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The handle http://hdl.handle.net/1887/71555 holds various files of this Leiden University dissertation.
Author: Breukel, T.W.
Title: Tracing interactions in the indigenous Caribbean through a biographical approach:
Microwear and material culture across the historical divide (AD 1200-1600) Issue Date: 2019-04-18
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Curriculum Vitae
Tom Breukel was born in the Noordoostpolder in The Netherlands on August 18, 1989, and attended the Koningin Wilhelmina College in Culemborg from 2001 to 2007. He moved to Leiden in 2007 to study archaeology, obtaining his BA in 2011 with specialisations in Caribbean and European prehistory. Tom developed an interest in the material cultures and worldviews of pre-colonial Caribbean societies, which culminated in a Leiden Research MA thesis on threepointer biographies in 2013. He participated in excavations in The Netherlands, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and St. Eustatius, and conducted independent collection-based research in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Tom also attended Honours Classes on the topics of urbanisation and heritage legislation and obtained a minor in human osteology.
In 2013 Tom obtained a four-year doctoral research position in the NWO-funded Island Networks project (project number 360-62-060, directed by Prof. dr. C.L. Hofman) at the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University. For this he carried out experimental fieldwork and collection-based research in The Netherlands, Grenada, St. Vincent, and the Dominican Republic as a member of the Caribbean Research Group and the Leiden Laboratory for Material Culture Studies, in collaboration with the ERC-Synergy NEXUS1492 and ERC-HERA CARIB research projects. Tom frequently presented his research at international conferences, gave teaching assistance and guest lectures for numerous classes, and he organised the Leiden Archaeological Forum lecture series in 2016-2017.
Currently, Tom works as a post-doctoral researcher in the NEXUS1492 project at the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University.
Tracing Interactions in the Indigenous Caribbean through a Biographical Approach
Much attention has been paid to the exchange of objects, ideas, and people in the Caribbean. Networks of interaction con- nected local communities across pan-regional scales, shaping indigenous socio-political integrations and their responses in colonial situations. This work examines the poorly understood cultural trajectories and reinter- pretations of celts and paraphernalia exchanged in the late pre-colonial and early colonial Dominican Republic and the Wind- ward Islands.
Reconstructing the biographies of these arte- facts traces their ‘object life’ sequences from start to finish. The dissertation principally applies microscopic wear trace analysis supported by experimental archaeology to examine the manufacturing technology and use of the studied objects. Integrated with contextual analysis and provenance data, the reconstructed biographies form a window into cross-cultural patterns of artefact production, function, and circulation. These are interpreted following a relational perspec- tive adopted from Amerindian ontologies.
The exchange of ground stone celts is shown to be closely interrelated with regional network structures. Though only specific communities specialised in production activi- ties, requisite technical knowledge was widely shared. Once acquired, even exotic rocks and tool types were polished, hafted, and used in conventional ways. Conversely, the cultural and social values of most carved shell and bone paraphernalia are foremost expressed in local technological traditions and the preser- vation of inherited practices. These findings produce a better understanding of indigenous material culture and its relation to social interactions in the pre- and early colonial Caribbean.
ISLAND NETWORKS
