Living in the Anthropocene: Long Term Human Ecodynamics in Barbuda, WI
Monday, March 23, 2015
Speaker
Sophia Perdikaris, PhD
Brooklyn College CUNY
Living in the Anthropocene: Long term human ecodynamics in Barbuda, WI
The island of Barbuda, on the outskirts of the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean, served in Colonial times as a provisioning island rather than a site of sugar cane agriculture. As a result, many archaeological sites on low-lying areas occupied by pre-Columbian populations have remained relatively undisturbed. Traditional archaeological studies in the Caribbean focus on pottery, stone tools and bones, all of which are frequently encountered on Barbuda, yet provide limited understanding of past people’s daily lives. Highly integrated archaeological projects using cross-disciplinary methodologies and techniques have been developed as an effective analysis model in mostly temperate latitudes, including Iceland, Greenland, the British Isles and Scandinavia, but they have rarely been applied in the Caribbean. For the last 4 years, cross-disciplinary teams combining archaeology and paleoecology have been working in Barbuda examining the people environment interactions from peopling (ca. 6000 BCE) to modern day. Extensive research in Barbuda finds that Barbudans perceive environmental changes in less urgent ways than those found in western society. As sea levels rise and a new government pushes for economic development, many archaeological sites are threatened and some have already been destroyed.
A dinner and wine reception (free to students) will precede the talk at 6pm, with the lecture beginning promptly at 7pm.
Discussant
Pam Crabtree
New York University
Registration Pricing
This meeting is free. Registration is available onsite, on a first come, first served basis.
Travel & Lodging
Meeting Location
The Wenner-Gren Foundation
470 Park Avenue South, between 31st and 32nd Streets
8th Floor
New York, NY 10016