Intro -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- 1| Introduction -- Part I: Revaluing valuables -- 2| Maussian Exchange -- 2.1 A short history of exchange studies A.M (Ante Mauss) -- 2.2 Give, receive and reciprocate… That's the obligation -- 2.3 The kula: Giving, receiving and reciprocating in theTrobriands -- 2.4 All about women… -- 3| Hobbesian Models of Exchange -- 3.1 Warre! A final explanation of exchange? -- 3.2 Dispelling the Warre -- 3.3 Addendum: Individual or Communal, genes versussociety? -- 4| Exchange, CST and Alienability -- 4.1 Signalling dedication -- 4.2 CST in the Trobriands -- 4.3 The paradox of permanence and loss -- 4.4 Between two extremes -- 4.5 Inalienability in the kula -- 4.6 Exchangeable valuables, inalienable "sacra" and theirrelation with alienable commodities -- 4.7 The endgame: Kula as a quadruple axiom in theTrobriand social universe -- 4.8 Addendum: Fossilized costly signals and how to excavatethem -- Part II: The Face of Exchange -- 5| The Caribbean Social Universe -- 5.1 Synopsis -- 5.2 Peoples of the Late Ceramic Age -- 5.2.1 Archaeological nomenclature -- 5.2.2 Lucayo -- 5.2.3 Guanahatabey and Macorix -- 5.2.4 Island-Carib -- 5.2.5 Igneri -- 5.2.6 Taíno -- 5.3 A bird's eye view of social valuables in the Late CeramicAge Caribbean -- 5.3.1 Duhos -- 5.3.2 Shamanic paraphernalia -- 5.3.3 Tools -- 5.3.4 Gold artefacts -- 5.3.5 Value and manufacture costs -- 5.3.6 Three-pointed stones -- 5.3.7 Zemiism -- 5.3.8 The role of social valuables -- 5.3.9 Other social valuables -- 5.4 A view from the Caribbean proto-historic social universe -- 5.4.1 Processes at work in the proto-historic social universe -- 5.4.2 The Colon Shipping List -- 5.4.3 Historical descriptions of exchange situations -- 5.4.4 Specific social valuables in proto-historic exchanges -- 5.4.5 Exchange systems and stratagems.

5.4.6 Concluding remarks on proto-historic exchange in the Caribbean -- 5.6 Addendum: Waiwai, Argonauts of the Northern Amazon -- 6| The Distribution of Shell Faces and itsInterpretation -- 6.1 Why shell faces? -- 6.2 Shell faces as guaíza -- 6.3 Materiality, appearance and utilization of the guaíza -- 6.3.1 Materiality and the "face of the living" -- 6.3.2 Appearance of the guaíza -- 6.3.3 Place of the guaíza on the body -- 6.4 Iconography of the guaíza -- 6.4.1 Eyes -- 6.4.2 Mouth -- 6.4.3 Nose -- 6.4.4 Ears -- 6.4.5 Headdress -- 6.4.6 The "tear"-motif -- 6.4.7 Zoomorphic elements -- 6.5 Geographical patterns in the iconography of the guaíza -- 6.5.1 Quantitative distribution and place of origin -- 6.5.2 Guaíza iconography on Cuba -- 6.5.3 Guaíza iconography on Hispaniola -- 6.5.4 Guaíza iconography on Puerto Rico -- 6.5.5 Guaíza iconography on Jamaica -- 6.5.6 Guaíza iconography on the northern and southern Lesser Antilles -- 6.5.7 Tendencies in the distribution of guaíza iconography -- 6.5.8 Guaíza iconography as aide-memoire -- 6.6 Addendum: Guaíza iconography outside the Antilleaninteraction sphere? -- 6.7 Archaeological contexts of the guaíza -- 6.7.1 Potrero de El Mango, Holguín province, Cuba -- 6.7.2 Anguilla: Sandy Hill and Rendezvous-bay -- 6.7.3 Indian Creek, Antigua -- 6.7.4 Désirade: Morne Cybèle 1 and Morne Souffleur -- 6.7.5 Lavoutte, St. Lucia -- 6.7.6 Tendencies in guaíza site contexts -- 6.8 The guaíza in its socio-cultural context -- 6.8.1 Semiotic function of the guaíza face elements -- 6.8.2 Guaíza symbolism -- 6.9 Addendum: the exchange of guaízas as a political tool -- 6.10 The guaíza as ideal social valuable -- 6.10.1 Inalienable? -- 6.10.2 Alienable? -- 6.10.3 Guaízas as tools of control -- 6.10.4 Guaízas as commoditized idea and inalienable "sacra" -- 6.10.5 Synthesis -- 7| Conclusions.

7.1 Questions answered and questions unanswered -- 7.2 Revaluated Valuables -- 7.2.1 Lévi-Strauss' gift to exchange studies -- 7.2.2 Hobbesian views of exchange -- 7.2.3 Costly gifts -- 7.2.4 Inalienability/Alienability -- 7.2.5 Establishing cost -- 7.2.6 The relation between "sacra", commodities and social valuables -- 7.3 Kula as conceptual analogy -- 7.3.1 Not an ideal exchange system -- 7.3.2 Kula as cautionary tale for archaeologists -- 7.3.3 Kula, CST and Melanesian anthropology -- 7.4 Caribbean Late Ceramic Age social valuables -- 7.4.1 An initial characterization of social valuables in the Caribbean Late Ceramic Age -- 7.4.2 Caribbean archaeology and the advantages of CST -- 7.4.3 Guaízas as ideal social valuables -- 7.5 Opportunities for future research -- 7.6 Final remarks -- Acknowledgements -- Bibliography -- Appendices -- Appendix A: The Colón Shipping List -- Appendix B: Excerpts from shipping lists running from 1505to 1508 -- Appendix C: Catalogue.

An Archaeology of Exchange is primarily an archaeology of human sociality and anti-sociality. Nevertheless, archaeological studies of exchange are numerous and varied, and archaeologists do not always approach exchange as a social mechanism, concentrating rather on the cultural, economic or political implications of exchange. Even so, at times it is worth retracing the implicit theoretical steps that archaeologists have taken and look at human sociality through the eyes of exchange as something new. This is undertaken here by concentrating on the exchange of social valuables in the later part of the Late Ceramic Age of the Greater and Lesser Antilles (AD 1000/1100-1492). Questions concerning this exchange are framed in a novel mix of theories such as Costly Signalling Theory coupled with the paradox of keeping-while-giving and the notion of gene/culture co-evolution joined with Complex Adaptive System theory. All these theories can be related back to the concept of exchange as put forward by the French sociologist Marcel Mauss in his famous "Essai sur le don" of 1950. This theoretical framework is put to the test by an extensive case-study of a specific category of Late Ceramic Age social valuables, shell faces, which have an area of distribution that ranges from central Cuba to the Ile de Ronde in the Grenadines. The study of these enigmatic artefacts provides new insights into the nature and use of social valuables by communities and individuals in the Late Ceramic Age.

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