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Abstract
Historically, archaeologists have pursued two basic approaches to prehistoric Caribbean colonization: those relying on historical narratives and those informed by theoretical modelling. With few exceptions, the latter have not been widely employed. Here, we introduce a behavioural ecology model used in Pacific archaeology, the ideal free distribution (IFD), to understand Caribbean migration and island settlement as a form of adaptive behaviour. We assess the sequences of Ceramic Age (post-2500 bp) colonization and overall prehistoric island colonization for fit against the predictions of the IFD using terrestrial net primary production and island area as measures of habitat suitability. We conclude that certain aspects of Caribbean colonization – the initial settlement of larger, high-quality-habitat islands and temporal pauses between migration pulses – are consistent with the IFD. Model inconsistencies observed for Ceramic Age colonization, however, are best explained in terms of the limitations of Pre-Columbian seafaring and territorial behaviour on the part of pre-existing Archaic occupants.
Notes
1 Hoy and Fisher’s (1974, 78) use of climax vegetation zones and avoidance of data from unstable stands mitigates the impact of Haiti’s contemporary deforestation on NPP.
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Notes on contributors
Christina M. Giovas
Christina M. Giovas (Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon) received her PhD (2013) from the University of Washington for a behavioural ecology-based study of prehistoric foraging dynamics and anthropogenic environmental impacts on the Caribbean island of Carriacou, Grenada. Her expertise lies in zooarchaeology, human paleoecology and island archaeology. During the 2014–15 academic year she is a visiting scholar with the University of Pittsburgh Center for Comparative Archaeology, where her research investigates the behavioral ecology of prehistoric faunal translocations and island colonization. She is book review editor for the Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology and edits The Current, the Society for American Archaeology Island Interest Group Newsletter.
Scott M. Fitzpatrick
Scott M. Fitzpatrick (Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon) received his PhD (2003) from the University of Oregon on inter-island exchange systems in the northwestern tropical Pacific. He specializes in the archaeology of islands and coastal regions with a focus on colonization events, maritime adaptations, seafaring strategies, chronometric analyses, and historical ecology. He has worked for more than 20 years in the Caribbean, particularly the southern Lesser Antilles, and continues to conduct research in Micronesia and other island regions. He is the founder and co-editor of the Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, associate editor for Archaeology in Oceania, and serves on the editorial boards for three other journals.