Networking may seem to be a modern phenomenon, but of course it’s as old as the hills, or, better put, as old as the sailing route to the Caribbean islands. In his dissertation, archaeologist Angus Mol analyses social networks in the pre-colonial Caribbean region. PhD defence 13 May.

Building a bridge
Before Mol began his research, a network sciences approach was not yet being used in archaeology. Mol’s task was to change that. ‘But the problem,’ he says, ‘is that other domains of research can produce a study of existing social structures, whereas as an archaeologist you primarily have to work with material remains, such as ornaments or utensils that have been dug up. There’s a big gap between finding a few jars and a theory about the social relations between the people who used those jars at that time.’ In his dissertation, Mol tries to build a bridge between those two worlds.

Shell faces
Among the things Mol looked at were the iconographic styles of various objects of art. Mol analysed countless guaízas: small faces made from a shell, which served as an ornament or a gift. He ascertained that all these objects were of the same type, and yet were all different. Mol: ‘After I had subjected them to a network analysis, you suddenly saw some general patterns. It turned out that the closer to each other the shell faces were found, the fewer similarities they displayed between each other. That fits nicely in the gift theory. After all, you want to give a unique gift. So you have to make sure that your gift is different from all the others.’

A multicultural Caribbean
Caribbean society turns out to have been much more diverse than had always been believed. Whereas when most people think of the Caribbean they think of islands with palm trees and tropical beaches, in reality it is a much more varied region, ecologically speaking. So, the Amerindian population was practically forced to make contact with other islands and their inhabitants. ‘For this reason, in spite of a great diversity in languages and cultures, there was always a lot of contact between them, and therefore a high degree of social and cultural exchange,’ Mol explains. ‘That is different from in our own multicultural society, which critics say has failed because the different groups have lived separately from one another, without really making contact.’

Columbus
The explorer Christopher Columbus also made full use of those social networks. After his arrival in the Bahamas, he immediately recruited a few local men as guides. He used their knowledge about the region: who lives where, who is friendly, who is hostile? Mol: ‘Without that local network knowledge about the archipelago, the expedition would probably have gone completely differently. Furthermore, due to that close contact with the native population, a lot of cross-pollination came about. Of course, it’s thanks to this that we have things like our hammock and the barbecue. Not to mention the influence it had on current geopolitical and geocultural relations in the world.’

1492
Mol’s next step is to connect the networks of the pre-colonial period with those of the colonial period, within the ‘Nexus 1492’ project that he is part of. ‘We want to create an even clearer picture of how the native population, with their rich tradition of intercultural “networking”, dealt with the arrival of the Europeans.’

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