Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Physical Environment: Biogeographical Teleconnections in Caribbean Prehistory

  • Chapter
General History of the Caribbean

Abstract

Geographical teleconnections1 are long-distance energy linkages between localized biogeophysical phenomena, including anthropo-geographical derivations. The Caribbean Sea is herein recognized as the hub of diverse teleconnections between the surrounding islands and mainlands, and with other regions near and far. However, this chapter will focus on the Greater Antilles as the perceived environmental axis around which the historical - and prehistorical - colonization of the Caribbean region has turned, powered as it were by its geographical teleconnections.

West Indian zoogeography at present is more a matter of weighing sometimes nebulous probabilities than of drawing clear conclusions, and much must be frankly speculative.

George Gaylord Simpson, 1956

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 189.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes

  1. The epigraph is from G. G. Simpson (1956) ‘Zoogeography of West Indian land mammals’, American Museum Novitates, 1759: 1–27. I have borrowed the term ‘teleconnections’ from climatology where it is widely used to describe long distance linkages of El Nino-Southern Oscillation weather anomalies. See M. H. Glantz, et al (eds) (1991) Teleconnections Linking Worldwide Climate Anomalies, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  2. The following references offer comprehensive coverage of the geographical aspects of evolutionary processes discussed herein: M. L. Arnold (1997) Natural Hybridization and Evolution, Oxford University Press, UK

    Google Scholar 

  3. L. E. Mettler, et al. (1988) Population Genetics and Evolution, 2nd. ed., Prentice Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ

    Google Scholar 

  4. J. Weiner (1994) The Beak of the Finch, Vintage Books: NY.

    Google Scholar 

  5. G. K. Pregill and S. L. Oison (1981) ‘Zoogeography of West Indian Vertebrates in Relation to Pleistocene Climatic Cycles’, Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 12: 75–98

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. C. Schubert (1988) ‘Climatic changes during the last glacial maximum in northern South America and the Caribbean: A Review’, Interciencia, 13(3): 128–37.

    Google Scholar 

  7. In addition to the various pertinent references previously cited, the following are of particular interest with regard to hutia phylogeny: M. A. Nedbal, M. W. Allard and R. L. Honeycutt (1994) ‘Molecular Systematics of Hystricognath Rodents’..., Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 3(3): 206–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. C.A. Woods (1989) ‘A New Capromyid Rodent from Haiti: The Origin, Evolution, and Extinction of West Indian Rodents and their Bearing on the Origin of New World Hystricognaths’, in C. C. Black and M. R. Dawson (eds) Papers on Fossil Rodents in Honor of Albert Elmer Wood, Los Angeles History Museum: CA: 59–90

    Google Scholar 

  9. C. A. Woods and B. Mckeen (1989) ‘Convergence in New World Porcupines and West Indian Hutias: An Analysis of Tooth Wear, Jaw Movement, and Diet in Rodents’, in K. H. Redford and J. F. Eisenberg (eds) Advances in Neotropical Mammalogy, Sandhill Crane Press: Gainesville, Fl: 97–124.

    Google Scholar 

  10. With reference to ecology, exploitation and husbandry of hutias and related caviomorphs, past and present see: V. Berovides and A. Comas (1997) ‘Densidad y productividad de la jutia conga (Capromys pilorides) en mangles cubanos’, Caribbean Journal of Science, 33(1–2): 121–3

    Google Scholar 

  11. V. Berovides (1987) ‘Evaluation de los caprümidos de Cuba como recurso natural’, Flora, Fauna y Areas Silvestres, 2: 27–9

    Google Scholar 

  12. J. F. Eisenberg (1980) ‘The density and biomass of tropical mammals’, in M. Soule and B. Wilcox (eds) Conservation Biology, Sinauer: Sunderland, MA: 35–55

    Google Scholar 

  13. D. W. Gade (1967) ‘The guinea pig in Andean folk culture’, Geographical Review, 57: 213–24

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. L. M. Gosling and J. R. Skinner (1984) ‘Coypu’, in I. L. Mason (ed.) Evolution of Domesticated Animals, Longman: London: 246–51

    Google Scholar 

  15. R. Kyle (1987) ‘Rodents under the carving knife’, New Scientist, 114 (1566): 58–62

    Google Scholar 

  16. E. S. Wing (1989) ‘Human exploitation of animal resources in the Caribbean’, in C. A. Woods (ed.) Biogeography of the West Indies... Sandhill Crane Press: Gainesville, Fl: 137–52

    Google Scholar 

  17. A considerable body of references on Greater Antillean and New World monkey origins and evolutionary relationships has been published within the last decade alone. The following are exemplary selections: L. C. Aiello (1993) ‘The Origin of the New World Monkeys’, in W. George and R. Lavocat (eds) The Africa-South America Connection, Clarendon Press: Oxford, UK: 100–18

    Google Scholar 

  18. S. M. Ford (1990) ‘Platyrhine Evolution in the West Indies Journal of Human Evolution, 19(1–2): 237–54

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. R. D. E. MacPhee (1996) ‘The Greater Antillean Monkeys’, Revista de Ciencia de L’Institut d’Estudis Balearics, 18: 13–32

    Google Scholar 

  20. R. D. E. MacPhee and M. A. Iturralde-Vinet (1995) ‘Earliest Monkey from Greater Antilles’, Journal of Human Evolution, 28(2): 197–200

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. A. L. Rosenberger (1992) ‘Evolution of New World Monkeys’, in S. Jones, R. Martin and D. Pilbeam (eds) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution, Cambridge University Press: London: 207–16.

    Google Scholar 

  22. On the intriguing subject of zoonoses (diseases transmitted between animals and humans): R. M. Krause (1992) ‘The Origin of Plagues, Old and New’, Science, 257: 1073–8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. R. D. E. MacPhee and P. A. Marx (1997) ‘The 40,000-year Plague: Humans, Hyperdisease, and First-contact Extinctions’, in S. M. Goodman and B. D. Patterson (eds) Natural Change and Human Impact in Madagascar, Smithsonian Press: Washington, D. C: 169–217

    Google Scholar 

  24. F. P. Pinheiro and A. P. A. Travassos da Rosa (1994) ‘Arborviral Zoonoses of Central and South America’, in G. W. Beran, et al. (eds) Handbook of Zoonoses, Section B: Viral, CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL: 201–25

    Google Scholar 

  25. R. E. Sharpe and A. S. Evans (1993) ‘Assessing Geographic and Transport Factors and Recognition of New Viruses’, in S. S. Morse (ed.) Emerging Viruses, Oxford University Press: NY: 109–19

    Google Scholar 

  26. L. E. St Hoyne (1969) ‘On the Origins of New World Paleopathology’, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 31(3): 295–302.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Key references on the insectivores of the Greater Antilles, and their kin from Africa and Madagascar are: J. F. Eisenberg and E. Gould (1984) ‘The Insectivores’, in A. Jolly, et.al. (eds) Key Environments: Madagascar, Pergamon Press: Oxford, UK: 155–65

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  28. J. F. Eisenberg and E. Gould (1966) The Behavior of Solenodon paradoxus in Captivity with Comments on the Behavior of other Insectivora’, Zoologica, 51(1): 49–58

    Google Scholar 

  29. L. Van Valen (1967) ‘New Paleocene insectivores and insectivore classification’, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 135: 219–84

    Google Scholar 

  30. C. A. Woods and J. F. Eisenberg (1989) ‘The Land Mammals of Madagascar and the Greater Antilles: Comparison and Analysis’, in C. A. Woods (ed.) Biogeogeography of the West Indies, Sandhill Crane Press: Gainesville, FL: 799–826.

    Google Scholar 

  31. On metapopulation dynamics see M. Slatkin (1987) ‘Gene Flow and the Geographic Structure of Natural Populations’, Science, 236: 787–92

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Available sources of information on reptiles of the Greater Antilles include the following: W. Auffenberg (1967) ‘Notes on West Indian Tortoises’, Herpetologica, 23: 34–44

    Google Scholar 

  33. [C. H. Ernst and R. W. Barbour (1989) Turtles of the World, Smithsonian Institution Press: Washington, D. C

    Google Scholar 

  34. A. Schwartz and R. W. Henderson (1991) Amphibians and Reptiles of the West Indies-. Descriptions, Distributions and Natural History, University of Florida Press: Gainesville, FL.

    Google Scholar 

  35. With reference to the biogeography of freshwater fishes and invertebrates see J. C. Briggs (1984) ‘Freshwater Fishes and Biogeography of Central America and the Antilles’, Systematic Zoology, 3: 428–35

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. G. H. Burgess and R. Franz (1989) ‘Zoogeography of the Antillean Freshwater Fauna’, in C. A. Woods (ed.) Biogeography of the West Indies, Sandhill Crane Press: Gainesville, FL: 263–304.

    Google Scholar 

  37. On marine fish identification and ecology see J. M. Berrios-Diaz, I. N. Corujo Flores, J. Gonzâlez-Azar and D. S. Erdman (1988) ‘Los peces marinos de Puerto Rico’, in. L. Vivaldi (é d.) Compendio Enciclopé dico de los Recursos Naturales de Puerto Rico, Vol. 2, Chap. 7, DRN: San Juan, PR

    Google Scholar 

  38. E. Lieske and R. Myers (1994) Collins Pocket Guide, Coral Reef Fishes-. Indo-Pacific and Caribbean, Harper Collins: London, UK

    Google Scholar 

  39. JE Randall (1983) Caribbean Reef Fishes, T. F. H. Publications: Neptune City, NJ

    Google Scholar 

  40. P. F. Sale (ed.) (1991) The Ecology of Fishes on Coral Reefs, Academic Press: San Diego, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  41. On aboriginal fishing corrals, mullet culture and native fish nomenclature, see J. E. Bardach, J. H. Ryther and W. D. McLarney (1972) Aquaculture-. The Farming and Husbandry of Marine Organisms, Wiley Interscience: NY

    Google Scholar 

  42. E. Fernândez-Mé ndez (1975) ‘Los corrales de pesca indfgena de Puerto Rico: Breves apuntes para la historia’, Boletin Museo Hombre Dominicano, 7: 71–179

    Google Scholar 

  43. F. A. Grana Raffucci (1992) Catâlogo de nomenclatura de lospeces de Puerto Rico y las Islas Virgenes, DRN: San Juan, PR

    Google Scholar 

  44. B. Vega (1980) ‘Herencia taina: nuestros corrales de pesca’, Boletin Museo Hombre Dominicano, 13: 315–20.

    Google Scholar 

  45. The following are among the best general references available on Caribbean birds: F. C. Bellrose (1980) Ducks, Geese and Swans of North America, Stackpole Books: Harrisburg, PA

    Google Scholar 

  46. J. M. Forshaw (1989) Parrots of the World, third edition, Landsdowne: Melbourne

    Google Scholar 

  47. F. Gomez-Dallmeier and A. T. Cringan (1989) Waterfowl in Venezuela: Biology, Conservation and Management, Editorial Ex Libris: Caracas

    Google Scholar 

  48. H. Raffaele, et al. (1998) A Guide to the Birds of the West Indies, Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ.

    Google Scholar 

  49. On Holocene climatic change and neotropical avian migration see G. W. Cox (1985) ‘The evolution of avian migration systems between temperate and tropical regions of the NewWorld’, American Naturalist, 126: 451–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

  50. D. H. Hodell etal. (1991) ‘Reconstruction of Caribbean Climate Change over the past 10,000 Years’, Nature, 352: 790–3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. G. L. Jacobson Jr., T. Webb III and E.C. Grimm (1987) ‘Patterns and Rates of Vegetation Change during the Dé glaciation of Eastern North America’, in W. F. Ruddiman and H. E. Wright Jr. (eds) North America and Adjacent Oceans During the last Dé glaciation, Geological Society of America: Boulder, CO: 277–88.

    Google Scholar 

  52. With particular relevance to Sabanera pigeons, the following are additional references to the dynamics of avian metapopulations and hybridization: R.C. Banks (1986) ‘A Taxonomic Ré é valuation of the Plain Pigeon (Columba inornatay, Auk, 103: 629–31

    Google Scholar 

  53. L. L. Short (1972) ‘Hybridization, Taxonomy and Avian Evolution’,’Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 59: 447–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  54. D. Simberloff (1995) ‘Habitat Fragmentation and Population Extinction of Birds’, Ibis, 137: S 105–S 111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  55. P. R. Grant and B. R. Grant (1998) ‘Speciation and Hybridization of Birds on Islands: 142–62’, in P. R. Grant (ed.) Evolution on Islands, Oxford University Press: NY

    Google Scholar 

  56. S. L. Olson (1982) ‘Biological Archaeology in the West Indies’, The Florida Anthropologist, 35, (4): 162–8

    Google Scholar 

  57. The following sources, in addition to relevant preceding ones, provide overviews linking recent environmental change in the Caribbean, neotropical ethnobotanical resources and the emergence of plant husbandry: A. Anderson, P. May and M. Balick (1991) The Subsidy from Nature, Columbia University Press: NY

    Google Scholar 

  58. R. Gore, (1997) ‘The Most Ancient Americans’, National Geographic, Vol. 192(10): 92–9

    Google Scholar 

  59. M. L. Salgado-Labouriau (1982) ‘Climatic Change at the Pleistocene-Holocene Boundary’, in G. T. Prance (ed.) Biological Diversification in the Tropics. Columbia University Press: NY: 74–7

    Google Scholar 

  60. M. Sanoja (1989) ‘From Foraging to Food Production in North-eastern Venezuela and the Caribbean’, in D. R. Harris and G. C. Hillman (eds) Foraging and Farming, The Evolution of Plant Exploitation, Unwin Hyman: London: 532–7

    Google Scholar 

  61. D. J. Wilson (1999) Indigenous South Americans of the Past and Present, An Ecological Perspective, Westview Press: Boulder, CO.

    Google Scholar 

  62. With specific reference to plant migrations, the following are of interest: J. D. Sauer (1988) Plant Migration, the Dynamics of Geographic Patterning in Seed Plant Species, University of California: Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  63. P. E. Siegel (1991) ‘On the Antilles as a Potential Corridor for Cultigens into Eastern North America’, Current Anthropology, 32(3): 332–4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  64. Comprehensive sources on palms are: A. Henderson, G. Galeano and R. Bernai (1995) Field Guide to the Palms of the Americas, Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ

    Google Scholar 

  65. R. Read (1988) ‘Utilization of Indigenous Palms in the Caribbean (in Relation to their Abundance)’, Advances in Economic Botany, 6: 137–43.

    Google Scholar 

  66. Arboreal resources of the eastern Greater Antillean bank (hearth of the Neolithic Transition) and certain plausible African links are catalogued in the following: J. Hutchinson and J. M. Dalziel (1958) Flora of West Tropical Africa, Whitefriars Press: London

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Francisco Watlington
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Seville, Spain

    Jalil Sued-Badillo (Ph. D. in the History of America, Professor and Chairperson) (Ph. D. in the History of America, Professor and Chairperson)

  2. General Social Science Department (Interdisciplinary Studies), University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico

    Jalil Sued-Badillo (Ph. D. in the History of America, Professor and Chairperson) (Ph. D. in the History of America, Professor and Chairperson)

Copyright information

© 2003 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Nature America Inc.

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Watlington, F. (2003). The Physical Environment: Biogeographical Teleconnections in Caribbean Prehistory. In: Sued-Badillo, J. (eds) General History of the Caribbean. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-73764-2_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-73764-2_3

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-73766-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-73764-2

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation