Project description
Exploring everyday life in the Dutch Caribbean
The Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao (the ABC islands) were unconventional colonies, thriving on illicit trade rather than the typical plantation-driven modernity. Yet, little is known about everyday life there during the 17th to 19th centuries. In this context, the ERC-funded IslandLives project aims to change this by using cutting-edge archaeological science techniques to study multiple sites across these islands. Combining evidence from terrestrial and maritime excavations, archival research and advanced analyses like proteomics and peptide mass fingerprinting, the project will explore how diverse communities (free and enslaved blacks, indigenous people, Sephardic Jews and Dutch) navigated modernity. Ultimately, IslandLives seeks to reveal the complexities of alternative modernities and challenge Eurocentric historical narratives.
Objective
ISLANDLIVES will be the first interdisciplinary historical archaeological project to deploy a broad array of cutting-edge archaeological science techniques to study everyday life at multiple sites across multiple islands during a span of 229 years. The Dutch islands of Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire (ABC islands) were unconventional colonies that did not fit the typical European model of plantation-driven modernity incepted in the Caribbean. Rather, they occupied a grey area, thriving on illicit trade with the Spanish mainland. Truly little, however, is known archaeologically about everyday life on the islands. By mobilizing terrestrial and maritime archaeological investigations, archival research, and archaeometric, proteomic, archaeobotanical, collagen fingerprinting, and zooarchaeological analyses within a sophisticated conceptual framework, the project aims to reveal the inner workings of alternative modernities in the 17th- through 19th-century Southern Caribbean. The bulk of evidence will be obtained through archaeological excavations at six sites, the careful interpretation of which will generate the first comprehensive cross-section of everyday lives across the ABC islands. Archaeometric analyses will, moreover, provide unprecedented clarity on the provenance and dating of poorly identified European and regional ceramics ubiquitous on the islands and in the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean regions. This project is therefore geared to advance research on how different island peoples including free and enslaved blacks, indigenous people, Sephardim, and Dutch navigated modernity in their own contested and contingent ways. Finally, these new understandings will be productively engaged with the present. In this way ISLANDLIVES also aims to reveal how insights from past alternative modernities can help us better understand contemporary ABC-island societies and, ultimately, critically challenge deep-rooted Eurocentric narratives about the past in the present
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- humanities history and archaeology archaeology ethnoarchaeology
- engineering and technology materials engineering ceramics
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
- interdisciplinary historical archaeology
- archaeometry
- proteomics
- zooarchaeology
- archaeobotany
- maritime archaeology
- history
- foodways
- consumerism
- maritime trade
- European and regional ceramics
- assemblages of practice
- households
- island societies
- everyday life
- present-day relevance
- challenging Eurocentric narratives
- decolonialisation
- Aruba
- Curacao
- Bonaire
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
08002 Barcelona
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.