An archaeology of social space

by James A. Delle

In An Archaeology of Social Space, James A. Delle examines the cognitive and material records of spatial design and use - including maps, architectural drawings, landscapes, and historical treatises - of three coffee plantations in the Yallahs drainage of eastern Jamaica. Using the data collected from these sources, he considers such issues as: The rise and fall of the Jamaican coffee industry, and how this fluctuation was influenced by events in the larger world economy; how economic changes resulted in the creation of new social and material spaces in highland Jamaica; and the ways in which these spaces served as an arena for the negotiation of power in a plantation context, both before and after the abolition of slavery. Professionals, researchers, and students in archaeology, anthropology, history, sociology, and economics, will find this a unique and extremely valuable work.