meyers, allan d. (1999 - jamaica african traditions on pottery jamaica)

8/13/2019 MEYERS, Allan D. (1999 - JAMAICA African Traditions on Pottery Jamaica)

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International Journal of Historical Archaeology, Vol. 3, No. 4, 1999

West African Tradition in the Decorationof Colonial Jamaican Folk Pottery

Allan D . Meyers'

In the early colonial period, Jamaican slaves manufactured pottery that incor-porated traditional West African technology with selected European innovations.Recent examination of A fro-Jamaican wares from the seventeenth-century site ofPort Royal suggests that the decorative elements ar e consistent with those thatare in wide use among West African pottery traditions, particularly those of theGold C oast (Ghana). Stamped designs prevail as the clearest example o f this con-tinuity. Potential Amerindian contributions to the Jamaican folk p ottery industryduring this period ar e considered a nd shown to be unlikely. Th e isolation of dec-orative traits demonstrates how certain craft elements of West African peopleswere transported to the New World an d integrated with other cultural traditions.It also corroborates the documentary record pertaining to the geographical originof Jam aican slaves during the early colonial period.

KEY WORDS: Jamaica; folk pottery; internal markets; Afr ican continuities.

INTRODUCTION

Th e slave society i n col onial Jamaica o rganized an d maintained a dynamic in -ternal mark eting system that econo mically linke d each o f the island's distinct socialclasses. This internal or underground economy enabled the slave population toproduce goods, sell the surplus independent o f their masters, and ultimately accruelegitimate capital (Armstrong, 1990, p. 99; McCusker and Menard, 1991, p. 146;McDonald, 1993). Local m arkets with slave participation were app arentl y in placeas early as the 1670s (M intz and Hall , 1960, p. 14), and by the mide ighteenthcentury, the marketing system had become the single most important medium bywhich all of Jamaica w as supplied w ith foo dstuffs and utilitarian wares (Mintz an dHall, 1960, p. 16).

'Department o f Sociology, Centenary College, 2911 Centenary Boulevard, Shreveport, Louisiana71134-1188.

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1092-7697/99/0900-020l 16.00/OC> 1999 Plenum Publishing Corporation


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Although produce and small livestock predominated as marketable goods(Edw ards, 1793, p. 125; McD on ald, 1993, p. 28; Stewart, 1969, p. 267), the internaleconomy also included th e production an d distr ibution o f assorted craft items.The 1711 addition to the Jamaica Code Noir, o r slave l aws, permitted slaves tolegally vend manufactured goods such as baskets, ropes of bark, [and] earthenpots (Long, 1970, p. 486). These goods were bartered within the slave societyan d increasingl y sold to the free merchant and planter classesprocesses Mintz(1959, p. 21) has labeled horizontal exchange and vertical upward exchange.The listing o f Afro-Jamaican crafts in the seventeenth- an d eighteenth-centuryprobate inventories o f A nglo m erchants attests to their significance in the internalmarketing system. Fo r example, Thomas Hickman's 1683 estate listing includesa negroe pot wth sugar [Jamaic a A rchives (JA), 1683, p. 14], an d Jacob Ardispossessed 7 Negro baskets old & good when h is estate was evaluated 20 yearslater (JA, 1703, p. 132). The 1711 in vent o ry of Jam es H urst even notes several

gross o f Negro pipes that were presumably crafted from the island's red clay(JA, 1711, p . 44).A ub iqu ito us element of the intern al economy was, and continu es to be,

pottery production. Heavy, occasionally glazed, earthenware vessels, known inJamaica as yabbas, have been lo cally crafted thro ugh o ut the slavery and po st-slavery periods (e.g., Anonymous, 1797, pp . 248-252; Brathwaite, 1971, p. 236;Gardner, 1971, p . 180). However, like other manuf actures, th e early A fro-Jamaicanceramic industry is still poorly understood. This owes principally to the relativedearth o f seventeenth- an d early eighteenth-century documentation about the dai lylives o f enslaved Africans. T he matter is co mplicated by syncretism that was act-ing within the slave communities. Studies (e.g., McDonald, 1993; Mintz, 1959;Mintz and Hall , 1960) have for some tim e exam ined the causes, consequences,and economic interplay of the internal commercial netwo rks. Y et a more complete

consideration of the material basis around which th e internal marketing systemrevolved is s t il l wanting.

In this paper, I examine the nature of decoration on Afro-Jamaican yabbawares recovered from the seventeenth-century site of Port Ro yal (Hamilton, 1984,1992; Hamilton and Woodward, 1984). In doing so, I argue that decorative at-tributes consistent with West African pottery traditions can be isolated, eventhough such coarse earthenwares are clearly manifestations of syncretic adap-tations. Others have previously demonstrated co ntinuity using elements such asvessel form, rim attributes, and method of manufacture (Armstrong, 1990, p. 150;Mathewson, 1972b, pp . 55-56). Because decoration appears on a relatively lo wpercentage o f specimens, it has yet to be ful ly addressed. In the Port Royal assem-blage, each of the several decorative forms can be traced to antecedents in WestAfrica. Not only do these forms occur during the historic period on both sidesof the A tlantic, but they have a long tradition of use in West Africa. One methodof plastic decoration in particular, stamping, predominates as the most extant ex-ample o f co ntinuity because it is geographically restricted to areas o f North and

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West Africa. A demographic model is presented herein to demonstrate that theregion in West Africa where the form is most commonly practiced is the preciselocation where most Jamaican slaves originated in the seventeenth century.

Problematic to studies of African-American ceramic traditions in other re-gions, particul arly the southeastern Un ited States, has been the influence an dintegration of Amerindian fo lk traditions (Ferguson, 1980, 1992). Some (e.g.,Armstrong, 1990, pp. 151-152; Math ewso n, 1972b, pp. 55-56) have addit ionallysuggested such a problem in Jamaica. In this paper, I reexamine th e potentialfo r Am erindian contribution to the Afro-Jamaican ceramic industry b y exploringthe demography of the indigenous Arawak Indians and other aboriginal popula-tions. The evidence presented here demonstrates that little po ssibil ity existed forAmerindian influence during th e seventeenth century. This con clusio n is supportedarchaeologically by ceramic assemblages at Port Royal an d other Jamaican siteswhich fail to reflect exclus ively Am erindian ceramic traits. Moreover, an y degree

o f A merindian contribution to A fro-Jamaican folk traditions after th e seventeenthcentury w oul d have been initiated by the No rth A merican Indian slave trade.

Considered in a broader so cial context, the iso latio n of decorative traits isviewed as an example of those African elements which were most l ikely to havesurvived the fo rced trans-A tlantic migration (Garrett, 1966; H ersko vits, 1936,p. 28,1958). Certain decorative fo rms m ay additio nall y reflect some form o f craftspecialization in both tradition al West African an d Afro-Jamaican societies.

PORT ROYAL

The material in question was recovered from the submerged seventeenth-century site of Port Royal, located on the tip of a sand spit at the entrance to KingstonHarbor (Fig. 1). Port Royal was the largest and most economically importantEnglish city in the Am ericas w hen nearly two -thirds of i t sank into Kingston Harborduring a massive earthquak e o n 7 June 1692 (fo r an historical review see Hamil ton ,1992, pp. 39-41). Whi le some portions o f the city slid and mixed as they sank, thearea wh ich yielded the ceramic specimens for this study sank vertically through aprocess called liquefactio n. The result was an instantly created archaeological sitewhere the cultural features, mat erial, an d context were preserved. Such catastro phicsites (Hamilton and Woodward, 1984, p. 38), inclu ding Pompeii and Herculaneum, are indeed rare, and Port Royal is one of on ly a few such sites known in theAmericas.

T H E N AT U R E O F A F R O J A M A I C A N YA B B A WA R E

Included in the large ceramic assemblage from Port Royal is a substantial col-lection of coarse earthenwares. Fo rmal anal yses of such earthenwares indicate thata distinct dichotomy exists with respect to basic vessel construction (Armstrong,

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1990, p. 147). One class is wheel - thrown, ful ly fired, thick, an d with fine-grainedpaste (Fig. 2). These earthenwares, exh ibi t ing typical European innovations, werepresumably imported from England o r Barbados. The second class is hand-coiled,unevenly o r partially fired, and inconsistent with respect to paste texture. Thesewares, a s shown in Fig. 3, were apparently manufactured loca l ly by Afro -Jamaicanslaves with t radit ional Af rican o pen-hearth technol ogy. Open-hearth pottery firingas practiced among the A kan peoples of W est Af rica generates variatio ns in surfacecolor, a comm on characteristic in the Port Ro yal yabbas (see Mathewso n, 1972b,photos Ib-ld). This results from the uneven temperature in the fire as well as the

stacking of vessels, whic h allo ws some po rtions of the surface to be oxidized whileother portions are reduced (Bellis, 1976, p. 63; Bratton, 1992, p. 3).The word yabba ha s been traced to its presumed A kan l ingu istic root,

ayawa, meaning earthenware vessel o r dish in the Twi l anguage (Cassidy, 1961,p. 85). Mo re recently, McDonald (1993, p. 108) has posited that it may be lin-guistically derived from t he Igbo word oba, meaning calabash or pot. Strikingcontinuities between the present-day yabba craft and seventeenth-century ves-sels imply that the former has its antecedents in the slave-based so ciety (Mayes,1972, p. 103). W hile hand-coiled vessels a re still made (D. L. Ham ilton , personalcommunication, 1995), wheel-thrown vessels predominate in the current market(Mayes, 1972, p. 103), indicating that the method of production has shifted overtime. Such a transition is one example o f the distinctive an d undeniable Europeaninfluence in Jamaican yabba ware. Lead glazes, flat bottoms, and possibly basal

foot rings are European innovations that colonial-era yabbas frequently exhibit.In addition, stylistic European attributes such as certain rim and handle forms arenoticeably amalgamated with traditional elements (Fig. 4) .

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Fig. 1. Jamaica, showing th e locations o f archaeolo gical sites discussed in the text.


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West African Tradition in Jamaican Folk Pottery

Fig. 2. English wheel- thrown coarse earthenware vessel from Port Roya l .

In th e last quarter-cen tury, several studies have examined the nature an dcontext of co arse earthenwares at colo nial sites in the British West Indies. A mo ngthe most influential was that of Mathewson, who, in a series of papers duringthe early 1970s, introduced locally produced earthenwares f rom the eighteenth-century context of O ld King 's House in Spanish Town, Jamaica (see Fig. 1). N otin gthat vessel form, method o f manufacture, an d function reflected West African

ceramic traditions, he aptl y termed the ware Af ro-Jamaican (Mathewso n, 1972b,p. 55). He further identified elements of European tradition and distinguished Afro-Jamaican wares f rom indigenous Arawak pottery (Mathewson, 1972b, p. 56).

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During excavations of the eighteenth-century context at the Old NavalDockyard in Port Royal, Mayes (1972, p. 103) recovered approximately 1700yabba sherds. His assemblage shares many commonalties, with that from SpanishTown, including th e integration o f European traits. More recently, excavationsof the eighteenth-century slave settlement at Drax Hall Pl antation near St. A nn's

Bay also yielded Afro-Jamaican wares (Armstrong, 1985, 1990, pp . 146-158).Following Mathewson and Mayes, A rmstrong initially distinguished local waresfrom imported ones on the basis of wheel or hand technologies. H e substantiatedthis classification with a mineralogical analysis that compared paste composi-tion of hand-coded wares at Drax Hall with collections of prehistoric Arawaksherds. Results indicated a strong co rrelation between th e mineralogical contento f the Amerindian and the presumed Afro-Jamaican wares (Armstrong, 1990,p. 151). Conversely, the wheel-thro wn imported w ares included a mineral com-position that is rare o r altogether absent in Jamaica. A comparative analysis o fprehistoric Jamaican pottery (see DeWolf, 1953; How ard, 1965, p. 252; Rouse,1939) and the Afro-Jamaican yabba ware le d Armstrong (1990, p. 157) to elab-orate on Mathewson's initial distinction between the two. Vessel shape, temper,and thickness are cited as elements which may be utilized in distingu ishing these

independent ceramic traditions.W hile diversity exists among the Spanish Town, Old N aval Dockyard, Drax

Hall, and recent PortRoyal assemblages, the defining criteria for yabba ware among

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Fig. 3 . Afro -Jamaican yabbas from Port Royal .


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West A frican Tradition in Jamaican Folk Pottery

Fig. 4. Reconstructed yabba from Port Roya l with a distinctly Europeanrim form.

them are remarkabl y homogeneous. The same can be said for l ocal ly manufacturedwares o f A frican tradition on the islands of Antigua (Handler, 1963, p. 150) andSt . Croix (Gartley, 1979). These criteria may be summarized as banding in crosssection, hand-coiling, globular form, coarse pastes, and an overall lo w proportionof decoration.

One ano mal y to this suggested hom ogeneity is evidence rel ating to the slave-

produced sugar pot industry in Barbados. Bo th docum entation and archaeo lo gicalevidence suggest tha t African slaves were employing the wheel-and-k iln method ofproduction there throughout the seventeenth, eighteen th, and nineteenth centuries

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(Handler an d Lange, 1978, p p. 140-141).HandlerandLange(1978,pp. 143-144),and later Armstrong (1990, p. 150), have suggested that this apparent assimila-tion to European methods in Barbados resulted f rom one or more geographical ,ecolo gical, or socioeconomic factors. I wou ld add on ly that the dearth of archaeo-logical evidence in Barbados at th is time precludes an y definitive explanat ions o fthe phenomeno n.

Similar wares o f apparent A frican t radit ion, including the wel l -known colo-now ares, have been found at locations throughout th e circum-Caribbean (Deagan,1987, pp . 103-104; Ferguso n, 1980, 1992; W heato n and Garrow, 1985). Localvariants ar e rather distinct, reflecting th e diversity in the non -European ceramictraditions (Deagan, 1987, p. 103). While it is difficult to tel l whether Africansengaged in w heel-throw n pottery manufacture, one may be reasonably confidentthat Euro peans did not produce h andm ade ceramics (Ferguson, 1980, p. 15).

GEOGRAPH ICAL OR IGIN OF JAM AICAN SLAVES

The geographical sources o f African ethnic comm uni t ies , though often o b-scure and com plex, are essential to the cul ture histo ry of Jamaica. Records areoften scarce or incomplete. Even when documentation is complete, determiningspecific o rigins f o r many groups is difficult, given that slaves were frequently ob-tained f rom coastal o r inland regions distant from where they were transported(Alleyne, 1988, p. 37; Armstrong, 1988, p. 37). Despite inconsistencies o r ambi-guities in the documentation of the slave trade, there i s general agreement that th eprimary so urce of Jam aican slaves durin g the last half o f the seventeenth centurywas the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana). This includes the documented arrivalo f A fr icans from Barbados, the Leeward Islands, an d Suriname (Alleyne, 1988,

p. 168; Patterson, 1967, p. 135). Such a no tion o wes principally to the fact that t hePortuguese, an d later the Dutch and E nglish , established slave centers on the GoldCoast (A lley ne, 1988, p. 41; Patterson, 1967, pp . 128,142).

Of the E nglish force that initially settled Jamaica, 3000 arrived from E nglandand 5000 arrived f rom Barbados and the Leeward Islands (Patterson, 1967, p. 16).One can easily envision a substantia l num ber of A fricans arriving with these east-ern Caribbean settlers, considering that some 300 E ngl ish planters brou ght roughly1000 Negro slaves to Jamaica from Suriname in 1675 (LePage, 1960, p. 17). Infact, Patterson (1967, pp. 134-153) claims that one -third of all slaves imported toJamaica between 1655 and 1674 and one-quarter of those imported from 1675 to1688 were from Barbados. The docum entary record sheds l ight on the geograph-ical origin of A frican slaves in Barbados. Armstrong (1988, pp. 36-37) cites thefollowing from a treatise of 1689-1690 that relates to the m anagement of the Drax

Plantation in Barbados: I have observed that th e Co rmante o r gold coast negros[sic] have always stood and proven best in this plantation therefore you wil l do e[sic] well to buy of that nation than an y other. This preference was corroborated

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by E nglishman Jonathan Atk ins, who remarked i n 1675 that th e Gold Coast slavesconstituted much the greater num ber of any A frican eth nic gro up (see Patterson,1967, p. 135).

Various forms o f indirect evidence demonstrate how the prevalence o f GoldCoast populationsspecifically Akan and Ga-Andangmespilled over intoJamaica. Again Arm strong (1988, p. 37) cites the predominance of A kan daynames on the 1735 slave list fo r [Jamaica's] Drax Hall as such indirect historicalevidence. Th is suggests that Gold Coast peoples form ed the primary slave con-stituent on the island during the critical first two decades o f Engl ish governance,when the creole slave society there was in its infancy. Considering their arrivalfrom other locations in the West Indies, Patterson (1967, p. 142) cogently addsthat many of these slaves... were already seasoned and were well placed, bothhistorically and socially, to impose their own patterns o f behaviour and speechon the [emerging] creole slave society. Th e constant influx of new slaves with

similar cultural affiliations served to reinforce the established modes o f behavior,including t he retention o f A frican traits.

Curtin (1968, p. 158) is the only detractor from the co nsensus, contendingthat a large portion of the A frican population in Jamaica o riginated in Angola andarrived via the illegal interloper trade. The indep endent slave traders o r interlopersindeed exploited the Angola coast most successfully (Patterson, 1967, p. 128).However, the Royal A frican Co mpany held a monopo ly on Jamaica from its char-ter in 1672 until ro ugh ly 1689. The Gold Coast w as the single largest source of theMonopoly Companies ' slaves from 1655 to 1700 (Patterson, 1967, p. 127). Notuntil the 1690s did the interlopers assume a primary po sition in supplying slavesto Jamaica. I n fact, they supplied more than five times the number of slaves thanthe Royal A frican Company between 1698 and 1708 (Patterson, 1967, p. 134),well after the 1692 earthquake that submerged P ort Ro yal. Al tho ugh Senegambia,

Windward Coast, and Big ht of Benin were other regional lo cations co ntributingto the slave trade, Gold Coast peoples rem ained the largest co nstituent of theJamaican po pulation. This is extremely important to discussions o f A frican conti-nuity in Jamaica, for the A kan languages and cultures o f this region ar e remarkablyhomo geneous compared to other geographical sources of African slaves (A lleyn e,1988, pp. 7,41).

DECORATION OF THE PORT ROYAL YABBA WARE

Of the 899 yab ba sherds in the Port Ro yal assemblage, 28 (3.1%) exhibit fivegeneral decorative techniques: incision, embo ssing, stampin g, co mb impressio n(punctate), and rim crenulatio n (Figs. 5 and 6). W hile a single decorative method

was employed o n several of the specimens, most exhibited a co mbinatio n of twoo r more o f these techniques. Table I lists the total number of sherds reflecting thesedecorative attributes.



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Fig. 5. D ecorated yabba sherds f rom Port Royal, (a, b) Incised; (c) embossed; (d) rim crenulat ion.

Fig. 6. Stamped yabba sherds f rom Po rt Roy al. Note that the small applied handles on the upperright and lower left have also been stamped.

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Si x large sherds exhibit stamped decoration, usually in combinat ion with

another techn ique. The stamped design is produced by impressing soft,

wet clay

with a prepared die. Carved wood, carved bone, an d gold weights ar e amongthe items that of ten served as stampin g dies. The wares depict numero us com plexmotifs, including circular, square, and rosette patterns. St am ping occurs on ly on theupper half an d outer surface of the vessels, always near the rim . Several differentstamped motifs are often used in combination. Two specimens are stamped onsmall applied handles (N = 28 ) which have been fashioned so as to provide afinger grip. In other words, no opening exists between the vessel and the handlethrough which the fingers can be placed. Indeed, some handl es are so small as toraise the questio n of w hether they serve any k ind of practical function (see Fig. 6).The form o f the handle is clearly an anomaly, for there are no Euro pean, African, o rA merindian parallels. Moreover, no other Af ro-Caribbean site h as yielded handlesof this form.

One sherd exhibits rim crenu latio n or scallo ping by m eans of stamping (seeFig. 5d). Stamped indentations occur at even intervals around the marg in or lipof the rim. The stamping implement was apparently square, though some of theimpressions may be smudged. Ten additional sherds reflect a simpler form o f rimcrenulation known as fluting, where thumb impressions create the indentations.Mayes (1972, p. 105) describes a sim ilar design on a specimen from the Old NavalDockyard excavations at Port Royal.

Five specimens are embossed, where the decorative element is raised abovethe outer surface of the vessel. O n three of the sherds, this w as apparently accom-plished by pinching the wet clay with the thumb and index finger. Three otherspecimens exhibit appliqu6 decoration, where small balls o r ro l l s o f clay were ap-plied to the outer surface. Two of these ceramic pieces were intentionally fashionedin a trian gul ar shape and are not vessel fragm ents.

Incised o r grooved decoration occurs on eight yabba sherds. A gain , thisdecoration appears on the upper half and exterior of the vessel. Fine incisions,characterized by deep, narrow cuts, are typical o f geometric patterns including


Table I. Frequency of Decoration on PortRoyal Yabba Sherds

Decorative technique

Rim crenulationIncision/groovedDie-stamped/incisionEmbossedDie-stampedDie-stamped rim crenulationDie-stamped/punctateIndentation near rim

Total

Sherd count

10536

28


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cross-hatching, zigzags, and straight parallel lines. Wide pa rallel grooves, m ostlikely crafted with a b lunt stick or tool, are also evident. These appear in eitherstraight line or arcing fo rms. Mathewson (1973, p. 29) observed several similarlyincised sherds in the Old K ing's Ho use assemblage. One sherd exhibits comb im-pression (also referred to as stippling roulette) in which the end of a comb-likeinstrument w as used to stamp mult iple rows o f square o r circular punctations. A l-though the example i s fragmented, the punctations apparently cover a very limitedarea of the vessel near the rim.

DECORATION IN WEST AFRICAN TRADITION

Each of the decorative forms found in the Port Royal yabba assemblage isf i rmly established in West A frican ceramic traditions. Because incisio n, emboss-ing, and comb impression are decorative elements of far reaching temporal andgeographical distribution i n Africa (for West A frican examples see Co nnah, 1975,p. 121; Effah-Gyamfi, 1985, pp . 103-105; Shaw, 1961, p. 28), they are not specif-ically addressed here. Rather, I focus on stam ping as the most significant evidencefo r West African continuity in decorative forms.

Stamped wares, particularly die-stamped wares, have been recovered fromseveral archaeological sites in West Africa (e.g., D. Arm stro ng, personal com mu-nication; Bellis, 1976; Braunhol tz , 1936; Mclntosh, 1995; York , 1973) (Fig. 7) .No t only are stamping and its associated mo tifs present in the same geo graphicalarea, but their most frequent o ccurrence often falls within the general chrono logicalframework of those centuries preceding and during the A frican slave trade (Fig. 8).Whi l e i t should be noted that ma ny West A frican sites are still poorly dated, sev-eral excavated lo cations currently provide a reasonable basis f or this chronological

organization. Bellis (1976, p . 151), fo r example, discusses the excavation of die-stamped ceramics f rom middens at the site of Twifo Heman in southern Ghana(Fig. 9). The location has strict Akan cultural affiliations an d postdates the six-teenth century, given dates established for imported trade goods as well as lo callymade tobacco pipes (Bellis, 1976, p. 59). Decoration is evident on 5 to 7% ofthe ceramic assemblage. Com plex impressions were presumably fashioned withsuch varied objects as scallop shells, flat head screws, and carved do wel ends. Thestamps are often used together with trailed lines, in a manner refl ecting that foundon one of the Port Ro yal yabba sherds (see Fig. 6, upper right).

York (1973, pp . 151-152) identifies two stamped pottery types from moundexcavations at New Buipe in northern Ghana (Fig. 10). These stamps are de-scribed as simple circles, ro settes, an d segmented lozenges, offsetting a back-ground o f co mb-impressed and incised decoration (York, 1973, p. 151). A small

portion o f the material o riginates in archaeolog ical strata of the late first mil len-nium A.D. Thus, considered in context, the New Buipe sample docum ents the

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Fig. 8. Approximate temporal distribution of stamped wares at some North and WestA f r i c a n sites.

p. 125) cites the presence of shell impressing f rom earlier historic contexts at several

other sites along the Ghana coast. Included among these is Komenda, where shellimpressing is claimed to be one of the predominant decorative attributes.

One of the more recent published examples of stamping in West Af rica derivesfrom Jenne-jeno, an early settlement along the Upper Inland Niger Delta in present-da y Mali (Mclntosh, 1995). The site is exceptional fo r this discussion in that i tlies roughly 500 mi inland from the Gold Coast. Yet, in a manner similar tothose sites nearer the coast, only a small proportion of the pottery is stamped.Plastic motifs, including circular, square, and rosette forms, appear late in the finaloccupation period (A.D. 850-1400), seemingly replacing geometric white-on-redpainted decoration (Mclntosh, 1995, p. 163) (Fig. 11). Moreover, such decorationis confined to an area of the vessel between the distinctive carination and themouth (Mclntosh, 1995, p. 163). In other words, only the rim portion of the vesselcontains the stamped decoration.

Given similar pattern stamping on contemporaneous plainwares f rom theNorth A frican siteof Qsar es-Seghir (Redman, 1986, pp. 71,117), Mclntosh (1995,p. 163) raises the question of whether thi s particular decoration was introduced


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by Isl amic peoples n orth of the Sahara. The construction o f the great mosq ueof Jenne around A.D. 1204 certainly documents an Islamic presence near th esite (A nq uand ah, 1982, p. 81). Mo reover, there is independent archaeo lo gical

evidence which suggests that pottery vessels were traded south across the WestAfrican Sudan in the fo urteenth and fifteenth centuries (A nqu andah , 1982, p. 95).Nevertheless, the low ov erall frequen cy of die-stamped wares at West A frican sitesindicates that questions pertaining to the diffusion o f ceramic traits from Nor th toWest Africa are still very much a matter of speculation. Mclnto sh (1995, p. 164),citing Gallay (1986), specifically finds little reflection o f majo r histo rical eventsin the ceramics in this area of the Niger Delta. Whil e the origin of die-stamping inWest Af rica and its potential connection to Northern A frica ar e intriguing, they ar ebeyond the scope o f this study and are not among the phenomena I wou ld attemptto explain.

RECONSIDERING POTENTIAL AMERINDIAN INFLUENCES

Unl ike considerations of colo nowares in the southeastern United States, most(e.g., Armstrong, 1990) have generally assigned little Amerindian influence to

Fig. 9. Stamped wares from Twifo Heman, Ghana (after Bellis, 1976, Fig. 20).

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Fig. 10 . Stamped wares f rom N ew Buipe, Ghana (after Y ork, 1973, Fig. 74).

the product ion o f Jamaican folk pottery. Mathew son (1972b, p. 56) expresses analternative poin t o f view by suggesting that despite virtual extinction, aboriginalpopulations would have passed on many cul tural traits to subsequent popul ationsby means o f affinal unio ns, social interaction, and cultural fusion.

Th e practical assessment o f Indian cultural impact invariably becomes a mat-ter of demographics. The degree o f A merindian influence o n A frican fo lk traditionsin Jamaica is directly related to the size of the A rawak po pulation in the sixteenthand seventeenth centuries. Whil e po pul atio n estimates of the West Indies in 1492vary to a great extent (Kn igh t and Crah an, 1979, p. 7), there is general consensusas to the rapid rate of dep op ulatio n shortly thereafter. The decim ation o f the nativepopulation in Jamaica apparently occurred sooner than most o f the other islands inthe A ntilles. For examp le, in 1515, after on ly 6 years of Spanish settlemen t, the firstgovernor o f Jam aica, Francisco de G aray, noted the sm all India n presence. A t thesame time, h is royal factor Pedro de Mazuelo s suggested the complete eradicationof the Indians in 2 more years (Morales Padron, 1952, pp . 260-261). These andother sim ilar statements have led Sauer (1992, p. 204) to con clude that by 1514 the impending extinction of the natives was apparent and in another ten [years] it

had occurred. In 1611, on ly 74 Indian s were reported to have been living on theisland (Cundall and Fietersz, cited by Patterson , 1967, p. 15).

The implication of this brief demo graphic sketch is that Arawak influence o nth e slave-based ceramic industry w as pro bably quite limited. Mathewso n's (1972b,


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Fig. 11. Stamped wares from Jenne-jeno, Mali (after Mclntosh, 1995, PI. 15).

p. 56) supposition that newly arrived African potters who were unfamiliar withthe environment integrated Arawak fo lk traditions perhaps attributes too much

Amerindian infl uence. There were onl y a few hundred African slaves in SpanishJamaica fo r most of the sixteenth century (Alleyne, 1988, p. 28). Most of theslaves possessed by the Spanish left with their masters after Spain ceded theisland in 1660. Alleyne (1988, p. 29) estimates that only 300 Africans remainedin Jamaica after this time, escaping to the Blue Mo untains and fo rming the firstmaroon settlement on the island. These Af ricans, who wo uld have had the highestprobability of contact w ith the Arawak Indians, most probably had little impact onthe slave society that emerged during English rule (see A gorsah, 1993). Patterson(1967, p. 15) has even observed that by 1655 Jam aica's histo rical slate was, in allpractical senses, wiped completely clean. Substantial transportation of Africanslaves to Jamaica did not commence until after the English had firmly securedcontrol of the island (Alleyne, 1988, Fig. 1).

The notion of l imited A rawak influence as implied by this demo graphic mo del

is supported by archaeolo gical evidence. Un lik e direct evidence fo r the integratio nof European traits, there are simply no morpholo gical f eatures of yabba ware thatcan be attributed solely to Arawak folk traditions (see DeWolf, 1953; Howard,1965). Several yabba characteristics such as open-hearth firing and decorative

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incision may conceivably reflect an A rawak influenc e. Yet these ar e also com-mo n A frica n ceramic traits, and they may be just as easily attributed to A fricancontinuity. Mathewson (1972b, p. 56) has stated that whether or not the inciseddecoration of this Afro-Jamaican bowl reflects Arawak or Akan (West African)inspiration is perhaps debatable. I am not yet convinced that there was a signifi-cant aboriginal contribution to Afro-Jamaican wares, though I would no t rule o utthe possibility. Jamaican yabbas do not reflect th e A merindian influence as otheranalogous colonowares do in parts of the circum-Caribbean where African an dAm erindian contact was sustained for a longer period o f time (Deagan, 1987, pp .103-104; Ferguson, 1980).

A second, and in some respects entirely different, source o f potentialA merindian in fluen ce is the native culture s of the southeastern United States.Largely forgotten is the docum ented tra de o f Indian slaves from the southerncolonies o f English North Am erica to the West Indies during the seventeenth an d

eighteenth centuries (Lauber, 1913; Olexer, 1982). Co nsidering that the Southeast-ern Indians have a long an d well-developed ceramic tradition, one may entertainthe notion that they introduced ceramic traits into the local A frica n po tting industry.Studies o f Afro -Caribbean ceramics have apparently overlook ed such a po ssibil i tyup to this point.

Though So utheastern In dians were a commodity in the Caribbean slave mar-ket, their influe nce in seventeenth-century Jamaica was m inim al , if existent. Thisis evidenced by two histo ricall y documented pheno mena: tempo ral range of theIndian slave trade and Indian slave mortality. Although Indian slavery had beenlegalized in some North A merican co lonies as early a s 1641, In dian slave tradingto the West Indies was not conducted in earnest unt i l after the Stono War in 1674(Olexer, 1982, pp. 46, 102-105). It continued to grow until 1747, suggesting th atthe largest numbers of Indian slaves did not arrive in the West Indies until th e

first half of the eighteenth centurywell after the 1692 earthquak e in Jamaica. A nexamination of 50 Port Royal probate invento ries from 1689 to 1690 supports thisconclusion (JA, 1689-1690, Vol . 3, pp. 279-374). Perusing o nly those inventorieswhere eth nicity was explic itly noted, I fo und onl y 8 Indians listed amo ng a totalof 478 slaves an d servants (Table II). Co mparatively, 458 individual s were listedas Negro slaves, and indeed, there were more w hite indentured servants (N = 10 )than Indians. T he potential influx o f Southeastern Indian ceramic traits i s furtherreduced when o ne considers that pottery manuf acture amo ng these po pulationswas traditio nally restricted to females (Hudson, 1976, p. 264). A ccording to thestrict sexual division o f labor, men did not engage in such activities. Therefore,when returning to the inventories at Port Royal , one finds only three potentialIndian potters listed, amo unting to on ly 0.6% of the total sample.

A second docum ented phenomeno n is the high mortal i ty rates of SoutheasternIndians once transplanted in the West Indies. Unaccustomed to the harsh systemo f slavery an d debilitated by infectious disease, Indian slaves averaged only 5 to6 years o f life in the Caribbean (Olexer, 1982, p. 104). Many Indians failed to

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survive the so-called seasoning period, or the initial period after their arrival.Jamaican probate inventories also suggest this, as Indian slaves are consistentlyvalued less tha n Negro slaves. The im plica tion is that those who did surviv e inJamaica during the seventeenth century lived only a short time and thus had lesso f an opportunity to introduce new cultural traits.

The archaeo lo gical evidence again supports the histo rical record. Just as withArawak pottery, there are no morphological features of yabba ware that can beattributed solely to Southeastern ceramic traditions. T he Southeastern Indian s dohave a long tradition o f po ttery stamping in curv ilinear and rectilinear designswhich one may conceive as the impetus for stamped Afro-Jamaican wares. More-over, these methods, termed simp le stamp ing and co mplicated stamping, were stillin use du ring the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (C uren, 1984; S m ith, 1948;Willey, 1973). However, both the stamping technique and the patterning differsubstantially from those found on Jam aican yabba wares. Stamping is producedusing carved paddles which impress large sections of a vessel. In turn, stampedpots in the Southeast are largely, if no t fully, covered by the pattern. Yabba wareconforms to neither the technique nor the m agnitude of surface area covered by

the designs.

CONCLUSIONS

The notion that a group's culture will remain com pletely intact when it movesto a new lo cation is inconceivable (A lleyne, 1988, p. 6). Some cu ltural elements,such as food resources and raw materials, are inevitably lost in the transition fromone environment to another. Other cultura l elements at higher levels of abstraction(i.e., economic and political institutions) are modified to account for newly en-countered resources and populations. Such losses are m agnified when migration isforced. Those aspects o f culture which are most easily transported are intangiblesthat often lie at the subcon scious level of the mind: shared memo ry, acquired skill s,language, religion, and habits. W hile A fricans probably brought very few palpableitems w ith them to the New W orld, African craftsmen wo uld have seemingly trans-ported their knowledge o f art and craft production. There is some indication of thisin Alexander Barclay's early nineteenth-century exposition on the conditions of

219

Table II. Slaves and Servants in SO Port Royal Inventories, 1689-1690

Ethnicity

NegroWhiteIndianMulat toNegro-Indian

Total

Men185

10200

197

Women

1430

20

146

Children

130040

135

Total

4581072

478

Percentage

95.82.11.50.40.2

100.0


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Jamaican slavery. He remarks that every negro has his calabash, and many have

them carved w ith figures like those which are tattooed on the skins o f the Africans(Barclay, 1826, p. 315). In response to new social conditions, African craftsmenintegrated European innovations including stylistic an d functional attributes. Thisis clearly evident in Jamaican yabba ware.

Given our current understanding o f historical demography an d m aterial cul-ture, one m ay conclude that the decoration on seventeeth-century yabba ware indi-cates a predom inant West A frican influence ( at least in the context of the Port Royalassemblage). Sp ecifical ly, the geographic distrib utio n of decorative attributes indi-cates t he existence o f strong co ntinuities between th e pottery traditions of the GoldCoast (Ghana) and those of J amaican slaves. This suppo rts the docum entary recordon slave trading, whic h also indicates that th e predom inant number o f Jamaicanslaves derived f rom the Gold Coast, either directly or indirectly via other easternCaribbean colonies. Sweeping demographic changes in the Caribbean during the

sixteenth and seventeenth centuries afforded few opportunit ies fo r Amerindiancontribution to the folk traditions operating within English cities such as PortRoyal . The early rural maroo n settlements, in contrast, hold a greater lik elihoo dfor A rawak inf luence upon A fro-Jamaican tradit ions. There ar e some tentative in-dications of this at one Maroon village, an d archaeological efforts have recentlybeen directed to ward thi s issue (Ago rsah, 1992, 1994, p. 182). Th e undeniablepresence of European traits on Port Royal yabbas nonetheless demonstrates thedynamic nature o f fo lk craft production within th e Jamaican slave com munity.

The documentary evidence additionally suggests that this predominant cul-tural influence is a reflection of both numerical superiority and social positionwithin the Af ro-Jamaican slave com munities. A kan and Ga-A ndangme po pula-tions of the Gold Coast were apparently t he most numerous ethnic groups on theisland durin g the seventeenth ce ntury. Mo re imp o rtantl y, these peoples formed the

largest single group o f slaves during the first 20 years o f English occupation, w henthe Creole slave society w as being developed. The im plicatio n is that many of theseslaves were already positioned to assume l eadership in the slave comm unity andimpose their cultural patterns on newly arriving slave groups.

Whi le supporting a line of co ntinuity between certain West Af rican and A fro-Jamaican culture traits, the decoration of yabba ware from Port Royal also raisessome new and interesting questions. F o r example, even tho ugh stamped decorationappears on both yabba and many traditional West A frican wares, i t does no t occuras freq uentl y as other decorative traits. Inva riabl y, stamping is present on less than5% of the recovered assemblage from any one archaeological context in WestAfrica. The Port Royal assemblage conforms to this established pattern, with lessthan o ne percent exhib itin g die-stamped decoration.

This intrigui ng pattern recalls a question that Mathewson (1972b, pp. 55-56)initially raised as to whether decorative motifs represent a form o f maker's mark.This may indicate a specialization within th e West African potting communitiesthat was either carried to or developed in the New Wo rld. Such specialization w ould

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have been manifest in the internal marketing system, whereby a highly skil ledsubclass of African potters produced well-made an d stylized yabbas fo r A ng loconsumers. Less skilled potters manufactured more generalized wares for usewithin the slave comm unity. Roderick McDo nald (1993, pp. 107-108) has alludedto just this sort o f division o f labor and distributio n. Co nsequently, decoration mayhave indicated levels o f status differentiation within th e craft producing segmentof slave society. Fu ture research m ay attempt to explore this area m ore thoroughly.Doing so will o nly provide further insights into the material basis o f a Jamaicaninternal economy that, in the words of McC usker and Menard (1991, p. 146), lentstructure, meaning, a nd dignity to the lives o f A fro-Jamaican slaves.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The materia ls discussed in this article were recovered during t he 1981-1990field investigations o f Port Royal, Jamaica, sponsored by the Institute o f Nau-tical Archaeology in cooperation with Texas A &M University and the JamaicaNational Heritage Trust. A n abridged version o f this paper was presented at the1997 meeting of the Society fo r Historical Archaeology i n Co rpus C hristi, Texas.The U niversity of California Press kindly permitted the reproduction of Fig. 11.The author wishes to thank Douglas Armstrong, Leland Ferguson, and CharlesOrser f o r carefully reviewing an early version of the manuscript. Valuable sugges-tions o n v ario us aspects of the m anuscript's content were also o ffered by DavidCarlson, Christopher DeCorse, Ywo ne Edwards, D. L. Hamilton, and Cheryl LaRoche. D . L. Hamilton, of the Texas A& M Unive rsity Co nservation Laboratory,generously provided the autho r with access to the material s presented h erein.

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