The Earliest Inhabitants: The Dynamics of the Jamaican Taino

174 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS
Lack of access to Iberian tableware and drinking vessels caused the residents
of Sevilla la Nueva to organize a craft industry to produce locally manufactured
equivalents. In so doing, the Spanish settlers resisted the outright
adoption of aboriginal vessel forms in the visible arena of dining, in an attempt
to maintain their traditional Iberian cultural norms.
Despite the predominance of European domestic animals in the diet of the
fortress’s residents, the presence of cassava buréns suggests that the inhabitants
also adopted cassava bread as a substitute for their grain-based breads.
The degree to which the lower-class Spanish settlers at Sevilla la Nueva
were able to maintain their traditional lifeways has yet to be determined, as no
other residential features have been identified or investigated. Based on the
archaeological evidence from St Augustine and Puerto Real, one might expect
to see varying patterns of acculturation based on social status (McEwan
1995).
Examining the Cotter collection material from the perspective of the Taíno
women, one could suggest that the lack of Spanish domestic materials at
Sevilla la Nueva enabled them to maintain a small degree of cultural autonomy
within a totally Hispanic setting. Archaeological evidence demonstrates
that they used their traditional cooking wares to prepare food, even if they
were forced to adopt some Hispanic food-preparation techniques, such as
boiling rather than roasting meats. While Spanish materials have shown up in
surface collections at White Marl, the large Taíno site on the south coast of
Jamaica, the degree to which the indigenous population of St Ann’s Bay incorporated
Hispanic food or materials into their traditional lifeways during the
first decades of contact has yet to be determined (Goggin 1968, 36). Likewise,
it has been noted that the degradation of local ceramic traditions is not immediately
apparent from the materials found in the domestic assemblage of the
Spanish fortress. The effects of the Spanish colonization on the indigenous
social structures, farming techniques and craft industries will truly be determined
only through controlled excavations of the several Taíno sites on the
hills surrounding the site of Sevilla la Nueva.
As at all other Spanish colonial sites in the Caribbean, the Spanish colonial
pattern is evident at Sevilla la Nueva; however, the diversity in cultural patterning
and the degree to which any individual or culture is forced to integrate
were clearly influenced by the processes of economic and political domination,
the degree of remoteness of specific colonies, race, social status and gender.
The examination of Taíno ceramics and faunal materials from the fortress at
Sevilla la Nueva demonstrates that even in the narrow domestic arena, a variety
of cultural syncretisms evolved in response to the differing economic and
natural environment of frontier communities, as well as social spheres of the
individual inhabitants.