African Sites Archaeology in the Caribbean

Abstract

In the preface to this volume, Editor Jay Haviser notes that “It is an ironic fact that the greatest focus of Caribbean archaeological research until the late twentieth century was toward Amerindian and European colonial studies. Yet clearly, the most dominant cultural influence in the Caribbean is African and African-descent” (p. 1). This statement is also true for other areas of the Americas and for this reason African-American archaeology has become an important specialization within the sub-discipline of historical archaeology. Much of the early archaeology of slavery was concerned with the search for “Africanisms” or marker artifacts that belied the ethnic origins of the enslaved population. However, more recently archaeologists have abandoned the search for definitive index artifacts in favor of creolization theory or the total archaeological pattern associated with the African immigrants and their descendants. Creolization and how it was and is envisioned is the central concept of this book. The need for such a volume is readily apparent to anyone attempting comparative research on the African Diaspora or teaching a course in Caribbean archaeology.This collection of papers grew out of a recent (1997) symposium on West Africa and the Americas. After a cogent introduction, Haviser organizes the book into three parts: African-Caribbean Landscapes and Settlement; African Caribbean Material Cul ture; and African-Caribbean Health and Burial. The contributors to this volume represent a good cross-section of North American, European and Caribbean archaeologists working on African sites in the Caribbean. The contributors also bring a wide range of archaeological perspectives to the topic including cultural-historical, processual and post-processual approaches.The first part of this volume encompasses the study of the African-Caribbean population and their interaction with the cultural and natural landscape. Landscape archaeology, as seen here, occurs at many scales, from distribution of activity areas within a site (for example, the chapter by Lydia Pulsipher and Conrad Goodwin) to the use of ceramic analysis to trace inter-island trade (for example, Mark Hauser and Doug Arm-strong, Paul Farnsworth and Carlos Solis-Magaña). E. Kofi Agorsah, a Ghanaian-born archaeologist, offers a unique perspective of the landscape by comparing settlement patterns in West Africa with those of maroon communities in Jamaica.The second part of this book will be most appreciated by other archaeologists investigating African-American sites. It is a straightforward discussion of the material culture found at these sites. The section begins with an examination of the roles of metal artifacts and technology in the Caribbean (Candice Goucher) and then focuses on the place of locally made, Colonoware ceramics in various historical and cultural contexts (James Petersen, David Watters and Desmond Nicholson, and Barbara Heath). Haviser’s own chapter in this volume is an exhaustive look at the spectrum of artifacts utilized by the creole culture on Curaçao and what it says about the choices made by the slaves after their emancipation. Laurie Wilkie then puts the creolization process in further perspective by examining how even European artifacts can indicate continuity with the African homeland when viewed in context.The last part of the book touches on the contributions that bioarchaeology has made and can make to the reconstruction of the quality of slave life. Unfortunately, the cemeteries excavated by Patrice Courtaud, André Delpuech and Thomas Romon, and Mohammed Khudabux were all done under salvage conditions and the results presented here are only preliminary.Many books being published by archaeologists today try to appeal to both a scholarly and interested lay audience. This volume, however, is aimed at the professional scholar or college student. This is not to say that African Sites Archaeology is a turgid, jargon-ridden tome; far from it. But its organization and value is primarily as a reference work. Haviser was trying to assemble a single volume consolidating current research in African-Caribbean archaeology and has succeeded admirably.There are a few minor quibbles. Part 3 is the weakest section of this volume. There are more complete studies of mortuary patterns that have been published elsewhere, but those are at least referenced here. Also, the lack of an index is lamentable, but understandable given the pragmatics of an edited volume.Still, the strengths far outweigh the minor drawbacks. The book does draw together some of the best work of the leading archaeologists in the Caribbean. It is a successful exposition of an interdisciplinary approach that is always touted but not always practiced by historical archaeologists. The production values are good and there is even a brief chronological overview of the pertinent literature presented in the introduction.This is a welcome addition to the literature, not just for the historical archaeology of the Caribbean, but for African sites archaeology in the New World. It is a clear demonstration of how archaeology can bring a more holistic perspective to the study of the creolization process in the Caribbean.