Abstract: The scholarly work on the Taíno behique and the Kalinago boyé has always acknowledged the position of power that these figures occupied in their societies. Their quality as a mediator with superhuman forces made them vital for... more
Abstract: The scholarly work on the Taíno behique and the Kalinago boyé has always acknowledged the position of power that these figures occupied in their societies. Their quality as a mediator with superhuman forces made them vital for indigenous Caribbean communities in their role as healers, advisors, ritual specialists, or even craftsmen. However, it has not often been stressed that the principle of the “unity of knowledge”, i.e. that which can heal can also harm, also applies to Caribbean shamans and that this perhaps constitutes a darker, but equally powerful part of their social roles. This paper discusses the available evidence for shamanic reciprocal violence (i.e. sorcery) among the contact time Kalinago and the proto-contact Taíno. After this discussion I will briefly try to infer what this could possibly mean for our understanding of the exchange and socio-political system of these societies.
When discussing exchange in the archaeological record, this often entails a prehistory of exchange that is focused on the economic or the political aspect of exchanges. These particular views very often suppose a direct quid-pro-quo... more
When discussing exchange in the archaeological record, this often entails a prehistory of exchange that is focused on the economic or the political aspect of exchanges. These particular views very often suppose a direct quid-pro-quo attitude to exchanges. Although direct reciprocity was no doubt important for the constitution of pre-Columbian sociality, many other social strategies are available that were at least as important. This article focuses on the possible role of strong reciprocity in pan-Caribbean interactions. This entails that objects and concepts should not be only considered for their value as exchange valuables in an economic or ideological sense, but also from their ability to create material manifestations of social strategies and their resulting relations. This position will be illuminated by a casestudy taken from Melanesian ethnography and Caribbean archaeology.
This paper starts out with a brief overview of the use of “interaction theory” by Caribbean archaeologists, which is suggested to be a connecting element in many academic works. Following this I will present a model of Greater Antillean... more
This paper starts out with a brief overview of the use of “interaction theory” by Caribbean archaeologists, which is suggested to be a connecting element in many academic works. Following this I will present a model of Greater Antillean Late Ceramic Age social interaction based on a recombination of three theoretical models from anthropological archaeology: “interaction sphere”, “exchange sphere” and “social sphere.” Using ethnohistorical sources and an overview of Late Ceramic Age social valuables I will illustrate how a social interactional model contributes to our understanding of the social realities behind the distribution of material culture complexes in the Antilles.
The peoples of the Caribbean Late Ceramic Age (AD 600/800-1492) were in contact through intensive and extensive exchange networks. This article takes a close look at the social mechanism behind one of these networks, which consists of... more
The peoples of the Caribbean Late Ceramic Age (AD 600/800-1492) were in contact through intensive and extensive exchange networks. This article takes a close look at the social mechanism behind one of these networks, which consists of face-depicting shell discs or cones. This is done from a gift-theoretical framework that focuses on aspects of alienability/inalienability of these shell faces in a specifically Caribbean setting. These artefacts are characterized from the indigenous concept of guaízas – « faces of the living » – as understood from ethnohistoric sources. After treating their iconography and giving an overview of their archaeological and socio-cultural contexts the discussion will focus on alienable and inalienable qualities of these artefacts. Finally, « shell faces as guaízas » will be used in an argument in which they figure as social valuables that are used to control extracommunal Others.
New Seville in St. Ann’s parish on Jamaica is one of the most important Early Colonial sites in the Greater Antilles . The site has received much previous attention by researchers and both archaeological materials and historic... more
New Seville in St. Ann’s parish on Jamaica is one of the most important Early Colonial sites in the Greater Antilles . The site has received much previous attention by researchers and both archaeological materials and historic descriptions of Jamaica’s earliest Spanish city have been uncovered. This paper will focus on the art historical and iconographical analysis of the pillars belonging to either the church or the governor’s house that have been recovered at the site by James Cotter in the 1930ties. Stylistically, the depictions on the pillars represent the earliest examples of the European Late Gothic/Early Renaisance grotesque and platteresque in the Caribbean . On the other hand, historical evidence suggests that the pillars have been carved by a group of Jamaican indigenous specialists as part of their obligations under the encomienda-system. This is noteworthy since some of the motifs found on the pillars are uncharacteristic for Mediterranean European art of this time but would fit well within Pre-Columbian Greater Antillean iconographic conventions. Especially the carving of a naked woman with spread legs and splayed feet on one of the pillars is reminiscent of a much older, Caribbean-wide “frog leg-motif” of which arguably the so-called “Atabeyra of Caguana” is the most famous representation. We discuss if these indigenously crafted, Early Colonial pillars are evidence of Spanish-Indigenous syncretism, covert indigenous counter-culture or a Caribbean and European meeting of a universally pertinent symbol.
N.B. This paper is currently being worked into a full article.
"An Archaeology of Exchange is primarily an archaeology of human sociality and anti-sociality. Nevertheless, archaeological studies of exchange are numerous and varied, and archaeologists do not always approach exchange as a social... more
"An Archaeology of Exchange is primarily an archaeology of human sociality and anti-sociality. Nevertheless, archaeological studies of exchange are numerous and varied, and archaeologists do not always approach exchange as a social mechanism, concentrating rather on the cultural, economic or political implications of exchange. Even so, at times it is worth retracing the implicit theoretical steps that archaeologists have taken and look at human sociality through the eyes of exchange as something new.
This will be undertaken here by concentrating on the exchange of social valuables in the later part of the Late Ceramic Age of the Greater and Lesser Antilles (AD 1000/1100-1492). Questions concerning this exchange will be framed in a novel mix of theories - such as Costly Signalling Theory coupled with the paradox of keeping-while-giving and the notion of gene/culture co-evolution joined with Complex Adaptive System theory. Still, all these theories can be related back to the concept of exchange as put forward by the French sociologist Marcel Mauss in his famous "Essai sur le don" of 1924/25.
This theoretical framework will be put to the test by an extensive case-study of a specific category of Late Ceramic Age social valuables: shell faces, which have an area of distribution that ranges from central Cuba to the Île de Ronde in the Grenadines. The study of these enigmatic artefacts will uncover novel insights on the nature and use of social valuables in the Late Ceramic Age by communities and individuals."
This is a poster that was made for the opening of Leiden University's Faculty of Archaeology's new building. It looks at co-authorship networks within the Faculty, one of the largest centres for archaeological and heritage studies in... more
This is a poster that was made for the opening of Leiden University's Faculty of Archaeology's new building. It looks at co-authorship networks within the Faculty, one of the largest centres for archaeological and heritage studies in Europe, from the period 2006-2012. I argue that, although the Faculty's research is becoming more and more integrated, there were still some thematic and disciplinary boundaries that needed to be crossed.
The Caribbean Sea was the centre stage of the earliest, sustained encounters between the New and Old Worlds, heralding the mass movement of people, goods and ideas between two previously unconnected parts of the world. The repercussions... more
The Caribbean Sea was the centre stage of the earliest, sustained encounters between the New and Old Worlds, heralding the mass movement of people, goods and ideas between two previously unconnected parts of the world. The repercussions hereof are woven into the fabric of modern multi-ethnic Caribbean society. However, our current understanding of this important chapter in the history of the world is skewed, because there are still large shortfalls in our knowledge of indigenous agencies in these encounters. A trans-disciplinary field of research, based on the synergy of archaeological and network approaches towards local contexts, provides fresh insights on how indigenous agency developed during the encounters, particularly in terms of migration, mobility and interaction dynamics. The present paper illustrates how four indigenous Caribbean communities (re-)negotiated, adapted and integrated their multi-scalar social networks prior to and in the course of the different phases of the colonization process.
Ego-networks, based on a socio-metric method for the analysis of the direct social relations an individual engages in, of archaeological site assemblages may be used to great effect in archaeology. They provide a means to combine... more
Ego-networks, based on a socio-metric method for the analysis of the direct social relations an individual engages in, of archaeological site assemblages may be used to great effect in archaeology. They provide a means to combine multi-scalar and multi-disciplinary data and thereby explore sites as a nexus of material relations. This paper outlines how such a site ego-network could be constructed. This is illustrated using the fourteenth century site of Kelbey’s Ridge 2, Saba in the North-eastern Caribbean. Kelbey’s Ridge 2 is an interesting case study since it was likely a newly established, but also short-lived settlement. The reason for settlement may have been that, even if the island of Saba was relatively poor in terrestrial resources, it had a geographically strategic location and access to rich marine resources. Intra-site features at the site evidence a complex set of relations between house spaces and living and deceased members of the community. Additionally, the site’s engagement with the wider island world is reflective of a transitional moment for communities in the late pre-colonial North-eastern Caribbean. A betweenness analysis of its ego-network provides a new perspective of Kelbey’s Ridge 2, pinpointing material practices and objects that must have been crucial for the viability and identity of the community. This case-study shows that ego-networks may be profitably used alongside current archaeological relational theories, substantive studies of site assemblages and other archaeological network approaches.
In the context of the NEXUS1492 research programme, a pilot project on the Jamaican Encounter was launched in summer 2014. Traditional Jamaican histories present a narrative based on the “Myth of Indigenous extinction”, in which the... more
In the context of the NEXUS1492 research programme, a pilot project on the Jamaican Encounter was launched in summer 2014. Traditional Jamaican histories present a narrative based on the “Myth of Indigenous extinction”, in which the Spanish colonization resulted in a rapidly declining Amerindian population and a complete destruction of indigenous communities by the time of the British take-over of the island in 1655. This project explores an alternative perspective, focused on Amerindian sociocultural connectivity, continuity and change. A primary aim was to undertake an inventory of encounter “Hot-spots”. Historical sources and information from previous archaeological surveys and excavations were used as a basis for an exploratory survey. Three regions were selected for further investigation in June-July 2014: West St. Ann parish, Guayguata (St. Mary parish) and Northeast Portland. Based on the results of this survey one of the identified “Hot-spots”, West St. Ann, was further explored in March 2015. The focus region covers the adjoining bays and interior of Puerto Bueno and Discovery Bay, and was the site of first interaction between Jamaican Amerindians and Columbus’ crew in 1494. We present here the initial results of the 2014 exploratory surveys and the 2015 excavations at the site of Bengal (A8) and survey of the inland Rio Bueno valley. Based on these preliminary results, a detailed reading of historical sources and newly developing subaltern histories of the Jamaican Encounter, we hypothesize that soon after first contact Jamaican communities abandoned coastal settlements like those at the Rio Bueno bay, possibly for the mountainous interior. This dispersal allowed them to escape colonial control. Indeed, Amerindian culture and society may have continued in a changed form through its connections with Maroon peoples.
The proposed research aims to develop a new, widely applicable, theoretical and methodological framework to understand the emergence of new social and cultural systems from intercultural interactions. The project brings together two... more
The proposed research aims to develop a new, widely applicable, theoretical and methodological framework to understand the emergence of new social and cultural systems from intercultural interactions. The project brings together two compatible, but still largely unconnected, advances in current archaeology: The “network revolution”, the application of methods and theories from the network sciences (Collar et al. 2015), and the “material culture turn”, i.e. an increased awareness of the materiality of human life (Hicks 2010). The project will evaluate the consilience of archaeological and network scientific concepts of relations and systems as well as identify network scientific methods to explore and analyse archaeological theories. In particular it seeks to develop an approach that combines “entanglement” theory (Hodder 2012) and network scientific methods (e.g. Brandes et al. 2013) to study how new social and cultural systems emerge out of colonial encounters. Within the project, the framework will be applied in a case study of the entanglements that emerged as the result of the colonial encounter in Jamaica. Next to peer-reviewed articles and open-access to methodological developments and data-sets, the project will engage in public outreach through a weekly, popular scientific blog.
Mol, Angus; Ariese-Vandemeulebroucke, Csilla; Boom, Krijn; Politopoulos, Aris & Vandemeulebroucke, Vincent. 2016. Video Games in Archaeology: Enjoyable but Trivial? SAA Archaeological Record 16.5: 11-15.
We have two sessions in Maastricht. The first is a traditional papers session and the second is a round-table discussion session. Though the latter is open to all conference attendees, we’re looking for confirmed participants to take part... more
We have two sessions in Maastricht. The first is a traditional papers session and the second is a round-table discussion session. Though the latter is open to all conference attendees, we’re looking for confirmed participants to take part formally. Both of our sessions are located within the Trans- and Metadisciplinary Approaches in Archaeology Theme.
Our sessions are: #275, In Play: Archaeology in Videogames as a Metadisciplinary Approach #309, At the Game Table: Archaeology in (Video)Games
For this conference, we are particularly interested in papers concerning:
Creating historical narrative through gaming media Video games as tools for public archaeology Player agency within historically-based gaming frameworks Material culture studies in immaterial spaces
Video games, even though they are one of the present's quintessential media and cultural forms, also have a surprising and many-sided relation with the past. From seminal series like Sid Meier's Civilization or Assassin's Creed to... more
Video games, even though they are one of the present's quintessential media and cultural forms, also have a surprising and many-sided relation with the past. From seminal series like Sid Meier's Civilization or Assassin's Creed to innovative indies like Never Alone and Herald, games have integrated heritages and histories as key components of their design, narrative, and play. This has allowed hundreds of millions of people to experience humanity's diverse heritage through the thrill of interactive and playful discovery, exploration, and (recreation n. Just as video games have embraced the past, games themselves are also emerging as an exciting new field of inquiry in disciplines that study the past. Games and other interactive media are not only becoming more and more important as tools for knowledge dissemination and heritage communication, but they also provide a creative space for theoretical and methodological innovations. The Interactive Past brings together a diverse group of thinkers — including archaeologists, heritage scholars, game creators, conservators and more — who explore the interface of video games and the past in a series of unique and engaging writings. They address such topics as how thinking about and creating games can inform on archaeological method and theory, how to leverage games for the communication of powerful and positive narratives, how games can be studied archaeologically and the challenges they present in terms of conservation, and why the deaths of virtual Romans and the treatment of video game chickens matters. The book also includes a crowd-sourced chapter in the form of a question-chain-game, written by the Kickstarter backers whose donations made this book possible. Together, these exciting and enlightening examples provide a convincing case for how interactive play can power the experience of the past and vice versa.
The colonization of the Caribbean initiated a process of entanglement of people, goods, and ideas between the “New” and “Old World,” which is popularly referred to as the Columbian Exchange. This paper seeks to highlight the multiscalar... more
The colonization of the Caribbean initiated a process of entanglement of people, goods, and ideas between the “New” and “Old World,” which is popularly referred to as the Columbian Exchange. This paper seeks to highlight the multiscalar and material underpinnings of this process of global importance by tracing it to its roots: the earliest encounters between the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean and European colonists. We present a database, based on key Spanish historical sources, which catalogs all references to the transaction of objects between Amerindians and Europeans from AD 1492–1497. We furthermore argue for the need of a framework that is able to connect, explore, and track the structural materiality of things in encounter events. For this we suggest a combination of entanglement theory with network and substantive analyses. This multiscalar theoretical and methodological framework shows how a diverse and contextually specific network of humans and things arose in tandem with European and Amerindian attempts to establish, manipulate, and contest ties of significant personal and historical interest.
Video games are one of today's quintessential media and cultural forms, but they also have a surprising and many-sided relation with the past (Morgan 2016). This certainly holds true for Sid Meier's Civilization (MicroProse &... more
Video games are one of today's quintessential media and cultural forms, but they also have a surprising and many-sided relation with the past (Morgan 2016). This certainly holds true for Sid Meier's Civilization (MicroProse & Firaxis Games 1991–2016), which is a series of turn-based, strategy video games in which you lead a historic civilization “from the Stone Age to the Information Age” (Civilization ca. 2016). Sid Meier's Civilization VI, the newest iteration of the series developed by Firaxis and released on October 21, 2016, allows players to step into the shoes of idealized political figures such as Gilgamesh, Montezuma, Teddy Roosevelt, and Gandhi. Via these and other leaders, you aim to achieve supremacy over all other civilizations. This is done through founding cities, creating infrastructure, building armies, conducting diplomacy, spreading culture and religion, and choosing “technologies” and “civics”—philosophical or ideological breakthroughs—for your civili...
