Prehistoric Migration in the Caribbean: Past Perspectives, New Models and the Ideal Free Distribution of West Indian Colonization (original) (raw)
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Modeling dispersal in the prehistoric West Indies
World Archaeology, 1995
Between 2500 and 3000 years ago, Arawakan-speaking peoples of northeastern Venezuela and the Guiana coasts began to colonize the islands of the West Indies ). By the time Europeans arrived in 1492, almost every island was colonized. Archaeological investigations in the region have emphasized a culture-historical paradigm in which similarities in pottery modes (or other artifacts) are grouped into classes called series. Radiometric dates are then obtained for these series, and the distributions of prehistoric peoples and cultures are charted in time and space . The use of this ceramic taxonomy, in which cultures are defined according to general similarities, has led to a focus on frontiers, with a corresponding assumption that areas behind the frontiers were culturally homogeneous (Rouse 1986).
The Pre-Columbian Caribbean: Colonization, Population Dispersal, and Island Adaptations
Once considered a backwater of New World prehistory, the Caribbean has now emerged from the archaeological shadows as a critical region for answering a host of questions related to human population dispersal, Neotropical island adaptations, maritime subsistence, seafaring, island interaction networks, and the rise of social complexity, among many others. In this paper, I provide a review of: (1) what is currently known about the antiquity of Pre-Columbian colonization of the Caribbean using archaeological, biological, and oceanographic data; (2) how these data inform on the dispersal of what appear to be many different population movements through time; and (3) the subsequent adaptations (e.g., technological, subsistence, and economic) that took place across the islands after initial contact. Results of more than a century of research demonstrate that the Antilles were settled much earlier than once thought (ca. 7000 cal yr BP), in multiple waves that show strong linkages to South America, but possibly originated from more than one source location. Dispersal was patchy, with several intriguing chronological and spatial disparities that scholars are now investigating in more detail. Beginning ca. 2500 cal yr BP, and accelerating around 1500 cal yr BP, the frequent transport and exchange of goods, services, animals, plants, knowledge, and spiritual ideologies between the islands as well as mainland areas — particularly South America — testify to the interconnected nature of Pre-Columbian societies in the region. The use of more advanced analytical techniques, including ancient DNA, archaeobotany, stable isotopes, and various approaches to geochemical and mineralogical sourcing of artifacts, which until recently have been largely underused in the Caribbean, is opening new avenues of research that are creating exciting opportunities for examining ancient Amerindian lifeways.
Paleoenvironmental evidence for first human colonization of the eastern Caribbean
Identifying and dating first human colonization of new places is challenging, especially when group sizes were small and material traces of their occupations were ephemeral. Generating reliable reconstructions of human colonization patterns from intact archaeological sites may be difficult to impossible given postdepositional taphonomic processes and in cases of island and coastal locations the inundation of landscapes resulting from post-Pleistocene sea-level rise. Paleoenvironmental reconstruction is proving to be a more reliable method of identifying small-scale human colonization events than archaeological data alone. We demonstrate the method through a sediment-coring project across the Lesser Antilles and southern Caribbean. Paleoenvironmental data were collected informing on the timing of multiple islandcolonization events and land-use histories spanning the full range of human occupations in the Caribbean, from the initial forays into the islands through the arrival and eventual domination of the landscapes and indigenous people by Europeans. In some areas, our data complement archaeological, paleoecological, and historical findings from the Lesser Antilles and in others amplify understanding of colonization history. Here, we highlight data relating to the timing and process of initial colonization in the eastern Caribbean. In particular, paleoenvironmental data from Trinidad, Grenada, Martinique, and Marie-Galante (Guadeloupe) provide a basis for revisiting initial colonization models of the Caribbean. We conclude that archaeological programs addressing human occupations dating to the early to mid-Holocene, especially in dynamic coastal settings, should systematically incorporate paleoenvironmental investigations.
Of an / Mals as an Adaptation to Colonization of Islands : An Example from the West Indies
2016
We upply islam/ biogeographic principles to the analysis of archaeological Jaunas from Caribbean Ceramic age sites, and use the results to better understand human adaptations to these island settings. Faunal samples reflect decreased diversity with distance from the mainland and a positive correlation between diversity and island size. Though the colonists 11·ere subject to the limitations described ln is/and biogeographic principles, they were also able to exert .1·ome contrai bv disproportionately enriching the diversity of species on small islands ln introducing animais.
Prehistoric settlements in the Caribbean
Archaeology International, 1997
Mesoamerican arch aeology has fo cused mainly on th e ancient civilizations of the mainland, but kn owledge of early settlement, society and economy in th e Caribbean islands is essential for our understanding of th e prehistory of the region as a wh ole. In stitute staff and students are curren tly working in th ree islands: Puerto Rico, Tortola and Barbados.
Global Patterns in Island Colonization during the Holocene
Journal of World Prehistory
Analysis of the spatial and temporal structure of global island colonization allows us to frame the extent of insular human cultural diversity, model the impact of common environmental factors cross-culturally, and understand the contribution of island maritime societies to big historical processes. No such analysis has, however, been undertaken since the 1980s. In this paper we review and update global patterns in island colonization, synthesizing data from all the major island groups and theaters and undertaking quantitative and qualitative analysis of these data. We demonstrate the continued relevance of certain biogeographic and environmental factors in structuring how humans colonized islands during the Holocene. Our analysis also suggests the importance of other factors, some previously anticipated—such as culturally ingrained seafaring traditions and technological enhancement of dispersal capacity—but some not, such as the relationship between demographic growth and connectiv...
2019
Early Settlers of the Insular Caribbean: Dearchaizing the Archaic offers a comprehensive coverage of the most recent advances in interdisciplinary research on the early human settling of the Caribbean islands. It covers the time span of the so-called Archaic Age and focuses on the Middle to Late Holocene period which – depending on specific case studies discussed in this volume – could range between 6000 BC and AD 1000. A similar approach to the early settlers of the Caribbean islands has never been published in one volume, impeding the realization of a holistic view on indigenous peoples’ settling, subsistence, movements, and interactions in this vast and naturally diversified macroregion. Delivered by a panel of international experts, this book provides recent and new data in the fields of archaeology, collection studies, palaeobotany, geomorphology, paleoclimate and bioarchaeology that challenge currently existing perspectives on early human settlement patterns, subsistence strategies, migration routes and mobility and exchange. This publication compiles new approaches to ‘old’ data and museum collections, presents the results of starch grain analysis, paleocoring, seascape modelling, and network analysis. Moreover, it features newer published data from the islands such as Margarita and Aruba. All the above-mentioned data compiled in one volume fills the gap in scholarly literature, transforms some of the interpretations in vogue and enables the integration of the first settlers of the insular Caribbean into the larger Pan-American perspective. This book not only provides scholars and students with compelling new and interdisciplinary perspectives on the Early Settlers of the Insular Caribbean. It is also of interest to unspecialized readers as it discusses subjects related to archaeology, anthropology, and – broadly speaking – to the intersections between humanities and social and environmental sciences, which are of great interest to the present-day general public. Also see the other publications from the NEXUS 1492 Research Project
Because small islands are frequently associated with spatially heterogeneous, biodiverse marine environments that readily exceed the productive capacity of their associated terrestrial habitat, it has been argued that these were attractive settlement locations for people due to the rich aquatic resource base they provided. I examine this proposition for the small West Indian island of Carriacou (32 km2), situated in the Grenadines micro-archipelago, in light of recent zooarchaeological findings for two of its major archaeological sites, Sabazan and Grand Bay, where a millennium of sustainable marine foraging is evidenced. While reliance on abundant marine resources clearly contributed to the long-term occupation of Sabazan and Grand Bay, fine-grained analysis of the fish and invertebrate remains suggests that abundance alone does not explain settlement persistence. I argue that the key to understanding the lengthy prehistoric occupation of Grand Bay and Sabazan lies in the structure of its marine environments, especially the functional and response diversity of targeted prey, and the flexibility of Amerindian foraging strategies. Settlement viability on Carriacou did not rest solely on the importance of marine resource extraction, but more specifically on the resilience of the marine environments exploited and the behavior of foragers in relation to this.
Antiquity, 2018
The result is an uneasy linkage of different topics, beginning with an excellent account of the historical end-point of the hiri as described by various European observers, then moving to a comprehensive review of previous archaeological research in Papua. The bulk of the book—11 chapters and some 350 pages—is concerned with reporting the 13 excavations from the Kouri Lowlands. It is not readily apparent how most of these chapters/sites relate to either the hiri or maritime trade, especially as the authors specifically allow that prehistoric pottery may have been locally made. This is unlikely for several reasons and will be resolved by sourcing studies, yet to be undertaken. For many readers, the final three interpretive chapters will be of most interest, although the last of these moves away from the Papuan south coast to encompass most of the ethnographic maritime trading systems circling Papua New Guinea, and to argue again for a Lapita genesis.