The dynamic Caribbean: Tracing interactions among precolonial indigenous populations in Cuba (SSHRC-IG, 2020 - 2026)
Research Team
Mirjana Roksandic, PhD, William M. Buhay, PhD, Matthew C. Peros, PhD
Kathrin Nagele, PhD, Cosimo Posth, PhD, Gerardo Izquierdo Díaz, PhD, Jason Laffoon, PhD, Meghan Burchell, PhD, Reniel Rodríguez Ramos, PhD
Ulises Miguel González Herrera, PhD, Silvia T. Hernández Godoy, PhD
The dynamic Caribbean: Tracing interactions among precolonial indigenous populations in Cuba (SSHRC-IG, 2020 - 2026)
This project works to shed light on one of the most unexplored and urgent topics of Caribbean archaeology, namely how Archaic Age populations interacted among themselves and with the later Arawak communities. Questions related to the socioecological factors that influenced their interactions, and their contribution to the later biocultural landscape of the region, remain unsolved. In this project, we examine the biological and cultural diversity among Archaic Age groups, and their biocultural interactions with later Arawak communities, as a dynamic, multidirectional process.
This perspective challenges the traditional view of Caribbean islands populations as passive recipients of cultural innovation from the outside world, in which one “stage of development” was substituted by a “more advanced one” over the course of precolonial history. We use a multidisciplinary approach to examine an array of biocultural markers – including genetic mixture, material culture, burial practices and diet – through time and in relation to environmental constraints. We ascertain the degree and dynamics of biological and cultural exchange among indigenous groups on the archipelago, the biological background of their bearers, and explore the way their interactions shaped the populations present in Cuba at the time of Spanish contact.
Paisaje humano, cambios ambientales y resiliencia socio-ecológica en el Guacanayabo: El yacimiento arqueológico Playa del Mango, un caso ejemplar de estudio (enero de 2024 – diciembre de 2026).
Evaluación e interpretación histórica – ambiental del poblamiento precolonial en las tierras bajas del golfo de Guacanayabo: el yacimiento arqueológico de Playa del Mango (enero de 2021-diciembre de 2023).
Arqueología de prácticas mortuorias en sociedades aborígenes de bajos niveles productivos de Cuba (enero de 2014 marzo de 2020).
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
2025 | Chinique de Armas Y., Buhay W. M., González Herrera U.M., Hernández Godoy S.T., Garcell Domínguez, J.F., Viera Sanfiel L.M., Caraballo Yera J. A., Roksandic M., Laffoon J. Diversity of lifeways in early Antillean Societies: A Multi-Isotope Approach. American Journal of Biological Anthropology. |
2025 | Chinique de Armas Y., Hernández Godoy S.T., Viera L.M., Buhay W.M., Laffoon J. 2025. Earliest evidence of sedentism in the Antilles: Multiple isotope data from Canímar Abajo, Cuba. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 1 (122): e2413963121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2413963121. |
2022 | Chinique de Armas Y., González Herrera U.M., Reyes I., Buhay W.M., Skelton S., Rodríguez Suárez R., Roksandic M., Laffoon J. 2022. Multiproxy paleodietary reconstruction using stable isotopes and starch analysis: The case of the archaeological site of Playa del Mango, Granma, Cuba. Journal of Archaeological Science Reports 46: 103671. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103671. |
2021 | Kocher A., Papac L., Barquera R., Key F.M., Spyrou M.A., Hübler R., Rohrlach A.B., Aron F., Stahl R., Wissgott A., van Bömmel F., Pfefferkorn M., Mittnik A., Villalba-Mouco V., Neumann G.U., Rivollat M., van de Loosdrecht M.S., Majander K., Tukhbatova R.I., Musralina L., Ghalichi A., Penske A., Sabin S., Michel M., Gretzinger J., Nelson E.A., Ferraz T., Nägele K., Parker C., Keller M., Guevara E.K., Feldman M., Eisenmann S., Skourtanioti E., Giffin K., Gnecchi Ruscone G.A., Friederich S., Schimmenti V., Khartanovich V., Karapetian M.K., Chaplygin M.S., Kufterin V.V., Khokhlov A.A., Chizhevsky A.A., Stashenkov D.A., Kochkina A.F., Tejedor-Rodríguez C., García-Martínez de Lagrán I., Arcusa-Magallón H., Garrido-Pena R., Royo-Guillén J.I., Nováček J., Rottier S., Kacki S., Saintot S., Kaverzneva E., Belinskiy A.B., Velemínský P., Limburský P., Kostka M., Loe L., Popescu E., Clarke R., Lyons A., Mortimer R., Sajantila A., Chinique de Armas Y., Hernandez Godoy S.T., Hernández-Zaragoza D.I., Pearson J., Binder D., Lefranc P., Kantorovich A.R., Maslov V.E., Lai L., Zoledziewska M., Beckett J.F., Langová M., Danielisová A., Ingman T., García Atiénzar G., de Miguel Ibánez M.P, Romero A., Sperduti A., Beckett S., Salter S.J., Zilivinskaya E.D., Vasil’ev D.V., von Heyking K., Burger R.L., Salazar L.C., Amkreutz L., Navruzbekov M., Rosenstock E., Alonso-Fernández C., Slavchev V., Kalmykov A.A., Atabiev B.Ch., Batieva E., Alvarez Calmet M., Llamas B., Schultz M., Krauß R., Jiménez-Echevarría J., Francken M., Shnaider S., de Knijff P., Altena E., Van de Vijver K., Fehren-Schmitz L., Tung T.A., Lösch S., Dobrovolskaya M., Makarov N., Read C., Van Twest M., Sagona C., Ramsl P.C., Akar M., Yener K.A., Carmona Ballestero E., Cucca F., Mazzarello V., Utrilla P., Rademaker K., Fernández-Domínguez E., Baird D., Semal P., Márquez-Morfín L., Roksandic M., Steiner H., Carlos Salazar-García D., Shishlina N., Selim Erdal Y., Hallgren F., Boyadzhiev Y., Boyadzhiev K., Küßner M., Sayer D., Onkamo P., Skeates R., Rojo-Guerra M., Buzhilova A., Khussainova E., Djansugurova L.B., Beisenov A.Z., Samashev Z., Massy K., Mannino M., Moiseyev V., Mannermaa K., Balanovsky O., Deguilloux M.F., Reinhold S., Hansen S., Kitov E.P., Dobeš M., Ernée M., Meller H., Alt K.W., Prüfer K., Warinner C., Schiffels S., Stockhammer P.W., Bos K., Posth C., Herbig A., Haak W., Krause J., Kühnert D. (2021). Ten millenia of hepatitis B virus evolution. Science, 374: 182-188. |
2021 | Grau González-Quevedo ER, Hernández Godoy ST, Fernández Ortega R, González Herrera UM, Garcell Domínguez J, Morales Prada A, López Belando AJ, Roksandic M, Chinique de Armas Y. (2021): The Use of 3D Photogrammetry in the Analysis, Visualisation and Dissemination of the Indigenous Archaeological Heritage of the Greater Antilles. In: Opgenhaffen L, Revello Lami M, Mickleburgh H. (Eds.), Special Issue on Art, Creativity and Automation, Open Archaeology, 7: 435-453. |
2020 | Rodríguez Suarez R., Reyes I., González Herrera U.M., Yero Masdeu J.M., Chinique de Armas Y. (2020): Manejo de cultivos por grupos de baja escala de producción de alimentos en el suroriente de Cuba: Primer reporte de Capsicum sp. y Manihot esculenta. Cuba Arqueológica. Revista digital de Arqueología de Cuba y el Caribe, 13: 26-38. |
2020 | Chinique de Armas Y., González Herrera U.M., Buhay W.M., Yero Masdeu J.M., Burchell M., Crann C., Viera Sanfiel L.M., Grau González-Quevedo E.R., Roksandic M. (2020): Chronology of the archaeological site of Playa del Mango, Rio Cauto, Granma, Cuba. Radiocarbon, 62(5): 1221-1236. DOI: 10.1017/RDC.2020.52. |
2020 | Nägele K., Posth C., Iraeta M., Chinique de Armas Y., Hernández S.T., González U.M., Nieves-Colón M.A., Sandoval-Velasco M., Mylopotamitaki D., Radzeviciute R., Laffoon J., Pestle W.J., Ramos-Madrigal J., Lamnidis T.C., Schaffer W.C., Carr R.S., Day J.S., Arredondo C., Rangel A., Martínez-Fuentes A.J., Crespo-Torres E., Roksandic I., Stone A.C., Lalueza-Fox C., Hoogland M., Roksandic M., Hofman C.L., Krause J., Schroeder H. (2020): Genomic insights into the early peopling of the Caribbean. Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.aba8697. |
Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters
2025 | Weston D., Chinique de Armas Y. (in press). The study of archaeological human remains in the Antilles: The Development of the Bioarchaeological Approach. In: Weston D., Chinique de Armas Y. (Eds.). Bioarchaeology in the Caribbean. Routledge. |
2025 | García Méndez N., Morales Valdés D., González Herrera U.M., Chinique de Armas Y. (in press). Paleodemography, health and physical activity at Playa del Mango site, Granma, Cuba. In: Weston D., Chinique de Armas Y. (Eds.). Bioarchaeology in the Caribbean. Routledge. |
2025 | Laffoon J., Chinique de Armas Y. (in press). Isotopic analysis of indigenous paleodiet and paleomobility in the western Caribbean: Enamel strontium and carbon isotope results from Cueva del Perico I, Cuba. Routledge Handbook of Bioarchaeology in the Caribbean. In: Weston D., Chinique de Armas Y. (Eds.). Bioarchaeology in the Caribbean. Routledge. |
2021 | González Herrera U.M., Morales Valdés D., Fernández Ortega R., Hernández de la Oliva I., Leal Soler S., Gutiérrez Peña N., Chinique de Armas Y. (2021). Compendio de sitios arqueológicos aborígenes con presencia de restos humanos en Cuba. Buenos Aires: Aspha. |
