Dialogues in Cuban Archaeology

Three Stages in the History of Cuban Archaeology / 31
1889, until July 16, 1987. In two of its titles, the code stipulated that hidden
treasures and portable objects abandoned on private property belonged to the
owner of the land where they were found. But if the discovered objects were
of interest to the sciences or the arts, the state had the authority to acquire
them. None of the earlier Spanish or Republican codes addressed archaeological
issues.
SECOND STAGE: CUBAN AND
NORTH AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGISTS (1898–1959)
Cuban archaeology began in earnest during the second stage, characterized by
two central trends that had their beginnings in the earlier period. These
trends, consisting of a North American and a European in®uence, mixed and
intertwined for several years.
The ¤rst consisted of a serious North American interest in the island that
began with E. G. Squier’s visit to Cuba (Squier 1860). Although most of his
contributions belong chronologically to the previous stage, his thoughts and
discoveries in®uenced Cuban archaeologists well into this second stage, including
scholars such as Montané, Cosculluela, and Felipe Pichardo Moya.
S. Culin (Culin 1902) and W. H. Holmes (Holmes 1894), who came in search
of Moundbuilders, were interested in etiological issues (issues of origin) and
had a perspective akin to Historical Particularism.
Luis Montané Darde initiated the second signi¤cant trend, in the form of
a European in®uence, by introducing the ideas of Paul P. Broca, founder of
French anthropology. Interestingly, the anthropology program at the University
of Havana, which extensively in®uenced the development of archaeology
in Cuba, was created by an act of the U.S. occupational government, but it
had Luis Montané as its ¤rst program chair (Rangel Rivero 1994; Vasconcellos
Portuondo 2001). Montané had returned from France in 1874. From that moment,
interest in Cuba’s past grew noticeably, especially following the fortuitous
discovery of archaic sites. The best example is the discovery of the site
Guayabo Blanco in the Ciénaga de Zapata, which Montané excavated and
which was written up by its discoverer, Juan A. Cosculluela. Guyayabo Blanco
has played a prominent role in the study of Cuba’s indigenous populations. It
represented the ¤rst discovery of nondeformed skulls on an archaeological site
in Cuba. The physical anthropology aspect was the focus of Montané’s research
(see Alvarez Conde 1956:93–98; Ortiz 1935:56–60). His work, which
adhered to high methodological and theoretical standards of the time, was