The Wrath of Zemi
Arawak Hurricane Prediction in the Caribbean
Keywords:
Caribbean, ethnoastronomy, pre-Columbian archaeology, Tropical Forest Cultures, weather predictionAbstract
Drawing on more than twenty years of research and long-term in-depth field experience in the Neotropics, this article argues for an indigenous methodology for predicting the arrival of hurricanes in the Caribbean. The archaeological site under study is Anse à la Gourde on Guadeloupe (French West Indies), here discussed in conjunction with a theoretical underpinning in Indigenous Amazonian cosmologies and ethnoastronomy. The conceptualisation for this study goes back to an experience that the author had during archaeological field school in 1995, and it is through a paradigm-shifting "dwelling perspective" that the author has been able to make sense of his original perceptions. During the further development of this innovative hypothesis on hurricane prediction by the Indigenous Peoples of the Caribbean prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus emerged an alternative hypothesis for a momentous dividing moment in Caribbean archaeology, namely the end of the Saladoid around AD 800.
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