Dr Joseph Jean - 'The Haitian archaeological heritage: Loss, practice, and discourse'

Haitian archaeology encompasses multi-historical episodes expressed through past Amerindian cultures, enslaved African legacies, traces of colonial periods, as well as post-Haitian independence components. Several sites, such as the cemeteries of formerly enslaved people, underwater archaeological sites, and former colonial structure dwellings that are part of the long and complex Haitian history are being threatened. There is a lack of public heritage policy in Haiti, however; as such, archaeology is overshadowed within the broad outlines of the few existing Haitian heritage policy documents. This presentation will explore these issues by looking at the current state of the archaeological heritage and examine the heritage practice and discourse in Haiti. 

Joseph Sony Jean is post-doctoral Researcher at KITLV. His work focuses on the longue-durée landscape transformation of Haiti, using data from ethnography, ethnohistory and archaeological records. For the project CaribTRAILS (Caribbean Transdisciplinary Research. Archaeology of Indigenous Legacies Spinoza), he investigates the longue-durée occupation and the uses of caves from the Amerindian occupation to the contemporary society in the north of Haiti.

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