The islands of the precolonial Lesser Antilles are characterized by a dis tinctly maritime orientation of its first settlers who adapted to a great variety of natural environments and social ...circumstances. The discon tinuous resource distributions across the archipelago and the urge for social engagement and bonding stimulated craft specialization on the part of the Amerindian communities, human mobility, and the forma tion of regionwide social networks (Hofman and Bright 2010; Hofman et al. 2007; Hofman and Hoogland 2011). The Caribbean Sea is a semienclosed basin of the western Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Cen tral and South American coastal
In the past few decades, researchers have increasingly come to understand that the archaeological record of the Caribbean region shows a high degree of sociocultural variation across the archipelago ...and through time. Funerary treatment in the precolonial and early colonial Caribbean archipelago in particular was variable, hampering assessment of potentially non-normative funerary practices. Alongside multidisciplinary contextual assessment of funerary practice, we use social network analysis to study relations within the dataset to explore other indicators of non-normative practices. This approach demonstrates that altering the scale of analysis (i.e., local vs. regional) can drastically change our concept of what can be considered non-normative. Network analysis revealed relationships within the diverse funerary patterns, including co-occurrence of uncommon modes of burial at sites, suggesting that even rare modes of burial comprised widely recognized practices.
In the absence of written records, assessing whether a particular burial may qualify as non-normative or not often relies on the relative scarcity of the observed burial mode in the archaeological ...record of the region and time period. Quantifying what may constitute deviant practices is complex and is sometimes considered an undesirable approach, due to the context specific (qualitative) nature of non-normative behavior (Gardeła and Kajkowski 2013). Moreover, researchers have stressed the fact that non-normative burial practices are not necessarily “deviant” but may simply comprise a less commonly used form of burial that is part of the repertoire of normal
Archaeological research on the Lesser Antillean island of Saba has evidenced incorporation in the Taino cacical society of the Greater Antilles. Several hypotheses are presented to explain the ...process of Taino expansion towards the Lesser Antilles. Ethnohistorical information is used to contextualize the archaeological data. Des recherches archéologiques sur l'île de Saba (Petites Antilles) ont montré l'inclusion des populations de ce lieu dans le système socio-politique des chefferies, caractéristique des Grandes Antilles. Plusieurs hypothèses sont évoquées pour expliquer le processus de l'expansion des Taïnos dans les Petites Antilles. Les sources ethnohistoriques sont mises à contribution pour interpréter les données archéologiques. Investigaciones arqueológicas recientes en la isla de Saba (Pequeñas Antillas) han revelado la incorporación de este lugar en el sistema socio-político de los cacicazgos de las Grandes Antillas. Se revisan varias hipótesis con el fin de comprender el proceso de la expansión Taino en las Pequeñas Antillas. Para interpretar los datos arqueológicos los autores del presente artículo acuden a la documentación etnohistórica disponible.
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Archaeothanatology has recently been introduced to the Caribbean for the study of both the precolonial and colonial burial assemblages. By drawing on a multidisciplinary approach and laying emphasis ...on the taphonomic processes, this article sheds light on the complexity and diversity of mortuary behavior in the Ceramic Age Lesser Antilles. Although mortuary treatment is often regarded as a representation of the social personae of an individual at death, the examples in this article show that rules are fluid and mortuary treatment is open to manipulation. In addition to a number of general commonalities encountered in the various burial assemblages through time, there is a clear emphasis on the individual treatment of the dead, resulting in unique cases of mortuary behavior.
Use of prediction models is widely recommended by clinical guidelines, but usually requires complete information on all predictors that is not always available in daily practice. We describe two ...methods for real-time handling of missing predictor values when using prediction models in practice. We compare the widely used method of mean imputation (M-imp) to a method that personalizes the imputations by taking advantage of the observed patient characteristics. These characteristics may include both prediction model variables and other characteristics (auxiliary variables). The method was implemented using imputation from a joint multivariate normal model of the patient characteristics (joint modeling imputation; JMI). Data from two different cardiovascular cohorts with cardiovascular predictors and outcome were used to evaluate the real-time imputation methods. We quantified the prediction model's overall performance (mean squared error (MSE) of linear predictor), discrimination (c-index), calibration (intercept and slope) and net benefit (decision curve analysis). When compared with mean imputation, JMI substantially improved the MSE (0.10 vs. 0.13), c-index (0.70 vs 0.68) and calibration (calibration-in-the-large: 0.04 vs. 0.06; calibration slope: 1.01 vs. 0.92), especially when incorporating auxiliary variables. When the imputation method was based on an external cohort, calibration deteriorated, but discrimination remained similar. We recommend JMI with auxiliary variables for real-time imputation of missing values, and to update imputation models when implementing them in new settings or (sub)populations.
Delpuech André, Hofman Corinne L., Hoogland Menno L.P. Fouilles sur le site précolombien de l'Anse à la Gourde (Saint-François, Guadeloupe). In: Journal de la Société des Américanistes. Tome 83, ...1997. pp. 279-282.
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