Resilience in Pre-Columbian Caribbean House-Building: Dialogue Between Archaeology and Humanitarian Shelter.

A V M Samson,C A Crawford,M L P Hoogland,C L Hofman

doi:10.1007/s10745-015-9741-5

Abstract

This paper responds to questions posed by archaeologists and engineers in the humanitarian sector about relationships between shelter, disasters and resilience. Enabled by an increase in horizontal excavations combined with high-resolution settlement data from excavations in the Dominican Republic, the paper presents a synthesis of Caribbean house data spanning a millennium (1400 BP- 450 BP). An analysis of architectural traits identify the house as an institution that constitutes and catalyses change in an emergent and resilient pathway. The “Caribbean architectural mode” emerged in a period of demographic expansion and cultural transition, was geographically widespread, different from earlier and mainland traditions and endured the hazards of island and coastal ecologies. We use archaeological analysis at the house level to consider the historical, ecological and regional dimensions of resilience in humanitarian action

Highlights

Archaeologists and international humanitarian organisations are both involved in recovery: The former do this for the past, and the latter for the present
The archaeological analysis offered here identifies shared domestic building practices that spanned the islands of the Caribbean archipelago and coalesced into a specific architectural mode
By analysing pre-Columbian house structures from the perspective of environmental and hazard response and distinguishing island house features from those of the mainland, we show the specific ways in which climate change, perceptions of risk, and weather regimes are incorporated within the structure of the house

Summary

Introduction

Archaeologists and international humanitarian organisations are both involved in recovery: The former do this for the past, and the latter for the present. A synthesis of data from excavated structures suggests it is within the post-1400BP cultural and ecological context that we first recognise the emergence of a “Caribbean architectural mode.” The perishable nature of indigenous construction materials and the vulnerability of cultural heritage in the Caribbean complicate the recovery of settlement features (Curet 1992:161; Siegel and Righter 2011; Hofman et al 2012).

Results

Conclusion