About the Book
In the first book-length treatise on historical ecology of the West Indies, Island Historical Ecology addresses Caribbean island ecologies from the perspective of social and cultural interventions over approximately eight millennia of human occupations. Environmental coring carried out in carefully selected wetlands allowed for the reconstruction of pre-colonial and colonial landscapes on islands between Venezuela and Puerto Rico. Comparisons with well-documented patterns in the Mediterranean and Pacific islands place this case study into a larger context of island historical ecology.
Table of Contents:
Figures
Tables
Acknowledgments
Foreword: A Prelude to Island Historical Ecology
William Balée
Preface
Peter E. Siegel
PART I: METHOD, THEORY, AND APPLICATIONS OF ISLAND HISTORICAL ECOLOGY
Chapter 1. Migrations, Colonization Processes, and Landscape Learning
Peter E. Siegel
Chapter 2. Unique Challenges in Archipelagoes:
Examples from the Mediterranean and Pacific Islands
Thomas P. Leppard
Chapter 3. A Cultural Framework for Caribbean Island Historical Ecology
Corinne L. Hofman and Menno L. P. Hoogland
Chapter 4. Methods for Addressing Island Historical Ecology
Deborah M. Pearsall, John G. Jones, Nicholas P. Dunning, Peter E. Siegel, Pat Farrell, Jason H. Curtis, and Neil A. Duncan
PART II: WEST INDIAN ISLAND HISTORICAL ECOLOGY
Chapter 5. Trinidad
Pat Farrell, Neil A. Duncan, John G. Jones, Nicholas P. Dunning, Deborah M. Pearsall, and Peter E. Siegel
Chapter 6. Grenada
John G. Jones, Deborah M. Pearsall, Pat Farrell, Nicholas P. Dunning, Jason H. Curtis, Neil A. Duncan, and Peter E. Siegel
Chapter 7. Curaçao
Nicholas P. Dunning, John G. Jones, Neil A. Duncan, Deborah M. Pearsall, and Peter E. Siegel
Chapter 8. Barbados
Nicholas P. Dunning, John G. Jones, Deborah M. Pearsall, and Peter E. Siegel
Chapter 9. Martinique
Neil A. Duncan, Nicholas P. Dunning, John G. Jones, Deborah M. Pearsall, and Peter E. Siegel
Chapter 10. Marie-Galante
John G. Jones, Nicholas P. Dunning, Deborah M. Pearsall, and Peter E. Siegel
Chapter 11. Antigua
John G. Jones, Nicholas P. Dunning, Deborah M. Pearsall, Neil A. Duncan, and Peter E. Siegel
Chapter 12. Barbuda
John G. Jones, Nicholas P. Dunning, Neil A. Duncan, Deborah M. Pearsall, and Peter E. Siegel
Chapter 13. St. Croix
Deborah M. Pearsall, Nicholas P. Dunning, John G. Jones, Neil A. Duncan, and Peter E. Siegel
PART III: SYNTHESIS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS IN ISLAND HISTORICAL ECOLOGY
Chapter 14. Assessing Colonization, Landscape Learning, and Socionatural Changes in the Caribbean
Peter E. Siegel, Deborah M. Pearsall, Nicholas P. Dunning, John G. Jones, Pat Farrell, Neil A. Duncan, and Jason H. Curtis
Chapter 15. Insights from the Outside:
Some Wider Perspectives and Future Directions in Caribbean Island Historical Ecology
John F. Cherry
References
Glossary
Notes on Contributors
Index
About the Author :
Peter E. Siegel is Professor of Anthropology at Montclair State University. His articles have appeared in Current Anthropology, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, and Journal of Field Archaeology, among others. Siegel’s research has been supported by the Heinz Family Foundation for Latin American Archaeology, National Geographic Society, National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, and the School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe.
Review :
“It is hard to overstate the importance of successfully accomplishing a project of this magnitude. There have been limited coring projects on individual islands, but nothing on a regional scale like this. As such, Island Historical Ecology offers our best evidence yet of human-environmental interactions in the prehistoric (and historic) Lesser Antilles. We will all be referencing this volume for many decades to come.” • JRAI (Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute)
“This timely publication, … is probably the first to assiduously apply the science and rigour of …’historical Ecology’ to multiple small islands in the Southern and Eastern Caribbean.” • European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies
“This highly important and most interesting book represents a valuable source of primary data on the historical ecology of the West Indies.” • Andrzej Antczak, Leiden University
“I am much impressed with the ground-breaking work involved in this project, and with its presentation. I believe it is a very valuable and novel addition to the scientific literature on the Lesser Antilles.” • Peter G. Roe, University of Delaware
