Reviews

Return

"Explores the intersection of myths, beliefs and practices among the different participants who have written this history."
--Times of the Islands

"A richly textured, deeply personal interpretation of one incident in Taino/Spanish contact relations, the capture and death of Cacique Caonabo, a principal chief of the Island of Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic and Haiti) in 1494."
--Centro Journal

An excellent example of how oral traditions (mythology), historical sources, and archaeology can work together to provide richer, more complex views of the human past.
--Choice

"If you are into the history and archaeology of the natives who greeted Columbus, this is definitely your book."
--St. Augustine Archaeological Association

"In this bold and original study William Keegan crafts a complex narrative that combines archaeology, ethnohistory, ethnology, and linguistics to argue that a famous contact period Taino chief, Caonabo, originated from a specific impressive site, MC-6 on Middle caicos."
--Journal of Anthropological Research

"On the positive side, Keegan's discussion of the archaeological data of the Bahamian Archipelago in relation to Hispaniola provides an excellent, updated synthesis of important work that is not well known even among Caribbeanists."
--Cambridge Archaeological Journal

"A must read for all serious scholars of Caribbean prehistory and ethnohistory. Keegan skillfully plays documentary sources against the archaeological record to reveal the complex nature of Taino-Spanish interactions and the way mythology, both Taino and Spanish, structured those relations."
--New West Indian Guide

Return