Oliver, José R; (2024) En Bas Saline: A Taíno Town before and after Columbus, by Kathleen Deagan. New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids , 98 (3-4) pp. 425-426. 10.1163/22134360-09803033.

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Abstract

This erudite volume is the culmination of archaeological research on the north coast of Haiti, spurred by the tantalizing prospect that En Bas Saline may well have been the seat of Guacanagarí, the cacique or lord of the Marién “chiefdom” with whom Christopher Columbus established a long-lasting political alliance in his quest to conquer and colonize Hispaniola. If so, this area would also be where Columbus’s crew built their headquarters from the remains of the Santa María flagship, naming it La Navidad in 1492. Several seasons of intense fieldwork, from 1984 to 1988, and one final season in 2003, have amassed a wealth of data that form the basis of this book. In the two decades before its publication, various topics had already been published by Kathleen Deagan and/or her extended team of collaborators and specialists in journals and other publications. Yet this book is not merely a summary of these previous publications. Rather, as Deagan herself notes, the lapsed time has enabled her to recast and reevaluate the previous analyses in what can best be described as a “reflexive archaeology” format, reconsidered in light of the most current “theoretical constructs and contemporary thinking related to the dynamics of middle-range societies and inequality” (pp. 7–8). Additionally, she explicitly shows the different methodologies she has chosen to operationalize the archaeological inquiry.

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