ABSTRACT
During Caribbean pre-Columbian history, indigenous peoples practiced a variety of subsistence strategies and food production techniques. In this chapter, we discuss the topic of domestic and managed wild animals among later Ceramic Age (AD 500–European Contact) farmer-fisher-hunters of the Caribbean islands. We focus on domestic guinea pig (Cavia porcellus) and hutia species (Family: Capromyidae) as case studies to discuss how archaeologists might better recognize and study intentional human manipulation of animals in the West Indies. Contextualized within broader archaeological perspectives of domestic animals among farmers, we suggest that more attention is needed on the commensal and symbiotic relationships that Ceramic Age populations had with both guinea pigs and hutias. Our analysis indicates that a rigid concept of “domestic” does not provide a robust enough framework for elucidating farmer-domestic animal interactions in the Caribbean region, but rather that animal management likely followed variable commensal pathways across the region, including garden hunting.
