James M. Vanderveen Submitted to the Faculty of the University

SUBSISTENCE PATTERNS AS MARKERS OF CULTURAL EXCHANGE : EUROPEAN AND TAÍNO INTERACTIONS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC James M. VanderVeen Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Anthropology, Indiana University September 2006 Accepted by the Graduate Faculty at Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ______________________________ Geoffrey W. Conrad, Ph.D. Chairperson ______________________________ Simon C. Brassell, Ph.D. Doctoral Committee ______________________________ K. Anne Pyburn, Ph.D. ______________________________ Richard R. Wilk, Ph.D. Date of Oral Examination: 24 August 2006 ii © 2006 James M. VanderVeen ALL RIGHTS RESERVED iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Columbus scholarship is a fertile ground for that peculiar academic blindness whereby an interesting but indefensible hypothesis is followed to its logically necessary but increasingly lunatic conclusion. – Peter Hulme My descent into the lunacy that surrounds all research regarding Columbus, as well as the people he met, was abetted by many individuals and groups that deserve mention here. Archaeology is rarely a task that is done by a single individual, and typically includes multidisciplinary aspects. This project is no exception. Much of the data collection in the field was done collaboratively by the outstanding team of researchers who were part of the Bahía Isabela Archaeology Project at one time or another. In particular, Emma Bate was a valuable resource in terms of her excavation skills, her ideas about the people whom we were studying, and her camaraderie. Rafael Cueto and Carlos Passalaigue lent their expertise both in the field and to issues regarding the local culture. Charles Beeker, John Foster, and their underwater archaeologists provided tremendous support to the endeavors of the research team, and they were all willing to get dirty when they were not able to get wet. The project would not have been possible without the generous assistance of the government and people of the Dominican Republic. The officials and staff at the Museo del Hombre Dominican facilitated my research in their country, quickly resolved any iv issues that I faced, and offered freely of their time and resources. The current director, Carlos Hernández Soto, his predecessor, Carlos Andújar Persinal, and the rest of the museum personnel, especially Juan Rodríguez, made my time in the Dominican productive and enjoyable. The staff at the museum on the grounds of La Isabela also lent support in whatever ways they could. Adding their hospitality, valuable logistical help, and an unparalleled meal or two were Eugeen and Lisanne Blancquaert-Dhaene. The people living in the Dominican Republic are as generous with their time and belongings as those that rushed out meals to Columbus and his sailors at their first meeting. The folks at Indiana University are equally as supportive. My research relied heavily on the instruction and advice of Jon Fong, Lisa Pratt, Arndt Schimmelmann, and the other members of the Biogeochemistry Laboratory in the Department of Geological Sciences. They offered their instruments and guided my efforts to make them work. In much the same way, Susie Bernhardt, Marcie Covey, and Debra Wilkerson of the Department of Anthropology shepherded me through the wilds of the university system which not only allowed me to graduate in a timely manner, but made that time spent in Bloomington more fun and productive. This dissertation was written during the year I was supported by the J. Stewart and Dagmar K. Riley Graduate Fellowship. This grant allowed me to split my time and energy solely between documenting the research and playing with my son, Benjamin. While he was slightly disappointed the resulting book was not of the quality of How to Eat Fried Worms , he and I both appreciated the time together when I was not writing. The artifacts were collected during travel funded in part by the Center for Latin American v and Caribbean Studies, Sigma Xi, the David C. Skomp Fellowship Fund of the Department of Anthropology, the University Graduate School, and other sources. I would like to especially thank my dissertation committee members for shedding some light to aid in the academic blindness associated with Columbus scholarship. Simon Brassell, Anne Pyburn, and Rick Wilk helped form the good parts of this paper. Geoff Conrad provided all the encouragement and financial backing a graduate student could ask of their mentor and then gave more. My wife, Jennifer, was not a formal part of the committee, but she too was forced to read every word. She edited the manuscript, challenged my assumptions, and made me explain the research in a much better way. The final result would have been even less understandable without their input. Unfortunately, I am not able to name all those who helped me during the research and writing of this work, but I owe a debt of gratitude to each and every person who funded, dug, explained, or read. By using their money, assistance, and advice in the best way I knew how, I hope that my dissertation can serve as a first installment on that debt. In some small way, my research may begin to pay back society by increasing our knowledge about the way people in the past interacted and borrowed ideas from each other. vi ABSTRACT James M. VanderVeen SUBSISTENCE PATTERNS AS MARKERS OF CULTURAL EXCHANGE: EUROPEAN AND TAÍNO INTERACTIONS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Although the stories of Christopher Columbus’s voyages to the New World are well known, the daily life of his sailors and the indigenous people they met are not as clearly understood. This research investigates the reciprocal influence of cultures in contact through an analysis of a basic element in the lives of these people: food. Although documentary records and paleoenvironmental studies can explain which plants and animals were gathered, these sources suffer from biases. For instance, at the site of La Isabela in the Dominican Republic, European chroniclers were motivated by specific agendas colored by pride, cultural superiority, and salesmanship. They rarely recorded the activities of any but the elites of either the colonists or the Tainos encountered there. Also, because the faunal and floral remains are often poorly preserved or statistically inconclusive, an archaeological reconstruction of the typical diet is less than accurate. To learn more about the interactions between the native people and the explorers, comparisons were made of domestic ceramic artifacts and the associated food residue recovered from the La Isabela colony and the surrounding indigenous villages. Further, absorbed organic residue analysis is employed to resolve many questions surrounding the vii interactions of cultures in such an unprecendented arrangement. The method uses gas chromatography - mass spectrometry to identify the preserved organic molecules extracted from within walls of domestic pottery. By evaluating specific fatty acids and lipid constituents from both native and colonial ceramics, the research distinguishes broad food categories as well as various families of plants and animals that were consumed. Contrary to the established paradigm which holds that the Spanish starved and the indigenous people were completely destroyed, the food residue reflects similar patterns of sustenance and vessel use between the groups, suggesting a more complex pattern of cultural exchange. While this method has its limitations, especially with regards to the reconstruction of cuisines exploiting a wide variety of resources and the recovery of residues from sherds deposited in tropical environments, the research can supply valuable information on the little understood dietary practices of colonists and their hosts. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Section Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................... iv ABSTRACT...................................................................................................... vii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................... xi LIST OF TABLES............................................................................................ xii 1. EXAMINING THE PROCESS OF CULTURAL EXCHANGE Introduction..........................................................................................................1 Research Objectives.............................................................................................2 Methods of Analysis............................................................................................5 Chapter Previews.................................................................................................7 2. THE ENVIRONMENT FOR EXCHANGE Introduction........................................................................................................10 Island Geology...................................................................................................11 Climates of the Old and New Worlds................................................................13 Native Flora and Fauna......................................................................................16 Introduced Species.............................................................................................22 3. THE CONTEXTS OF THE CULTURES AT CONTACT Introduction........................................................................................................26

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