Dialogues in Cuban Archaeology

126 / Valcárcel Rojas and Rodríguez Arce
The presence of archaeological sites distinguished by their larger size,
higher artifact density, and associations with settlement clusters has also generated
some debate. In Banes, located in the northwestern part of the island,
Rouse (1942:155, 157) linked the size differences among the archaeological sites
to the existence of central and subordinate villages, organized in a political
structure that could correspond to that of the historically described chiefdoms.
However, according to some authors (Domínguez et al. 1994; Guarch
Delmonte et al. 1995), there is no evidence for a process of social differentiation
between the sites or for the presence of an elite with regional power, such
as would be expected in a confederation. An alternative interpretation is suggested
by evidence from another important concentration of settlements in
south-central Cuba. Archaeologists believe that the relationships between
sites possibly indicate a level of centralization within a framework of economic
specialization, designed to take advantage of diverse ecological areas
(Domínguez 1991:69). Guarch Delmonte et al. (1995) summarized the nature
of this last perspective in the following terms: “We think it is possible that the
cacique, the behique [shaman], and some other administrators practiced some
form of ‘interior exploitation’ of their own tribe. It also seems probable that a
certain dependency and exploitation between subordinate and nuclear settlements
existed in areas where we ¤nd a large concentration of archaeological
sites a short distance from each other. This dependency would have simply
resulted from tribal ¤ssioning from the parental group due to demographic
reasons or other factors.”
When comparisons with the abundant data from Hispaniola and Puerto
Rico were made in an attempt to re¤ne the historical and archaeological
views, Cuba’s sites appeared to represent a simpler level of complexity (Domínguez
et al. 1994:46; Tabío and Rey 1985:163; Trincado 1984:40). Despite
the shortage of detailed data, this conclusion tended to be generalized, imposing
an idea of egalitarianism on groups belonging to the indigenous community
and characterizing them at the stage of a developed tribal community
(Domínguez et al. 1994:51; Guarch Delmonte 1990:16; Guarch Delmonte
et al. 1995). A level of higher social complexity and of an incipient disintegration
of the tribal relationships was acknowledged to exist only among the late
communities of the eastern tip, perhaps linked to in®uences from Hispaniola
(Domínguez et al. 1994:46; Trincado 1984:41).
Recent considerations, however, suggest other possibilities. Moreira (1999:
166–182) uses the discovery of a large amount of sumptuary material at the
site of Los Buchillones (Calvera et al. 1996; Jardines and Calvera 1999), the