Grenada and the Guianas: mainland connections and cultural resilience during the Caribbean Late Ceramic Age

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 651-675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan A. Hanna
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Resilience ◽  
Ceramic Age ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
The Guianas

Island Rhythms: The Web of Social Relationships and Interaction Networks in the Lesser Antillean Archipelago between 400 B.C. and A.D. 1492

2007 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corinne L. Hofman ◽  
Alistair J. Bright ◽  
Arie Boomert ◽  
Sebastiaan Knippenberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationships ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Distribution Patterns ◽  
Interaction Networks ◽  
Careful Study ◽  
Exchange Relationships ◽  
Caribbean Islands ◽  
Ceramic Age ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
The Web

The precolonial communities of the Caribbean archipelago were not insular. The discontinuous natural resource distribution, the maritime orientation of the Caribbean Amerindians, and the complexities of regional social interaction ensured that the precolonial Caribbean islandscape was dynamic and highly interconnected. This report explores the socicultural behavior and intercommunity exchange relationships of the inhabitants of the Lesser Antilles. It combines related archaeological case studies encompassing the procurement and exchange of: (1) raw materials and utilitarian goods with a wide spatial and social distribution, (2) goods with high stylistic visibility and presumed social function as markers of identity or status, and (3) prestige goods with profound ceremonial value. The study of these objects reveals overarching social and ideological dimensions to Caribbean life. Data suggest that social relationships manifest themselves at different levels and through distinct rhythms while taking on various material guises during the Ceramic age Amerindian occupation of the Caribbean islands (400 B.C. to A.D. 1492). While there is great potential in unraveling interaction networks through the careful study of distribution patterns, the incorporation of ethnohistoric and ethnographic information is imperative to elucidate the web of social relationships underlying these material manifestations.

The Dutch in the Caribbean and in the Guianas, 1680-1791

1989 ◽  
Vol 94 (3) ◽  
pp. 903
Author(s):  
Kenneth F. Kiple ◽  
Cornelis Ch. Goslinga
Keyword(s):  
The Caribbean ◽  
The Guianas

Extinct insular oryzomyine rice rats (Rodentia: Sigmodontinae) from the Grenada Bank, southern Caribbean

Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4951 (3) ◽  
pp. 434-460
Author(s):  
BRITTANY A. MISTRETTA ◽  
CHRISTINA M. GIOVAS ◽  
MARCELO WEKSLER ◽  
SAMUEL T. TURVEY
Keyword(s):  
Late Holocene ◽  
Size Variation ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Widespread Species ◽  
Island Populations ◽  
Southern Caribbean ◽  
Ceramic Age ◽  
Endemic Genera ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Neighbouring Island

The Lesser Antillean island chain in the eastern Caribbean formerly supported a diverse rodent fauna including multiple endemic genera of oryzomyine rice rats. The Caribbean rice rats are now all extinct, with most island populations known only from Holocene palaeontological and zooarchaeological material and with many remaining taxonomically undescribed. Rice rat material is reported from several pre-Columbian Ceramic Age (late Holocene) archaeological sites on the Grenada Bank, including sites on Grenada and Carriacou, but the taxonomic identity and diversity of the Grenada Bank rice rats has remained uncertain. We provide a morphology-based description of rice rats from Grenada and Carriacou, and analyze their phylogenetic and biogeographical affinities to other Caribbean and mainland Neotropical oryzomyines. We recognize two taxa from the Grenada Bank: we describe the new species Megalomys camerhogne from Pearls (Grenada), representing the largest-bodied member of the extinct endemic Caribbean genus Megalomys, and we refer smaller-bodied oryzomyine material from Pearls and Sabazan (Carriacou) to the widespread extant Neotropical species Zygodontomys brevicauda. Body size variation within Megalomys correlates with island bank area and might thus reflect historical rather than modern biogeography. Zygodontomys specimens from the Grenada Bank fall within the upper end of size variation in extant populations and may constitute an example of ‘island gigantism’, but it is possible that occurrence of this widespread species on the Grenada Bank might reflect prehistoric human-mediated translocation. We predict further endemic Caribbean rice rat taxa remain to be discovered, including a possible species of Megalomys on the neighbouring island of St. Vincent. 

scholarly journals Anthropogenic temperversusgeological and pedological inclusions: grog temper as a possible chrono-cultural marker for the Late Ceramic Age in the pre-Columbian Lesser Antilles

2021 ◽  
Vol 192 ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Gilles Fronteau ◽  
Martijn van den Bel
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Lesser Antilles ◽  
Petrographic Analysis ◽  
External Influence ◽  
The Third ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Ceramic Age ◽  
Radiometric Ages ◽  
Petrographic Study ◽  
The Guianas

In order to compare pre-Columbian cultural affiliations in the Lesser Antilles, we studied three ceramic series from Guadeloupe (F.W.I.) from well-dated Troumassoid sites between AD 1000 and 1300 (radiometric ages) attributed to the Late Ceramic Age (AD 1000–1500). The significance of the different types of inclusions in these ceramics is discussed through a petrographic study using optical and electron microscopy, that we subsequently compared with the local geological contexts. Two of the studied sites are located in the volcanic part of Guadeloupe (Basse-Terre), while the third one is situated in an area dominated by the sedimentary substratum of Grande-Terre and its silty cover. The petrographic analysis shows either the use of local heterogeneous materials: natural, geological or pedological aplastic inclusions (volcanic sands and cinders, ferruginous soils), and the addition of grog (anthropogenic temper). At each of the three sites studied, the presence of grog was demonstrated for several modal series. Comparison of the compositions of the pastes with the ceramic chrono-typology allow us to explore the proposition presented by Donahueet al.(1990), suggesting that the use of grog may infer a difference between Troumassoid and pre-Troumassoid assemblages. We also hypothesize a progressive diffusion of the use of grog temper into the Lesser Antilles, from the Guianas. This idea defies the commonly accepted idea that Troumassoid developed smoothly out of a locally present Saladoid ceramic series without external influence.

scholarly journals A genetic history of the pre-contact Caribbean

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Fernandes ◽  
Kendra A. Sirak ◽  
Harald Ringbauer ◽  
Jakob Sedig ◽  
Nadin Rohland ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
High Mobility ◽  
Effective Population ◽  
The Bahamas ◽  
Caribbean Islands ◽  
Population Size Estimates ◽  
Ceramic Age ◽  
Population Sizes ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Caribbean

Humans settled the Caribbean ~6,000 years ago, with intensified agriculture and ceramic use marking a shift from the Archaic Age to the Ceramic Age ~2,500 years ago. To shed new light on the history of Caribbean people, we report genome-wide data from 184 individuals predating European contact from The Bahamas, Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Curaçao, and northwestern Venezuela. A largely homogeneous ceramic-using population most likely originating in northeastern South America and related to present-day Arawak-speaking groups moved throughout the Caribbean at least 1,800 years ago, spreading ancestry that is still detected in parts of the region today. These people eventually almost entirely replaced Archaic-related lineages in Hispaniola but not in northwestern Cuba, where unadmixed Archaic-related ancestry persisted into the last millennium. We document high mobility and inter-island connectivity throughout the Ceramic Age as reflected in relatives buried ~75 kilometers apart in Hispaniola and low genetic differentiation across many Caribbean islands, albeit with subtle population structure distinguishing the Bahamian islands we studied from the rest of the Caribbean and from each other, and long-term population continuity in southeastern coastal Hispaniola differentiating this region from the rest of the island. Ceramic-associated people avoided close kin unions despite limited mate pools reflecting low effective population sizes (2Ne=1000-2000) even at sites on the large Caribbean islands. While census population sizes can be an order of magnitude larger than effective population sizes, pan-Caribbean population size estimates of hundreds of thousands are likely too large. Transitions in pottery styles show no evidence of being driven by waves of migration of new people from mainland South America; instead, they more likely reflect the spread of ideas and people within an interconnected Caribbean world.

scholarly journals A Database of Lapidary Artifacts in the Caribbean for the Ceramic Age

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alain Queffelec ◽  
Pierrick Fouéré ◽  
Jean-Baptiste Caverne
Keyword(s):  
Ceramic Age ◽  
The Caribbean

Pottery Vessel Function and Foodways at El Chorro de Maíta, Cuba

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vernon James Knight ◽  
Roberto Valcarcel Rojas
Keyword(s):  
Greater Antilles ◽  
Performance Requirements ◽  
Large Size ◽  
Low Profile ◽  
Ceramic Age ◽  
Tropical Lowlands ◽  
The Guianas ◽  
Size Mode ◽  
Common Shape ◽  
Made In

Our approach assumes that pots are tools, containers whose performance characteristics are adjusted to their primary uses. Traditional agricultural peoples generally distinguish among multiple vessel shapes that have distinct intended uses. In this article, we present afunctional analysis of vessel shapes and sizes performed on a sample of 160 rim sherds from the site of El Chorro de Malta, Cuba. These were assigned to 13 defined vessel shapes, most of which displayed more than one size mode based on estimated orifice diameters. The majority of specimens from El Chorro de Malta are low-profile, composite-contour bowls made in medium and large size modes, followed in frequency by simple-contour bowls and plates. Late Ceramic Age peoples in the Greater Antilles are historically documented as participating in the manioc breadcake-cassareep- stewpot foodway common to much of the tropical lowlands of northern South America. Consequently, it should be possible to show how the container assemblage of El Chorro de Malta is adapted to the requirements of that foodway. We note that, ethnographically, the elaborate processing of bitter manioc itself to produce breadcakes as a staple food does not necessarily require pottery vessels at all. Nonetheless, common stewing as a key component of the foodway—including the production of the condiment called cassareep in the Guianas—can require several containers with potentially distinct performance requirements: one to collect the juice below the sleeve press, another to reduce the expressed juice to the thickened sauce over afire, and a third, the stewpot itself, adapted to simmering vegetable and meat stews. We provisionally suggest that some of the most common shape-size classes at El Chorro de Malta are suited to producing and serving stews and cassareep, the traditional complement to eating manioc breadcake.

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