Origins of the Tainan Culture, West Indies
Origins of the Tainan Culture, West Indies
When originally published in German in 1924, this volume was hailed as the first modern, comprehensive archaeological overview of an emerging area of the world. Yes, the Caribbean islands had long been known and owned, occupied, or traded among by the economically advanced nations of the world. However, the original inhabitants—as well as their artifacts, languages, and culture—had been treated by explorers and entrepreneurs alike as either slaves or hindrances to progress, and were used or eliminated. There was no publication that treated seriously the region and the peoples until this work. In the following ten years, additional pertinent publications emerged, along with a request to translate the original into Spanish. Based on those recent publications, Loven decided to update and reissue the work in English, which he thought to be the future international language of scholarship. This work is a classic, with enduring interpretations, broad geographic range, and an eager audience.
The book is virtually a requisite for all research in the field of Antillean archaeology. Apparently every work with any bearing upon the subject, especially the oldest historical sources, has been digested, and the footnote references are multitudinous. Each cultural element, tangible archaeological object or trait, is treated exhaustively; its resemblances and possible connections traced throughout the Americas; and conclusions as to its point of origin, development and migration reached.' --J. Alden Mason of the University of Pennsylvania Museum, in American Anthropologist
'Lovén [is] one of the principal writers on the prehistory of the West Indies...' --Cornelius Osgood, Department of Anthropology, Yale University, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Sven Lovén (1875-1948) was a Swedish anthropologist.
L. Antonio Curet is Associate Curator of Archaeology at the Field Museum, Chicago, and coeditor of Islands at the Crossroads: Migration, Seafaring, and Interaction in the Caribbean and Tibes: People, Power, and Ritual at the Center of the Cosmos.
