Human Mobility and Dietary Patterns in Precolonial Puerto Rico

The study presented in chapter 9 focuses on inferring patterns of human mobility and diet in ancient Puerto Rico from multiple isotope evidence. Strontium isotope results from a recent long-term, inter-disciplinary research project investigating human paleomobility from a Circum-Caribbean perspective indicate that human migrations occurred at varying scales: intra-island, inter-island, and mainland-island over time. These data are combined with published bone carbon and nitrogen isotope data from various precolonial sites in the Antilles and newly generated enamel carbon isotope data to explore the possible relationships between geographic origins and dietary practices amongst indigenous populations of the Caribbean. The increased interpretative power of such an integrated, multiple isotope approach will be highlighted by focusing on a well-researched burial population from the multiple component, Ceramic Age site of Maisabel, Puerto Rico. The explicit combination of isotope results with archaeological and bioarchaeological evidence permits comparative analysis of local and migrant groups within this population, and a more nuanced exploration of individual geographic origins than would be possible based on a single isotope system alone. In combination, the inferred mobility and dietary patterns have important implications for various archaeological hypotheses, assumptions, and models concerning Caribbean prehistory at multiple spatial and social scales.

Introduction

In the past three decades, Caribbean archaeology has metamorphosed from its relative obscurity to a discipline “riding on the wave of an exponential curve” (Keegan 1994). On the one hand, this recent revival of interest stems from the region’s position at the crossroads, posing questions that transcend the boundaries of academia and address issues of colonialism and underdevelopment (...

Recent Advances in the Archaeology of the Greater Antilles

This chapter synthesizes the different lines of information on pan-regional interactions in the Caribbean discussed in the previous twelve sections of the book. The author highlights the fact that Caribbean archaeology has experienced an important shift in perspective, from its original emphasis on culture history to an “interaction paradigm” This shifting trend has underlined the limitations that previous normalized notions about the lifeways and identities of the ancient inhabitants of the Antilles have presented for understanding what was a highly diverse and complex social and cultural seascape where multi-vectorial and multi-scalar interactions took place through time between the inhabitants of the islands and with those that occupied the surrounding Caribbean mainlands. These interactions resulted in the “cultural mosaic” that has existed in the islands since their initial occupations up to the present. The final chapter thus offers a broader meaning and contextualization to the new data in order to firmly embed them into current dialogues within Caribbean archaeology, focusing on the issues of origins, lifeways, and identities. The author provides a wide regional perspective as the framework for understanding the importance and implications of new evidence and conceptual models presented in the preceding chapters.

Los Indios de Campeche

From the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries, thousands of indigenous peoples from a spectrum of cultures embarked, voluntarily and involuntarily, on journeys from their homelands in a number of regions in the continental Americas to the European colonies of the Circum-Caribbean. They came as refugees, slaves, diplomats, and traders, and also as indentured laborers and as immigrants. Among the earliest arrivals were the Mayas of Yucatan in the largest island colony in the Caribbean, Cuba. In the course of the next four centuries, Cuba would become the principal destination for what was probably the largest influx of indigenous peoples - especially Mayas, Chichimecas, and other Mesoamerican peoples - from the mainland colonies of New Spain in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries, and then from the independent republic of Mexico in the nineteenth century. Through the analysis of historical, anthropological, archaeological, and oral evidence, this chapter examines the varied forms of migration, existence, struggles, adaptation, negotiation, and persistence of various Mayan individuals, groups and communities in colonial Cuba, toward an understanding of the dynamic and implications of this indigenous diaspora in the Caribbean. Amerindian passages to Cuba predated the other (African; Chinese) diasporas, eventually intersecting with them through transculturation.

Food Preparation and Dietary Preferences among the Arawak Aboriginal Communities of Cuba

Food procurement and consumption practices represent an important aspect of a culture and the identity of its bearers. Indigenous communities used a wide variety of approaches for the collection, preparation and consumption of food, determined by an interplay of ancestral traditions, climate, and social relationships established by the ample mosaic of ethnic groups settled in the continental and insular territories. This chapter examines the ethnohistorical strategies, forms of food preparation and its consumption, as well as dietary preferences among Arawak Aboriginal communities in Cuba. It critically evaluates and systematizes the information provided by the early chroniclers in the West Indies (late 15th and early 16th centuries), in order to compare them with the data gathered through archaeological excavations, taking into consideration various paleodietary analyses, as well as the most recent census of faunal remains associated with the sites on the island. It also examines the contributions of the indigenous heritage in the shaping of contemporary Cuban culinary preferences.

Isotopic Evidence of Variations in Subsistence Strategies and Food Consumption Patterns among “Fisher-Gatherer” Populations of Western Cuba

The Archaic populations of Cuba have been classified as “fisher-gathers” without agriculture or pottery. The introduction of domesticates into the island has been associated with the arrival of Agroceramist groups. In this chapter, the analysis of stable isotopes of 13C and 15N on 63 adult individuals from four Archaic sites from western Cuba is used to reconstruct the diet of their respective populations. The results indicate two different food consumption patterns. While Canímar Abajo population had a mixed diet dependent on marine resources and C3/C4 plants; Guayabo Blanco, Cueva del Perico I and Cueva Calero relied mostly on terrestrial protein sources (probably consuming only C3plants). The results show cultural heterogeneity among populations that coexisted in the island, as the authors present a compelling evidence for differences in subsistence practices of temporally and spatially close communities and examine the notion of uniform “phases” of economic development, current in Cuban and Caribbean research.

Diagnosis of the Processing Methods of Starch-Rich Foods in Archaeological Artifacts

Understanding the importance of plant food in the subsistence of local populations has been greatly enhanced by the study of starch grains that are specific to the Caribbean. Plants constituted an important part in the diet of the pre-Hispanic populations of Cuba in their various stages of development. However, weather conditions have not in general allowed the preservation of their traces in archaeological sites that would enable researchers to reconstruct nutritionary intakes of the past populations. As a result, a new method in analysis of food residues on artifacts made of stone, as well as in sediments, ceramics, and other materials, can make an important contribution in our understanding of the dietary activities of archaeological populations. Furthermore, understanding changes that the plant starch undergoes during thermal and mechanical processing is an important empirical tool for future analyses. In this chapter, the authors examine the criteria that can be used in the identification and analysis of starch grains of phaseolus (common bean) in archaeological record.

Communities in Contact

Cuba was among the first areas in the New World where contact occurred between indigenous Amerindian populations and Europeans. As the cemetery of El Chorro de Maíta encompasses indigenous use of the site through the pre-Columbian and post-contact period, it affords an opportunity to examine the influence of European contact on the health and paleodemography of the Amerindian population. Analysis of the 133 individuals at the site has revealed a population almost free of skeletal pathology, apart from a few cases of joint degeneration and minor trauma. The high proportion of young adult and child burials, coupled with a low number of mature adult burials is highly suggestive of a catastrophic mortality profile. The mortality profile and the relative paucity of pathological skeletal lesions suggests that acute infectious disease may have been an etiological factor in the construction of the site’s demography, as it is frequently believed that pre-Columbian Amerindian communities lacked immunity to the diseases brought to the New World by the first Europeans. The dynamic nature of Amerindian and European interactions can also be seen via analysis of the site’s variable mortuary practices, emphasizing the importance of combining osteological, taphonomic, and artifactual data when analyzing cemetery sites.

A Pre-Columbian Dental Modification Complex at the Site of Canímar Abajo, Matanzas, Cuba

In Caribbean archaeological context, dental modifications originate from post-contact African populations as a practice brought into the region through the colonial slave trade. Six individuals recovered from Canímar Abajo exhibit dental modification of the upper central incisors similar to West African styles of dental filing. The dates from those six individuals predate the African Diaspora. This type of dental modification has not been previously documented among pre-Columbian groups in the Caribbean. Although there could be no connections between the pre-Columbian Canímar Abajo individuals and West African populations, the similarity in form may be due to a convergence in methodology and materials. The fact that this practice is present on individuals from both the Older (1380–800 BC) and Younger Cemetery (AD 360–950) establishes the long duration of the practice. While the dental modification could have been more common and unrecognized due to dental attrition and tooth loss, its presence in the two distinct temporal components of Canímar Abajo signify its importance for the understanding of identity among the group(s) that buried their dead at the site. This chapter discusses the significance of this tradition, primarily the role that it may have played in concepts of group identity, beauty, and social position.

People and Plants in the Precontact Caribbean

Research work at the site of Canímar Abajo in northern Cuba, one of the rare Cuban sites investigated through systematic, large scale excavations, has yielded exciting new data that contribute to our understanding of two major themes in circum-Caribbean archaeology: 1. the timing of first migration to the Greater Antilles as well as the origins of the first settlers; and 2. the nature and timing of the origins of resource production in the Caribbean. The discovery of starch grains of maize (Zea mays), common bean (Phaseous sp.), sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) and cassava (Manihot esculenta) in dental calculus from burials at this site have important implications for discussions on food production in the Neotropics. Research results indicate that a community of people practicing a subsistence regime of fishing, gathering, hunting and plant cultivation was already established in the area of the Canímar River estuary by 1200 BC. It is argued that the first migrants most likely crossed to the Greater Antilles from mainland Central America well before 1200 BC, and brought cultivated species originating in Mexico (maize and beans) and in Central America (sweet potato) with them.