Prospecting the inselbergs in the contested area between Suriname and French Guyana, near the border with Brazil. October 30, 2004

Currently, I am a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Florida, Gainesville, conducting ethno-archeological research among the Wayana in Suriname, French Guyana and Brazil. My Committee chair is Michael Heckenberger [Science Article] . Initially, my goal was to understand formation and post-depositional processes that bias the archaeological record. Subsequently the Wayana asked me: “Why don't you want to study OUR past?” and they began telling me narratives of times long ago; oral histories and mythologies. The Wayana even went upstream with me to trace back their origins and read the tracks of their ancestors. Digging into the past, based on (oral) histories results in creating alternative historicities. see also   Association Alabama provided the means to initiate archaeological prospections is the most remote areas of the contested area between Suriname and French Guyana on the border of Brazil. Wayana oral tradition, history, archaeology and adventure are all supporting this research. In a 2005 publication a combination of Wayana oral tradition, scientific research and great pictures ware presented to illustrate our 2004 expedition on the traces of Kailawa (DVD). back to top

Wayana community house Tukusipan, Talhuwen, 2004.

3D illustration (by Renzo S. DUIN) of the interior of a Tukusipan. A material metaphor interweaving mythology and oral history.

Photo interior Tukusipan, Pilima, 1999.

Tamok Another example where historical accounts (Crevaux 1881), Wayana oral tradition and ethno-archaeology come together.

Archaeological excavation at Anse à la Gourde, Guadeloupe, FWI. May 1995

In 1995 I attended the Field School at Anse à la Gourde, Guadeloupe, (French West Indies) under supervision of Corinne Hofman and Menno Hoogland of the Rijks Universiteit Leiden and André Delpuech of the DRAC Guadeloupe. Part of this site, excavated during the Summers of the following years, became the topic of my 1998 M.A. Thesis on Architectural concepts in Caribbean Archaeology. From 1996 till 2001, I was a staff member at the Field School at Anse à la Gourde.

Example of one of the reconstructed houses at Anse à la Gourde and a contemporary Wayana house.

My research has focused on built environment, architecture, settlement planning and landscape. For my dissertation research I analyze the architecture, settlement planning and landscape of the Wayana, in relation to settlement organization. We have to go beyond the static structure and engage into the dynamic and constantly emerging organization. This study is in continuation of the questions derived from my M.A. research. Being aware of the pitfalls --e.g., Direct Historical Approach and use of analogy in archaelogy-- I apply ethno-archaeological methodology. While living among the Wayana, I asked them about the past, and they told me their oral tradition. In return, they asked me to help them built their houses, clearing the gardenplots, 'pulling the canoes out of the forest' whereby each event provided me with more data to continue my research. Also I went with them hunting and fishing. I made additional case studies on Wayana pottery and astronomy (see publications). These deep-time ethnographical and archaeological case studies provided me with insights from different perspectives into Wayana social existence. Currently, I try to make sense of these interwoven relations between individual and society from a Guiana point of view. The focus on materiality and landscape will allow for a bridging between ethnographic and archaeological techniques vis-à-vis general anthropological theory of continuous transformations in emerging mid-range societies, regional and moderately hierarchical, between autonomous villages and bureaucratic states, with tremendous variability through time and space, and often glossed as “chiefdoms”. back to top

Further into the past, 2003.

As an academic researcher, I have worked since 1996 among Indigenous peoples named Wayana -- also referred to as Roucouyennes in historical documents. In the 17th and 18th centuries, up to present, several Cariban speaking groups were reunited under the name Wayana. Today a little over one thousand Wayana live in Suriname, French Guiana and Brazil. The Wayana society continues to cherish much of their traditional social organization, political structures, and cultural expressions, including their own language. While, at the same time, they are incorporating the treats of the 21st century, as there are outboard motors, CD and DVD players, and satellite dishes. In the summer of 2005 I had a consulting task for the RijksMuseum voor Volkenkunde (RMV) Leiden, the Netherlands, consisting of a review and providing data for the exhibition: “de Goeje in Suriname”. In the summer's of 2006 and 2007 I had a consulting task for the Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH), Gainesville, FL. consisting of identifying and cataloguing objects from the Amazonian Collection. back to top

Towards Toukouchipann from Mitaraka sud	Taluwakem
From T1 towards the north east
	And then came the rains

Motto: “A cartographer employing the most elaborate technoscientific approaches to precisely quantify spatial relationships (e.g., analyzing satellite images) is not less engaged with the locations she manipulates than the native elder who presences a mythic time in telling a story about some of the same locations.”

Acknowledgements: Living and conducting research in the Tropical Lowlands of northern South America would not be possible without the hospitality, friendship, and life lessons of so many Wayana individuals and communities.
I would like to thank the many friends in Suriname and French Guyana for their continued advice and support.
I gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Reiman de Bas p/a Prins Bernhard Fonds for various aspects of my work.
All illustrations and photo's are made by Renzo Duin, unless I'm on the pics myself or mentioned otherwise.

Contact information: Contact me by e-mail if you have questions about or comments on my research projects.

 

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Copyright © Renzo S DUIN| Last modified: April 23, 2008 | Hosted by: UF