Diverse and Dynamic Dietary Patterns in Early Colonial Cuba: New Insights from Multiple Isotope Analyses

Abstract

The European conquest and colonization of the Caribbean precipitated massive changes in indigenous cultures and societies of the region. One of the earliest changes was the introduction of new plant and animal foods and culinary traditions. This study presents the first archaeological reconstruction of indigenous diets and foodways in the Caribbean spanning the historical divide of 1492. We use multiple isotope datasets to reconstruct these diets and investigate the potential relationships between dietary and mobility patterns at multiple scales. Dietary patterns are assessed by isotope analyses of different skeletal elements from the archaeological skeletal population of El Chorro de Maíta, Cuba. This approach integrates carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of bone and dentine collagen with carbon and oxygen isotope analyses of bone and enamel apatite. The isotope results document extreme intrapopulation dietary heterogeneity but few systematic differences in diet between demographic/social groups. Comparisons with published isotope data from other precolonial and colonial period populations in the Caribbean indicate distinct dietary and subsistence practices at El Chorro de Maíta. The majority of the local population consumed more animal protein resources than other indigenous populations in the Caribbean, and their overall dietary patterns are more similar to colonial period enslaved populations than to indigenous ones.

Six centuries of adaptation to a challenging island environment: AMS 14C dating and stable isotopic analysis of pre-Columbian human remains from the Bahamian archipelago reveal dietary trends

“…0.7092 are indeed local to the archipelago. The Late Ceramic Age communities of the islands of the Greater Antilles were much more heavily focused on horticulture than on fishing -as supported by the available stable isotope data (Buhay et al, 2013;Laffoon et al, 2020;Shev, 2018;Stokes, 1998) -and it is likely that fields were preferentially located on older, more eroded limestone rather than the karstic Quaternary limestone, or, where available, on richer volcanic soils, both with less radiogenic 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values (Bataille et al, 2012;Laffoon et al, 2012). This leaves two individuals who must have spent at least part of their childhood outside The Bahamas/TCI.…”

The Caribbean and Mesoamerica Biogeochemical Isotope Overview (CAMBIO)

“…The highest coverage of isotopic research is in the southern Maya lowlands of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and western Honduras 14 , 18 , 24 . Substantial research has also focused on several large (100+ individuals), well-studied skeletal assemblages from the Caribbean islands of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Guadeloupe 13 , 23 , 25 – 27 , and in central Mexico at the city of Teotihuacan 28 – 33 . Third, a lack of standardization has created inconsistencies in reporting and publication of isotopic datasets.…”

Paleodietary reconstruction of endemic rodents from the precolumbian Dominican Republic: Discriminating wild feeding behavior from diets linked to human niche construction activities

“…Numerous stable isotope studies have assessed human paleodiets of precolonial and early colonial period indigenous communities in the insular Caribbean (Chinique de Armas et al, 2015 , 2016 ; Keegan & DeNiro, 1988 ; Krigbaum et al, 2013 ; Laffoon et al, 2013 , 2019 , 2020 ; Laffoon & Vos, 2011 ; Pestle, 2010 , 2013 ; Stokes, 2008 ). Isotopic studies of animal paleomobility have been conducted to investigate the introduction or movement of animals into different Caribbean islands (Giovas, 2016 ; Giovas et al, 2016 , 2019 ; Laffoon et al, 2015 , 2019 ; LeFebvre, deFrance, et al, 2019 ), while only a few isotopic studies have looked specifically at animal diets in an attempt to highlight dietary linkages between the human and animals (Laffoon et al, 2019 ; LeFebvre, deFrance, et al, 2019 ; Shev et al, 2020 ; Shev, Laffoon, & Hofman, 2021 ).…”