Protecting Heritage in the Caribbean

18. Protecting Heritage in the Caribbean

18 Protecting Heritage in the Caribbean Peter E. Siegel The naval hospital midden [dating to 1745] was discovered when a bulldozer was preparing a private house site overlooking English Harbour . . . exposing a few artifacts and faunal remains. Unfortunately there are no antiquity laws in Antigua, so the site was destroyed next day. —Desmond Nicholson 1995:47 Introduction One might reasonably ask why are things of the past important to protect, conserve, manage, or consider when things of the present are increasingly dire wherever we look.Like one of the government ministers on St.Vincent said, noted by Paul Lewis (this volume), “We can’t eat culture!” In assessing the importance or relevance of archaeology and heritage to the public,Paul Minnis (2006) created a cynical Skeptic who posed this question to a number of archaeologists: “You expect me to pay taxes so you can play in the dirt digging up old stuff instead of me saving more for my kid’s education or producing more vaccines against childhood illnesses in the Third World?” (Minnis 2006:17). Barbara Little replied with her own question: “Has the Skeptic ever noticed how the past is used as a weapon, how people use selective histories against each other to fuel passions that erupt in violence [like, for example, in] the Middle East?” (Minnis 2006:18). Details of the archaeological record often provide a corrective to ethnocentric views in the present as well as to distorted political agendas in the past, such as writings of European chroniclers on their entry to the New World. The Skeptic and the St.Vincent minister might well say, “so what, we are intelligent people, we can learn to get along and be nice with each other in the present with informed social policies and who cares about political agendas of racist sixteenth-century Europeans, they’re gone, get over it; archaeology and heritage preservation in general are luxuries we can’t afford.” In referring to the Americas, Dean Snow observed that “archaeology of the American Indians from their first arrival to the first voyage of Columbus is important to their living descendants because it is their heritage. Historical archaeology is inherently important to the rest of us for similar heritage reasons” (Minnis 2006:19). Similarly, Lynne Sebastian spoke of heritage in the United States: “The National Historic Preservation Act says ‘the historical and cul- Protecting Heritage in the Caribbean / 153 tural foundations of the Nation should be preserved as a living part of our community life and development in order to give a sense of orientation to the American people’” (Minnis 2006:19). Lewis (this volume) echoed Sebastian ’s observation: “the survival of a people depends . . . on the protection of its heritage,[without which] culture tends to lose its relevance.” Scott Ingram and Katherine Spielmann pointed out the long-term perspectives gained by archaeology as “tangible reminder[s] of the positive and negative effects of [past peoples’] decisions,” which may provide important insight for policy makers today (Ingram) and for uniting “ecologists and archaeologists [in] greater depth of understanding concerning coupled human-natural systems ” (Spielmann) (Minnis 2006:18–19). And Robert Kelly says that heritage tourism is a response to the question,“what value [does] archaeology ... have in the minds of legislators who think in terms of today’s cash flow[?]” (Minnis 2006:18). All of these sentiments, except perhaps heritage tourism, may sound like a stretch to the skeptical government minister who,perhaps,is honestly concerned about improving the lot of living cultural resources, and thus heritage preservation may be viewed as a nicety of fully developed nations.The chapters in this book run the gamut from countries with seemingly strong heritage legislation that is generally enforced with government oversight to island nations with no apparent interest in preserving the past to even instances of seeking to obliterate a past associated with painful memories. Ultimately , the people of each island will need to decide if cultural heritage is worthy of protection or consideration in the face of development, and if so, what measures can be taken to achieve that goal. I will discuss some of the issues, challenges, strategies, frustrations, and optimism expressed in the preceding chapters. Multiple Visions or Competing Values of the Past? One theme through several of the chapters concerns relative values placed on the past by different interest groups. For Bahamian heritage, Michael Pateman (this volume) noted a chronological progression in emphasis on preColumbian to European colonial to African heritage sites. An interest in...