Customer Reviews

The Archaeology of the Caribbean (Cambridge World Archaeology)

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Comprehensive summary of recent thinking in the field by one it's leading lights. Considering that it is Cambridge imprint, the editing is shockingly poor. It is littered with misspellings, and missing and extra words, and in desparate need of better maps. Otherwise, it is the book to read.

[[ASIN:0521626226 The Archaeology of the Caribbean (Cambridge World Archaeology)Sam Wilson's new book is a refreshing review of the early history of the Caribbean. Long awaited by both archaeologists and ethnohistorians, locals as well as non locals. The work does justice to many interpretations long held back in the dark by traditionalists and conservatives. The region has always managed to resist single minded interpretations of its human experience and Wilson's updates and insights will be well received.

This book is slender (180 small pages of text, with illustrations) but it manages to present up-to-date research on Caribbean archaeology comprehensively. The "pluralist" approach is interesting and consistent, and the descriptions of ecological adaptation are good. There is an invitation to a more radical approach to the Taínos (some paragraphs -- pages 142, 144, and 174, for instance -- do come out and say that the tag "Taínos" may be mistakenly merging different cultures under a false identity). However, the invitation is curiously tempered by several pages on Taíno society and repeated references to the Taíno. Something similar happens with the Island Caribs (page 148). On a side note, the book is full of typos and other mistakes (wrong references to figures, the fifth of seven chapters starts by saying it is the "final" chapter). I counted more than 15 of such errata, and for such a small book, and published by the excellent CUP, it came as a surprise.

This book provides a succinct but comprehensive overview of the prehistory of the West Indies, from first settlement to the arrival of Europeans. It is highly recommended to the beginner as a very accessible, reliable, and up-to-date introduction to the archaeology of the region, and it will also be essential reading for the specialist who will want to read Wilson's original interpretations. The book is well-illustrated with fine black-and-white maps, charts, drawings, and photos. Although nicely written, there are a surprising number of errors in the text that should have been caught in a final editing or proofreading. Wilson notes that the Caribbean is one of the lesser known and studied regions of the world, at least archaeologically. He rightly emphasizes the cultural diversity of the region over time, as well as inter-island mobility and networks. He stresses the profound changes to environments in the region, wrought first by the indigenous peoples, then by the Europeans, such that the environment we see today is markedly different. He also offers an important discussion of the emergence of complex, ranked societies or chiefdoms, the Tainos, in the Greater Antilles. Finally, throughout the book we much about the history of Caribbean archaeology; how ideas and research have changed over time.

The material covered is extensive for this small book. The authors command of the subject mater is refreshing, and well presented.