Colonization During Colonialism: Developing a Framework to Assess the Rapid Ecological Transformation of Mauritius’s Pristine Ecosystem

The Bois Marchand Cemetery in Mauritius was established in 1867 in response to the massive death toll exerted by a disastrous malaria epidemic that swept the island between 1866 and 1868. As all the aspects of Mauritian society are represented in the cemetery’s necrogeography, the still-active burial ground offers an ideal setting to examine life and death during the Indenture Period of the island’s history. This article examines the development, organization, environmental factors, and ecological aspects of this vast burial ground in view of the development of public health care and management.

Layering Segregation in Life and Death: The Social and Environmental Character of the Bois Marchand Cemetery, Mauritius

Čaval

2023

The Landscapes of Disease and Death in Colonial Mauritius

Cianciosi¹

2023

The recurring ebb and flow of epidemic diseases profoundly impacted how colonial administrations dealt with death. This article focuses on the role disease played in shaping the “necrogeography” of colonial landscapes, a key point of intersection between funerary and landscape archaeology. Using an extensive corpus of evidence from cemeteries that capture inhumation practices from formerly enslaved and indentured populations, this article provides an assessment of these burial contexts as part of the cultural landscape in Mauritius. Drawing together functional and emotional dimensions, their features and development will be considered against the backdrop of the island’s specific and dynamic disease ecology.

The Challenges and Future of Environmental Archaeology in Mauritius

Pluskowski,

Brown,

Seetah

2024

This paper considers the value of past and prospective applications of key environmental archaeological and earth science fields relating to the historical ecology of Mauritius and the Mascarene islands more broadly: palaeoecology, geoarchaeology, zooarchaeology and climate studies. The contribution of each subfield is outlined with the aim of demonstrating the potential value of an integrated environmental archaeological approach for developing a long-term understanding of the human ecology of Mauritius and its associated islands. The paper considers the potential and limitations of existing approaches and data, as well as future challenges. Beyond solely reconstructing the nuances of anthropogenic impact on the environment in relation to the island’s history of settlement, we argue that environmental archaeology can contribute to an understanding of “biocultural diversity” as an integral element of Mauritian heritage, bridging the divide between cultural and natural heritage.