Archaeology and Geoinformatics: Case Studies from the Caribbean

1. The Caribbean: A Continent Divided by Water

1 The Caribbean A Continent Divided by Water Joshua M.Torres and Reniel Rodríguez Ramos Current conceptualizations of the relatedness of islands within the Caribbean Basin are typically characterized by notions of insularity and isolationism based on the archipelagic configuration of the region. In this chapter, we utilize theoretical concepts associated with phenomenology and landscape approaches to show levels of connectivity between islands (as well as neighboring continental landmasses) that have previously been ignored. In particular, we focus on aspects of visual sight analysis, through the use of geographic information systems (GIS) to promote a view of interisland interaction and landscape conceptualization characterized by continentality rather than insularism. Critically, we explore the implications of this perspective in terms of pre-Columbian migrations and movements through the Caribbean and the potential interaction spheres associated with native populations of the region. Current conceptualizations of the Caribbean landscape depict it as a group of islands lineally arranged with “its tail stretching from Trinidad and Tobago, at the mouth of the Orinoco River in South America, and its arms reaching to the peninsulas of Yucatan in Middle America and Florida in North America” (Rouse 1992:1) (Figure 1.1). This lineal configuration has led to consideration of this landscape as an ideal laboratory for addressing questions about human migration and cultural evolution.Traditionally, migration into the Antilles has been characterized by a stepping-stone model of movement northward through the islands from South America (Rouse 1953, 1992). However, the origins and pace of that movement are still points of contention (Callaghan 1995, 2001, 2003; Curet 2005; Wilson et al. 1998). The most common perspective of cultural migrations and evolution in the Caribbean is that, once peoples reached these islands, they developed in situ in monocultural landscapes (i.e., at the series level),until social or environmental pressures necessitated their expansion to the next suitable island (see Curet 2005:28–30 for a detailed discussion ). In this sense, the islands have become the major spatial units of analysis Figure 1.1. Map of the Caribbean Basin with GTOPO30 digital elevation model (DEM) and political boundaries. A Continent Divided by Water / 15 at the macrolevel, with a general neglect for the sociocultural processes occurring at varying scales within them and between them. In geographic terms, the islands have been defined as terrestrial bodies surrounded by water. In this sense, the boundary of each island is delimited at the point where land touches water. This has led to the idea that processes within those islands occur in “insularity,” as if “oceanic islands are somehow unto themselves bounded environments because they are surrounded by water and separated from other places physically as well as mentally” (Fitzpatrick 2004:3). This idea of the “primitive isolate” (Lape 2004) has influenced archaeological conceptualizations of the pre-Columbian social landscape of the Antilles, which in turn has influenced the frameworks developed for modeling the colonization of the region and the degrees of intraregional and interregional interaction among precolonial populations. However, as was stated by Rouse (1992) and has been recently documented in several works dealing with the articulation of political (Crock 2000) and economic (e.g., Haviser 1991; Knippenberg 1999a, 1999b; Rodríguez 2002; Watters 1997) interaction spheres, the processes that occur in the spaces between landmasses are an extension of the ones that occur within them. Within this context the sea can be conceived of as a continuum of terrestrial social landscapes, as they too are places of experience and action. As such, we promote the notion that the Antillean social landscapes are spatially fluid in that they can be defined by the spaces not only where land touches water but also where land becomes water (Cooney 2003). Current theoretical conceptualizations of social landscapes have focused on phenomenological approaches in which action and movement in the physical world are part of the process of its construction (Bradley 2003; Certeau 1984; Gray 1999; Ingold 1993; Knapp and Ashmore 1999). Importantly, the key component to any phenomenological approach to landscapes is the way they are perceived and experienced by social actors and the relational nature of the physical world (Heidegger 1977; Ingold 1993; Tilley 1994). Within the context of a relational and conceptual landscape, visibility becomes an intrinsic element in the definition of what it means to experience and perceive and is key to the process of orienting oneself within the world (Ingold...