Dialogues in Cuban Archaeology

Introduction / 25
Americas. However, the walled enclosure was a constraining device not as
common in other slave communities that restricted their use of space and
interaction with people from the outside, including cimarrones. Both of these
articles report parts of larger research projects (La Rosa Corzo 1991b, 2003b;
Singleton 2001b) that are helping to reshape our views of slave and maroon
life previously obtained from biased historic documents written by slave owners
and government of¤cials.
In translating and editing the papers presented in this volume, we felt it
was our moral and professional duty to maintain the accuracy of the meanings
and connotations of the texts as much as possible. It was a dif¤cult task,
not only because we ran the risk of losing much in translation but also because
we had to reconcile two very different discursive traditions in archaeological
writing. We strove to respect the style and publication tradition of the
respective Cuban and American authors, but at the same time we tried to
weave some common threads into the format of the articles.
We hope that publishing this volume will encourage further exchange, debate,
and communication between American and Cuban archaeologists. It is
our sincere belief that this process has already been started by recent publications
in the United States (Kepecs 2002; Dacal Moure and Rivero de la Calle
1996; La Rosa Corzo 2003a, 2003b) and by the collaborative work of American
and Cuban archaeologists exempli¤ed in this volume (e.g., Berman et al.,
Chapter 3; Singleton, Chapter 10). These research efforts, combined with honest
and respectful professional relations, will bene¤t the discipline in both
countries. It is through such interaction and direct cooperation that American
and Cuban archaeologists can best make strides toward the main goal of archaeology
as a discipline—to describe, explain, and understand the variability
and commonality of past human behavior.
EDITORS’ NOTE
After submitting our manuscript to the University of Alabama Press for its
review, we received the unfortunate news that Ramón Dacal Moure had
passed away in December 2003. Needless to say, this news ¤lled us with great
sadness, and our prayers and thoughts are with his family. We feel proud and
honored that we had the opportunity to include in this volume a contribution
of such a distinguished Cuban archaeologist.