Ethics in Caribbean Archaeology: Past, Present, and Future

This book will be freely available in an open access edition thanks to generous support from the Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, Marie Sklodowska Curie Action (grant agreement #101062882), and the IN THE SAME SEA history project funded by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement #851871).

Insights and strategies for transforming the ethics of archaeological practices in the Caribbean and helping the discipline flourish

The first book to focus on ethical archaeological practices in the context of the Caribbean, Ethics in Caribbean Archaeology presents current and past case studies as well as regional overviews to equip researchers with tools for challenging persistent colonial structures that often underpin work in the region.

With contributions from both longtime specialists and early-career voices, this volume brings together a wide range of approaches and includes perspectives spanning firsthand experience to large-scale observation and critiques. These chapters address current issues in subfields such as material culture analysis, museum curation, biomolecular archaeology, biological anthropology, and digital archaeology. The strategies and insights offered relate to topics such as community engagement with African-descended and Indigenous peoples, the ethical handling of ancestral remains, and best practices for storing or returning materials held in collections.

This book is a crucial resource for archaeologists around the world, especially those working in island settings, providing encouragement as they endeavor to change entrenched norms and asymmetrical relationships. Together, these chapter authors are positive about a future for the discipline that is culturally sensitive, politically aware, empathic, and dynamic.

Felicia J. Fricke, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Copenhagen, is the author of Slaafgemaakt: Rethinking Enslavement in the Dutch Caribbean. Eduardo Herrera Malatesta, a postdoctoral researcher in archaeology at Leiden University, is the editor of Archaeological Perspectives on Contested and Political Landscapes. Maaike S. de Waal,
assistant professor and head of the Field Research and Education Centre
at the Faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University, is coeditor of Pre-Colonial and Post-Contact Archaeology in Barbados: Past, Present, and Future Research Directions.