Protecting Heritage in the Caribbean

14. Barbados

14 Barbados Kevin Farmer Introduction The contemporary state of cultural resources management (CRM) on the island of Barbados will be discussed in this chapter. Included is an examination of the existing legislation and its enforcement on the island. The chapter will highlight not only the positive and negative aspects of the CRM system in place but also will provide suggestions that will allow for its improvement . Human influence on the landscape of Barbados covers a period of 4,000 years—from pre-Columbian to preindustrial,small settlement to postindustrial development (Drewett 2006:202–214).This has brought great changes to the landscape, which has had highways cut through limestone hills and has experienced land reclamation for infrastructure and housing projects (Drewett 1995:273–282; Drewett and Harris 2007; Loftfield 2001:207–233). Increasing development necessitates the careful planning of the finite resource of available land. Such planning must be concerned not only with contemporary buildings and landscape but must also take into consideration the archaeological sites below the ground (Drewett 1995; Farmer et al. 2007:677– 685).The management of the cultural/archaeological resources of the island is a complex task that can only be understood by taking into account land policy issues, legislation, and the agencies charged with enforcing the law. Archaeological heritage management is dependent on knowing where these heritage resources exist in the landscape coupled with an understanding of how best to strike a balance between preservation of the historic environment and contemporary development. In Barbados, policy decisions about what areas ought to be developed or safeguarded are guided by the legislation found in the Town and Country Planning Act of 1985—enacted to oversee the planning, development, and protection of the landscape. Protection of the landscape is shaped by the de- Barbados / 113 mands placed on such resources, whether such demands relate to housing, infrastructure creation, industrial development, or change in the nature of land use, such as from agriculture to housing due to increase in population. Issues of land ownership, changing demands for land usage, and the need to designate land for conservation have resulted in a land-use policy mechanism that individualizes cultural aspects of the landscape and heritage rather than examines them as a holistic entity. This individualism has resulted in a classification system that singles out artifacts, sites, and monuments according to their importance in the telling of the narratives of the past. One might argue that this system is imperfect especially for those advocating an integrated land-use approach. However, the present system in Barbados provides a starting point for review of the archaeological management space. The management system at present operating on the island is framed within a paradigm that is more concerned with the planning of development than with conservation of the landscape and heritage. Archaeology on Barbados Land-based archaeology on Barbados has been dominated by two distinct disciplines over the last 50 years—prehistoric and historic archaeology, led by antiquarians in the early to middle part of the twentieth century who were gradually replaced with professional archaeologists in the 1960s. The majority of sites investigated have been prehistoric, starting with the professional archaeological research undertaken by Ripley Bullen in the 1960s (Bullen 1966:16–19). A systematic island survey was not conducted until a joint initiative was created between the Barbados Museum and Historical Society (BMHS) and the University College London,Institute of Archaeology,Field Archaeology Unit directed by Peter Drewett in the early 1980s.This research centered on the prehistory of the island (Drewett 1991). Historic archaeology is relatively new to the English-speaking Caribbean region,starting in the late 1970s.In Barbados the research focus has been primarily in the rural context and only as it related to burial practices (Handler and Lange 1978), potential locations of enslaved people (Handler et al. 1989; Handler and Lange 1978), and the development of sugar estates and the examination of the creolization of pottery manufacture (Loftfield 2001:207– 233). Given its relative infancy, the discipline of historic archaeology has in the last decade begun to examine the development of historic settlements on the island both in the rural (Scheid 2007;Stoner 2000) and urban context (Farmer 2004:84–90;Farmer et al. 2007:677–685). 114 / Kevin Farmer The continued development of archaeological investigation on the island requires robust and effective management. Management of the Resource Management of archaeological resources requires a diverse range of skills...