of sites investigated (Luna 1992). In many cases, such as those of Dutch colonial shipwrecks in the Dominican Republic (Hall 1995), the Dutch Antilles eighteenth-century ships in Barbados, and the U.S. Civil War–period Maple Leaf in Florida, this happened through new partnerships between government agencies, private companies, academic programs, and recreational sport divers.

Under state underwater archaeologist Roger Smith, Florida established a series of underwater archaeological preserves that were intended to enhance public appreciation of and involvement in underwater site conservation and protection. The first of these was established in 1987 at the wreck site of the Urca de Lima (1715), and by 1995 there were five such underwater preserves in Florida.

As the twentieth century drew to a close, historical archaeology in Florida and the Caribbean was deeply concerned with a number of difficult issues. They included primarily those related to the conservation and protection of archaeological resources—both terrestrial and marine—in the face of escalating economic development and earth-impacting growth. In many parts of the region, however, such growth was welcomed by the local residents as an opportunity for economic well-being, while arguments against development were frequently put forth by archaeologists from outside the area (urban sectors of the country or state, or from outside the countries themselves). This issue was inextricably connected to another dominant dialogue that pervaded historical archaeology in the region, concerned with questions about who could most meaningfully, or rightfully, reconstruct the Caribbean and Floridian colonial past. “Ownership” of the past becomes an increasingly central issue in the use of history in nationalist ideology and political maneuvering, and particularly in attempts to establish a postcolonial identity in much of the Caribbean (see Patterson 1991; Sued Badillo 1996; Vargas Arenas 1996). This problem is underscored—and in part inspired by—the marked inequity in resource distribution between North American and Caribbean practitioners of archaeology, particularly in terms of access to public and private funds for archaeology. The increasingly expensive requirements of what has become standard multidisciplinary archaeology—equipment, analytical techniques, consultants, libraries, collections, travel to meetings, and the like—exacerbate imbalances between many Caribbean and North American researchers.

Developing joint strategies to mitigate, if not eliminate, these imbalances, while at the same time acknowledging and respecting the national interest and local perspectives of Caribbean communities, is probably the greatest challenge facing archaeologists in the region at the beginning of the new millennium.

Kathleen Deagan

References

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Armstrong, Douglas. 1990. The Old Village at Drax Hall Plantation: An Archaeological Study of an Afro-Jamaican Settlement. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Armstrong, Douglas, ed. 1992. Program for the 25th Annual Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology: 500 Years of Change, Contact and the Consequences of Interaction. Society for Historical Archaeology.

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———. 1990. “The Potential for Historical