The study of settlement geography, demography and social behavior in the
prehistoric Carib and Taíno societies of the Caribbean has recently become a prominent domain of interest to archaeologists working in these islands. Archaeological floor plans for prehistoric houses within the islands of St. Eustatius, Barbados, St. Thomas, Cuba and Puerto Rico demonstrate the cultural continuity of house shape, settlement organization and social organization from the early Saladoid to the contact period. These data support a model of Taíno settlements with multiple house forms, not only the bohio and caney forms recorded after contact, but oval and rectangular forms that indicate a social hierarchy and an indigenous origin for the complex settlement organization revealed in archaeological excavation.
Looking Like People; Feeling Like People: The Black Body, Dress and Aesthetic Therapy in the Caribbean
In the Caribbean, the practice of getting dressed matters because it is a practice of attending to the body. Under a colonial regime, black bodies were ill-treated and selves were negated. Clothing played an instrumental role in the abuse of bodies and the stripping of a sense of wellbeing. Attire was one key way of demarcating master and slave and rendering some members of society null and void.
