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xii / Acknowledgments port and his willingness to push me to push the envelope and “avoid the -­ oids,” the “ans,” and anything else that might have restricted my vision about Caribbean archaeology. This work also benefited from the comments provided by Corinne Hofman and the many fruitful discussions that I have had with the members of the Caribbean archaeology group at Leiden, who are making great strides in the under­ standing of the interaction dynamics between the precolonial peoples of the Antilles. Another major influence on my lithified scope has been my good friend and mentor Jeff Walker. Jeff’s contribution to the study of lithics in the Antilles deserves to be underlined, particularly when considering his marked influence on the new generation of Caribbean lithomaniacs. This work also benefited from the constant dialogues held with Jaime Pagán Jiménez, most notably regarding the issue of the origins of agriculture in the Antilles, on which he is doing pioneering research, as well as regarding the political context within which Caribbean archaeology is being performed today. I also want to thank Josh Torres for our long discussions about Antillean archaeology and his perspectives about space and the configuration of communities, among other subjects, which had great influences on this work and will continue to have marked implications for the archaeology of the Antilles in the future. I also want to express my deepest gratitude to José Oliver, Antonio Curet, and Miguel Rodríguez López. José Oliver provided me with important comments on this work, and his ideas are a clear source of inspiration in my understanding of the ideological rubric of the indigenous societies of the Caribbean. My conversations with Antonio Curet have also been highly influential on my archaeological thinking, particularly with regard to how to merge data and theory, a task that he has evidently mastered in his approach to Caribbean archaeology. Miguel Rodríguez López was instrumental in the development of the radiocarbon database and also provided me with unpublished photographs and other data that are included in this work. I would also like to thank the archaeologists who gave me access to the collections analyzed in the present work. These are Marlene Ramos, Juan González, Juan Rivera Fontán, José Oliver, Jeff Walker, Carlos Solís, Betsy Carlson, Luis ­ Chanlatte Baik, Yvonne Narganes Storde, and Miguel Rodríguez López. Many thanks also to Pedro Alvarado and Laura del Olmo for providing me access to the lithic collection from Maruca and Mike Rocca for access to the materials from Maisabel, by way of Peter Siegel, to whom I also extend my appreciation. Roberto Martínez provided me with the collection from Cueva La Tembladera, for which I am greatly thankful. The radiocarbon database developed for this work was a result of the efforts of a wide group of archaeologists, many of whom provided me with unpublished results of their work. I particularly want to thank those who per­ sonally sent me their dates, including Jaime Vélez, Juan González, Juan Rivera Fontán, Acknowledgments / xiii Federico Freytes, Adalberto Maurás, Chris Goodwin, Sue Sanders, Daniel Koski-­ Karell, Tim Sara, Miguel Rodríguez López, Luis Chanlatte Baik, Yvonne ­Narganes Storde, Carlos Pérez, Peter Siegel, Marisol Meléndez, Hernán Ortiz, L. Antonio Curet, Edgar Maiz, and Marlene Ramos. I also want to extend my appreciation to George Harlow for conducting the sourcing study of the jadeite celts from Puerto Rico. Many thanks also go to my good friend Sebastiaan Knippenberg, whose research in lithic sourcing in the Antilles is a groundbreaking piece of work whose ripple effects in Caribbean archaeology will continue to be felt for a long time. I also want to express my gratitude to Edwin Crespo for his friendship and overall support during this process, particularly for pushing me to finish the research herein presented. This work was made possible by the financial support provided by the Consejo para la Protección del Patrimonio Arqueológico Terrestre de Puerto Rico, the National Science Foundation, and the Faculty of Archaeology of Leiden University via a grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (#27762001) held by Corinne Hofman for the project “Communicating Communities: Unraveling Precolonial Networks of Human Mobility and Exchange of Goods and Ideas from a Pan-­ Caribbean Perspective.” The Universidad de Puerto Rico in Utuado also provided me time and overall support for bringing this work to an end. This work was also made possible by the unwavering...

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