"This book details the Indigenous Taíno occupation at En Bas Saline in Hispaniola between AD 1250 and 1520, showing how the community coped with the dramatic changes imposed by Spanish contact"--
"Life in an Indigenous town during an understudied era of Haitian history This book details the Indigenous Taíno occupation at En Bas Saline in Hispaniola between AD 1250 and 1520, showing how the community coped with the dramatic changes imposed by Spanish contact. En Bas Saline is the largest late precontact Taínotown recorded in what is now Haiti; the only one that has been extensively excavated and analyzed; and one of few with archaeologically documented occupation both before and after the arrival of Columbus in 1492. It is thought to be the site of La Navidad, Columbus's first settlement, where the cacique Guacanagarí offered refuge and shelter after the sinking of the Santa Maria. Kathleen Deagan provides an intrasite and spatial analysis of En Bas Saline by focusing on households, foodways, ceramics, and crafts and offers insights into social organization and chiefly power in this political center through domestic and ornamental material culture. Postcontact changes are seen in patterns of gendered behavior, as well as in the power base of the caciques, challenging the traditional assumption that Taínosociety was devastatingly disrupted almost immediately after contact. En Bas Saline is the only archaeological account of the consequences of contact from the perspective of the Taínopeoples' lived experience. A volume in the Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series"--
Series Statement
Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen series
Includes bibliographical references (pages 279-317) and index.
Access (note)
Access restricted to authorized users.
Contents
Introduction: Archaeology and En Bas Saline -- The Taíno people of Hispaniola before Caciques and Commoners -- Polities and Places -- The Social Landscape -- Defining En Bas Saline -- Excavation and Data Ordering -- Houses and Households -- Community Space and Ritual -- Foodways -- Food-related material technology -- Artisanal and Craft Production -- Columbus, Guacanagarí and La Navidad -- After Columbus: Postcontact Occupation at En Bas Saline -- En Bas Saline in Retrospect