ANTH 5350 - Ethnohistory and Archaeology of the Caribbean

The Caribbean is a region of some 30 million people living in the islands stretching from the Bahamas to Trinidad, as well as the continental enclaves of Belize, Surinam, Guyana, and French Guiana. Despite its great cultural, racial, and linguistic diversity, the Caribbean exhibits certain broad social and economic similarities born of its history of slavery and colonialism. Using a wide range of archaeological, documentary, and ethnographic sources, this course seeks to identify common themes in the cultural history of the Caribbean. We will explore the way Indian, European, African, and Asian cultures merged in the Caribbean to create distinct Creole societies. We will examine culture contact between Europeans and the native peoples of the Caribbean and look at the social and economic impact of sugar production on the region. Most importantly, we will investigate the rise and fall of Caribbean slavery. In the early session, students will be introduced to the Caribbean region. Students will also be given some rudimentary instruction in ethnohistorical methods, emphasizing archaeological contributions to the ethnohistorical approach.

Credits: 3 hours

Notes: Open to Upperclass and Graduate Students.