This edited volume grew out of informal discussions about archaeological heritage in the Caribbean in 2018 between the two editors during the Nexus 1492 project. We are grateful for the spaces provided by the project. The editors invited Caribbean colleagues to write papers on archaeological heritage in 2019, while in 2020, we organized a two-day virtual workshop together with Dr Katarina Jacobson as part of the Local Voices team on the uses of archaeological heritage in the Caribbean. Students, heritage practitioners, scholars, and non-scholars contributed to the successful virtual workshop, which was funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation. Furthermore, the Musée Edgar Clerc in Guadeloupe played a significant role in hosting the event. The CaribTRAILS – Caribbean Transdisciplinary Research Archaeology of Indigenous Legacies Spinoza was part of the event as a partner.
This volume is a collective effort of authors from different local backgrounds in the Caribbean. These include Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Kalinago Territory, Saint Kitts, Aruba, Bonaire, Barbados, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago. Our gratitude goes to the chapter authors for their invaluable contribution and patience during the different stages of the book project: Arlene Alvarez, Lisette Roura Alvarez, Jerry Michel, Kevin Farmer, Tibisay Sankatsing Nava, Harold Kelly, Raymundo Dijkhoff, Stacey Mac Donald, Laurent Urselet, Katarina Jacobson, Matthieu Ecrabet, Pierre Sainte-Luce, Lornadale Charles, Cameron Gill, Victoria Borg O’Flaherty(RIP), Ashleigh John Morris, Kara M. Roopsingh, Zara Ali, Irvince Auguiste, Eldris Con Aguilar, Andrea Richards, Debra-Kay Palmer. Many thanks to Wilhelm Londoño Díaz for writing the epilogue.
We are also deeply grateful to the Wenner-Gren Foundation for their generous funding that also covered the volume’s production and open acces fees. This publication was made possible, partly, by the financial support of the Members’ Association KITLV to cover editing services and a part of the open access fees. The anonymous peer reviewers were very thoughtful and provided constructive comments after reading the manuscript. Several ongoing research projects have enabled the co-editing of this book, including the CaribTRAILS – Caribbean Transdisciplinary Research Archaeology of Indigenous Legacies Spinoza, FNRS- Le Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique, and Veni-NWO- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Joseph Sony Jean) and Marie-Curie Individual fellowship (Eduardo Herrera Malatesta).
We thank series editors Corinne L. Hofman for her useful comments on the chapters, and Cristiana Barreto, Nicholas Laluk, Genner Llanes-Ortiz, and Karoline Noack for their support of this volume. We thank the editorial
Finally, while this book brought together several local Caribbean authors, some colleagues have expressed their interest in contributing to this volume but could not send the paper in time, or to be connected with the “Local Voices” framework and future publications. We are happy and grateful for this positive reception. We look forward to the future to keep integrating colleagues into the efforts of studying, co-protecting, and praising the archaeological heritage and histories of the Caribbean.
Joseph Sony Jean and Eduardo Herrera Malatesta