The Archaeology of Caribbean and Circum-caribbean Farmers (6000 Bc - Ad 1500) ― An Introduction

Comprising 17 chapters and with a wide geographic reach stretching from the Florida Keys in the north to the Guianas in the south, this volume places a well-needed academic spotlight on what is generally considered an integral topic in Caribbean and circum-Caribbean archaeology.

The book explores a variety of issues, including the introduction and dispersal of early cultivars, plant manipulation, animal domestication, dietary profiles, and landscape modifications. Tried-and-true and novel analytical techniques are used to tease out aspects of the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean database that inform the complex and often-subtle processes of domestication under varying socio-environmental conditions. Contributors discuss their findings within multiple constructs such as neolithisation, social interaction, trade, mobility, social complexity, migration, colonisation, and historical ecology. Multiple data sources are used which include but are not restricted to rock art, cooking pits and pots, stable isotopes, dental calculus and pathologies, starch grains, and proxies for past environmental conditions.

Given its multi-disciplinary approaches, this volume should be of immense value to both researchers and students of Caribbean archaeology, biogeography, ethnobotany, zooarchaeology, historical ecology, agriculture, environmental studies, history, and other related fields.

Basil A. Reid (PhD, University of Florida) is Professor of Archaeology in the Department of History at The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. He is currently the senior representative for Central America and the Caribbean at the World Archaeological Congress. His major research interests are the pre-colonial archaeology of the Caribbean, archaeology and geoinformatics, precolonial Caribbean farmers and Caribbean heritage. He has published in a variety of peer-reviewed journals, and has authored, edited and co-edited several books on a variety of topics relating to Caribbean archaeology. His books include Archaeology and Geoinformatics: Case Studies from the Caribbean (2008), Myths and Realities of Caribbean History (2009), Caribbean Heritage (2012) and Encyclopedia of Caribbean Archaeology (2014). He is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of the Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology and the Archaeological Society of Jamaica. Reid was the Lead Archaeologist of the Red House Archaeological Excavations in Port of Spain, Trinidad from July 1, 2013 to January 31, 2015. His forthcoming book is entitled: An Archaeological Study of the Red House, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.