits and pots, stable isotopes, dental calculus and pathologies, starch grains, and proxies for past environmental conditions.
Given its multi-disciplinary approaches, this volume should be of immense value to both researchers and students of Caribbean archaeology, biogeography, ethnobotany, zooarchaeology, historical ecology, agriculture, environmental studies, history, and other related fields.
List of illustrations
List of contributors
Acknowledgments
Caribbean and circum-Caribbean farmers: an introduction
BASIL A. REID, PETER E. SIEGEL, NICHOLAS P. DUNNING,
CORINNE L. HOFMAN, STEPHEN ROSTAIN,
VICTOR D. THOMPSON, AND SCOTT M. FITZPATRICK
PART I
Caribbean farmers from a regional perspective
1 Comparative perspectives on pre-Columbian farming in the Caribbean as seen through the lens of historical ecology
SCOTT M. FITZPATRICK
2 Humanizing the landscapes of the Lesser Antilles during the Archaic Age
PETER E. SIEGEL, JOHN G. JONES, DEBORAH M. PEARSALL,
NICHOLAS P. DUNNING, PAT FARRELL, NEIL A. DUNCAN,
JASON H. CURTIS, AND SUSHANT K. SINGH
3 The neolithisation of the northeastern Caribbean: mobility and social interaction
CORINNE L. HOFMAN, RENIEL RODRIGUEZ RAMOS AND
JAIME R. PAGAN JIMENEZ
4 Straddling the subsistence divide: the case of Canímar Abajo and contemporaneous sites in Northwestern Cuba
DAVID GRAY SMITH, YADIRA CHINIQUE DE ARMAS,
ROBERTO RODRIGUEZ SUAREZ, WILLIAM M. BUHAY,
IVAN ROKSANDIC MATTHEW C. PEROS, AND MIRJANA ROKSANDIC
Contents
vi Contributors
5 Early horticulturalists of the southern Caribbean
ANDRZEJ T. ANTCZAK, JAY B. HAVISER, MENNO L. P. HOOGLAND,
ARIE BOOMERT, RAYMUNDO A. C. F. DIJKHOFF, HAROLD J. KELLY,
MA. MAGDALENA ANTCZAK, AND CORINNE L. HOFMAN
PART II
Animal domestication
6 Animal management and domestication in the realm of Ceramic Age farming
MICHELLE J. LEFEBVRE AND SUSAN D. DEFRANCE
PART III
Caribbean farmers and rock art
7 Rock art and horticulture in the Caribbean: icons and symbols of humidity
PETER G. ROE, MICHELE H. HAYWARD AND MICHAEL A. CINQUINO
PART IV
Caribbean versus Pacific farmers
8 A comparative study of pre-colonial farming in the Caribbean vis-à-vis the Pacific
BASIL A. REID, FRANK R. THOMAS, AND SCOTT M. FITZPATRICK
PART V
Caribbean farmers (methods and techniques)
9 Some methods for reconstructing the woody resources of Neolithic farmers in the Caribbean
CAROLINE R. CARTWRIGHT
10 Domesticating the island: anthropogenic soils and landform modification as components of subsistence-resource acquisition strategies in Puerto Rico
ISABEL C. RIVERA-COLLAZO AND LARA M. SANCHEZ-MORALES
11 Isotopic challenges and categorical stumbling blocks in Caribbean archaeology: a cautionary tale from Puerto Rico
WILLIAM J. PESTLE AND RENIEL RODRIGUEZ RAMOS
Contributors vii
12 Assessing dietary and subsistence transitions on prehistoric Aruba: preliminary bioarchaeological evidence
HAYLEY L. MICKLEBURGH AND JASON E. LAFFOON
PART VI
Circum-Caribbean farmers
Florida Keys
13 When foragers are managers: social complexity and persistent foraging in the Florida Keys
TRACI ARDREN, VICTOR D. THOMPSON, SCOTT M. FITZPATRICK,
JOSEPH STEVENSON, AND ROGER L. SIERRA
Central America
14 Maize, manioc, mamey, and more: pre-Columbian lowland Maya agriculture
NICHOLAS P. DUNNING, TIMOTHY BEACH, ELIZABETH GRAHAM,
DAVID LENTZ, AND SHERYL LUZZADDER-BEACH
15 Getting to the grain: the domestication of Zea mays in
Mesoamerica and beyond
ROBERT P. KRUGER
South America
16 Pre-Columbian farmers in the Guianas
STEPHEN ROSTAIN
17 From cooking pits to cooking pots: changing modes of food processing during the Late Archaic Age in French Guiana
MARTIJN M. VAN DEN BEL, SEBASTIAAN KNIPPENBERG, AND
JAIME R. PAGAN JIMENEZ
Postscript
PETER BELLWOOD
Glossary
Index
Biography
Basil A. Reid (PhD, University of Florida) is Professor of Archaeology in the Department of History at The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. He is currently the senior representative for Central America and the Caribbean at the World Archaeological Congress. His major research interests are the pre-colonial archaeology of the Caribbean, archaeology and geoinformatics, precolonial Caribbean farmers and Caribbean heritage. He has published in a variety of peer-reviewed journals, and has authored, edited and co-edited several books on a variety of topics relating to Caribbean archaeology. His books include Archaeology and Geoinformatics: Case Studies from the Caribbean (2008), Myths and Realities of Caribbean History (2009), Caribbean Heritage (2012) and Encyclopedia of Caribbean Archaeology (2014). He is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of the Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology and the Archaeological Society of Jamaica. Reid was the Lead Archaeologist of the Red House Archaeological Excavations in Port of Spain, Trinidad from July 1, 2013 to January 31, 2015. His forthcoming book is entitled: An Archaeological Study of the Red House, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
