This thesis examines a new way of tracing individual life histories in the context of slavery in the Caribbean during the colonial period. The carbon stable isotopes in bioapatite were compared to...Show moreThis thesis examines a new way of tracing individual life histories in the context of slavery in the Caribbean during the colonial period. The carbon stable isotopes in bioapatite were compared to carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes in collagen of serial dentine samples in the case study of an enslaved African found on the island of Saba. Five dental elements were found out of anatomical context in a lockbox at Spring Bay Flat plantation. The use of bioapatite and collagen in tandem has been proved to provide extra valuable information in dietary studies and doing so in dentine increments yields an individual and high temporal resolution new to bioarchaeology. The individual studied here forcibly migrated from the African Sahel during the formation of the first molar, suffering from a period of nutritional stress before experiencing a dramatic dietary change. Multi-isotope analysis of both organic and inorganic matrixes in dentine increments is proven to be a valuable and innovative method of reconstructing individual life histories in unprecedented detail. The production of osteobiographies such as this one helps us to understand individual experiences during periods of slavery, captivity, and exploitation on a level that we can empathise with and therefore offers important and profound contributions to discussions on slavery and colonialism in a broader sense.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
Bonaire became part of the Netherlands as a special municipality on the 10th of October 2010. Since this institutional change, Bonaire has experienced an influx of Dutch immigrants, leading to...Show moreBonaire became part of the Netherlands as a special municipality on the 10th of October 2010. Since this institutional change, Bonaire has experienced an influx of Dutch immigrants, leading to significant transformations on the island which has sparked debates about the loss of Bonairian authenticity. This thesis explores these cultural differences through the concept of acoustemology, as proposed by Steven Feld. The perception of noise and sound is culturally dependent. This division between noise and sound contains a hierarchy of sounds, that is parallel to the hierarchy in the dominant meaning-making process that comes from a European Dutch hegemony on the island. What is considered noise on Bonaire is shaped through a Western lens. This implies that immigrants who relocate to Bonaire unknowingly bring their cultural perspectives on noise and sound with them. However, they do this unknowingly, which is the result of what Gloria Wekker calls white innocence. Drawing on two months of fieldwork, this research explains these connections through the lived experiences of several Bonairian Locals. Their realities from the base of the practice of soundscaping that is used to illustrate how perspectives on sound may differ between cultures. These soundscapes were placed on a map to contextualise Bonaire as an interconnected space. The research adopts a multimodal approach in another way, featuring an ethnographic film that highlights the issues faced by local participants and explores the evolving relationship between them and the European Dutch researcher, employing visual ethnographic methods. The study employs self-reflexivity to analyse this dynamic. The argument made is that an understanding of the local Bonairian lived experience can be obtained through the lens of analysing sound and this understanding is essential in the building of relationships between Bonairian locals and Dutch immigrants.Show less
Fishing played an important role in the subsistence economy of the Indigenous people of the Caribbean. Therefore, a lot of research has focused on the fishing techniques and tools that were used by...Show moreFishing played an important role in the subsistence economy of the Indigenous people of the Caribbean. Therefore, a lot of research has focused on the fishing techniques and tools that were used by these peoples before 1492. Already, a lot is known about which fishes were caught, how they were caught, and which tools were used to catch these fishes. However, one particular tool has often been overlooked and, thus, received little attention as of yet. As this thesis will show, Pre-Columbian Caribbean shell fish hooks are a relevant artifact of which its importance needs to be recognized. The gaps of knowledge that current are strongly present in Caribbean shell fish hook literature will be filled up by the means of a comparative analysis. There will be looked at shell fish hooks from three other regions: Hawaii, Australia, and California. The shell fish hooks from these regions have been studied more thoroughly than the Caribbean fish hooks, meaning that a comparison will prove useful. Within this comparison, special attention will be given to the manufacturing process of the shell fish hook, its use, the created typology and the role of men and women in relation to the artifact. It has become clear that certain aspects of the Pre-Columbian shell fish hook, of which the role of males and females is most notable, must be re-evaluated. The role of females in Pre-Columbian society is largely studied with a western bias in mind, something that researchers must stop doing. Women from all the other regions have played a large role in the collection of marine resources and sometimes also the manufacture of shell tools, meaning that the role of women must not be underestimated. It can be concluded that there is a lot of information to be gained of the largely unstudied Pre-Columbian Caribbean fish hook by looking at similar fish hooks from various regions across the globe. These results, furthermore, are expected to result in a more attentive focus on the recognition of the Caribbean shell fish hook during research. This thesis can be the starting point of further detailed research into the Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean through the analyses of the Pre-Columbian Caribbean shell fish hook. This tool can be used to track the diaspora of peoples into the Caribbean and can, furthermore, be explored even further in attempts to connect the Caribbean with mainland South and North America.Show less
This thesis looks at The People’s Republic of China’s Foreign Policy, Investment and Development into the Caribbean and will explore, based on research and information gathered, to what extent a...Show moreThis thesis looks at The People’s Republic of China’s Foreign Policy, Investment and Development into the Caribbean and will explore, based on research and information gathered, to what extent a mutually beneficial relationship between China and the Caribbean has or is being formed. While the thesis looks at China’s relationships within Caribbean countries as a whole, specific focus will be on countries such as Jamaica or Trinidad and Tobago.Show less
Research master thesis | Archaeology (research) (MA/MSc)
open access
Ethnoarchaeological studies in the pre-colonial Caribbean are limited. This research presents a pilot investigation that employs an innovative approach to understanding the spatial and temporal...Show moreEthnoarchaeological studies in the pre-colonial Caribbean are limited. This research presents a pilot investigation that employs an innovative approach to understanding the spatial and temporal developments of the Late Ceramic Age site of El Flaco, northwestern Dominican Republic (excavated in the context of the ERC-synergy project Nexus1492: New World Encounters in a Globalising World), through the study of three key features: postholes, hearths, and mounds. These are material manifestations of past human activities and inform archaeologists on issues of structure building activities, cooking activities, and the myriad activities that result in the stratigraphic build-up of mounds. Following Ingold (1993, 2000), this research approaches each sample of studied features as a place-based taskscape. This allows each feature to be studied separately, as well as in relation to each other. To subsequently arrive at a well-informed interpretation, the archaeological record is conceptualized with the use of an interpretative visibility (sensu Mans 2012, 179). The interpretative visibility is developed and enhanced by consulting archaeological and ethnographic sources focused on the pre-colonial and modern Indigenous lifeways of Amazonia, as well as on archaeological sources focused on Indigenous lifeways of the pre-colonial Insular Caribbean. Moreover, it is supplemented by three informal ethnographic case studies of present-day living situations in the northwestern Dominican Republic. To translate the interpretative visibility to the archaeological record of El Flaco, methodological parameters have been extracted from the ethnoarchaeological studies conducted in modern Amazonia by Mans (2012) and Duin (2009). The interpretative visibility intends to function as a source of inspiration for the interpretation of the archaeological record of El Flaco. It does not intend to equate one with the other. By contrasting and comparing the interpretative framework with the archaeological data, using the methodological parameters extracted from the studies by Mans (2012) and Duin (2009), this research has developed meaningful interpretations of the spatial interrelationships and developments of the features studied. The analysis of posthole features confirms the presence of a large habitation structure that was periodically repaired or perhaps fully rebuilt over time. Hearth features evidence a use in both domestic and ritual spheres and are characteristically different dependent on their use. Finally, the stratigraphy of the mounds attests to both long- and short-term activities that take place on the mounds, such as the burning of trash, or elsewhere at the site, such as the building of new structures. The results of this study successfully contribute towards the understanding of the dynamics and developments of the pre-colonial village of El Flaco through space and time.Show less
In this thesis an attempt was made in order to (re)construct ancient indigenous landscapes through visibility analyses, during the Late Ceramic Age (AD 800- 1500) in the coastal zone of the...Show moreIn this thesis an attempt was made in order to (re)construct ancient indigenous landscapes through visibility analyses, during the Late Ceramic Age (AD 800- 1500) in the coastal zone of the Montecristi, the Dominican Republic. The northern part of the Dominican Republic has been very important in understanding the Spanish conquest of the island, since is one of the first areas where indigenous communities encountered the Europeans. At the time the Europeans arrived in the New World, complex indigenous exchange networks connected the Caribbean islands with the mainland of South America. The information that the indigenous peoples gave to the Spaniards about these networks was crucial for the conquest of the Caribbean. Visibility is considered to be an important parameter to (re)construct the indigenous socio-political dynamics in the Caribbean. In the defined case-study area, 44 sites were categorized by altitude and size and used to carry out multiple viewshed analyses in order to analyze the relationship between the sites and the visual prominent geomorphological areas in the casestudy area, the reconstruction of role of visibility in the determination of site location, the relationship between multiple viewsheds and site clusters and the possible role of visibility in the control of marine resources and indigenous communication networks. The multiple viewshed analyses revealed that it is possible that the low-elevated (Meillacoid) sites in the coastal lowlands are able to visually control the coastal and coastal lowland area, the (Meillacoid) hilltop sites overview the hinterland, that most of the (Meillacoid) sites can see at least three other surrounding sites, that sites within a similar geomorphological area are more likely to overview each other then sites without such a shared aspect and that there could have been an indigenous visibility network, in which the large (Meillacoid) hilltop sites had indirect control over the coastal zone.Show less
In the article Resilience in Pre-Columbian Caribbean House-Building: Dialogue Between Archaeology and Humanitarian Shelter of Samson et al. (2015) the Caribbean architectural mode is presented. The...Show moreIn the article Resilience in Pre-Columbian Caribbean House-Building: Dialogue Between Archaeology and Humanitarian Shelter of Samson et al. (2015) the Caribbean architectural mode is presented. The only sites used in that research are near the coast and on the Northern Lesser Antilles and the Greater Antilles. In this thesis a site that was located more land inward, El Flaco on Hispaniola and a site from the Southern Lesser Antilles, Argyle on St. Vincent, were analyzed to see if those comply with Caribbean architectural mode. This is supposed to contribute to the knowledge of housebuilding trends or widely shared similarities in housebuilding throughout the Caribbean. The addition of the two sites indicate that the mode might be wider spread in more distinct locations. Both sites do comply to the mode even though their situation is very different. Seven characteristics have been analyzed. These are formulated by Samson et al. (2015) and in this thesis the sites of Argyle and El Flaco have been studied concerning these characteristics. It was quickly evident that not all characteristics are directly visible in the site plans of Argyle and El Flaco, but most can be found which leads to the conclusion that El Flaco and Argyle comply with the Caribbean architectural mode.Show less
Pirates have long played an integral role in people’s ideas of the history and heritage of the Caribbean, yet this heritage goes undefined. While academic scholarship on piracy has increased in...Show morePirates have long played an integral role in people’s ideas of the history and heritage of the Caribbean, yet this heritage goes undefined. While academic scholarship on piracy has increased in recent years, no investigation has yet been done on how piracy manifests as part of the heritage of the region. This paper is an attempt to examine this understudied area, and extend research on heritage in the Caribbean into a new direction. The concept of heritage as defined by Smith and Waterton in their essay ‘The Envy of the World?’ Intangible Heritage in England (2009) has provided the basis for the conceptualization of the heritage of piracy in this paper. They contend that all heritage is inherently intangible and that heritage is “the performance and negotiation of identity, values and a sense of place” (Smith and Waterton 2009, 292). By examining what form the heritage of pirates and piracy from the Golden Age (1650-1724) takes today, and how both Europeans and Americans, and Afro-Caribbeans view that heritage, this paper contends that pirates are absolutely part of the heritage of the Caribbean, and that pirate heritage manifests in both the modern romanticized idea of pirates portrayed in popular culture for European and Americans, and as part of the colonial legacy for Afro-Caribbeans. Moreover, while both of these groups do see pirates of the Golden Age as part of their heritage, the first embraces and celebrates it, whereas the second does not. This provides a clear example of the dissonance of all heritage, as described by Tunbridge and Ashworth (1996) and Smith and Waterton (2009); while heritage may be viewed as positive by one group, it will be viewed as negative by another.Show less
