A Guaíza from El Cabo, Dominican Republic
In the very first episode of this podcast Alice and Angus discuss the guaíza, an enigmatic artefact excavated at El Cabo de San Rafael on the eastern tip of the Dominican Republic.
Have a listen and find out how this object was used to bring people together, during the earliest colonial encounter as well as today!
To look at while you listen to us:
A drawing of the object by artist Erick van Driel
Flyer for the Unidad y Diversidad exhbition, featuring the El Cabo guaíza
Map indicating the places mentioned in this episode
Dr. Hoogland at work documenting the post-holes at El Cabo
Alice is drawing the floor plan of the houses at El Cabo with some Leiden students
An uncharacteristic action-shot of Angus his land surveying, with a storm brewing on the horizon
Some further reading:
- Renewing the house: Trajectories of social life in the yucayeque (community) of El Cabo, Higüey, Dominican Republic, AD 800 to 1504: Alice her thesis on the site of El Cabo.
- Costly Giving, Giving Guaizas: Towards an Organic Model of the Exchange of Social Valuables in the Late Ceramic Age Caribbean: Angus his MA thesis with everything and more you could ever want to know about shell faces.
- Caciques and Cemi Idols (The University of Alabama Press) by José Oliver: A great read if you would like to get deeper into some of the other objects that were part of the same sort of exchanges we talked about in the podcast.
Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter @theshoresoftime about what you think of the podcast and how we can improve the way we share the stories of the Caribbean and its objects .
We’ll speak to you next time, and remember: In this great future you can’t forget your past!
Acknowledgements: This podcast was made possible thanks to financial support by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Alice is employed by University of Leicester’s School of Ancient History and Archaeology and Angus works at Stanford University’s Archaeology Center. The El Cabo excavations were led by Menno Hoogland and made possible thanks to the NWO-programmatic research grant “Houses for the Living and the Dead.”
