Christina Giovas

CHRISTINA M. GIOVAS, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada, was approved funding in April 2017 to aid research on “Advancing Niche Construction Models of Animal Translocation through Multi-Proxy Tests in the Prehistoric West Indies.” This research examines the archaeological record for purposeful animal introductions during human settlement of novel environments. It places this behavior in an evolutionary context and establishes the theoretical foundations for treating introductions as a human adaptive strategy that enhances the likelihood of settlement success. A practical case study examining agouti (a South American rodent) and common opossum introduction to the Caribbean Lesser Antilles between 500 BCE – 1500 CE was used to explore the proposed relationship. To determine the prospective adaptive benefits of introductions, investigation focused on radiocarbon dating and morphological and isotopic analyses of agouti and opossum skeletal remains from multiple archaeological sites across the study region. Results clarify the timing of agouti introductions and their relative abundances and demonstrate the establishment of local island populations exploited for food by Indigenous Caribbeans. This evidence will be correlated with Indigenous archaeological site size and duration to evaluate the relationship between species introductions and settlement success. Overall, this research provides critical chronological, archaeological, and ecological data on pre-colonial Caribbean mammalian introductions. More broadly, it places purposeful species introductions within an evolutionary framework, explaining this long-enduring human behavior in terms of its adaptive benefits.