Journal of Caribbean Archaeology, 14, 2014 Page 50 Journal of Caribbean Archaeology Book Review Copyright 2014 ISBN 1524-4776 THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF CARIBBEAN ARCHAEOLOGY Edited by William F. Keegan, Corinne L. Hofman, and Reniel Rodríguez Ramos (2013) Oxford University Press, New York. ISBN 978-0-19-539230-2. Reviewed by L. Antonio Curet National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution Cultural Resources Center 4220 Silver Hill Road Suitland MD 20746-2863 CuretA@si.edu When I started working in Caribbean archaeology a few decades ago, I thought that I easily understood Puerto Rico’s ancient history by way of Rouse’s unilinear chronology. However, this simplistic view blurred when I tried to apply it to the larger scale of the Greater Antilles and even worse when I raised the scale a notch and included the Lesser Antilles and northeastern South America. I suspect this personal experience is not unique and probably is shared by many Caribbeanists; in fact, I suspect they, like me, thought of their study areas as the microcosms against which to understand the rest of the Caribbean. It took me a while to realize that this way of organizing peoples in space and time was unrealistic. Soon after, I came to realize several realities of the Pre-Columbian Caribbean. First, the vast diversity and multi- dimensional character of its archaeological record making; second, the diversity of paradigms and theoretical positions among the archaeologists who were trying to make sense of the data; and, third, the poor communication that existed between the islands’ archaeologists, mostly because of language and political barriers. This last one also included the difficulties of acquiring publications from other islands. Because of these realities creating a general picture of the ancient history of the Caribbean without idealizing it, on one hand, or oversimplifying it, on the other, proved challenging. The ancient history of the Caribbean went from a largely culture- history focused paradigm based on very simple linear/stepping-stone processes to a bewildering situation of cultural diversity, multiplicity of social and political behaviors, and variability of local adaptations. This proved to be a situation that was difficult to grasp for both old and young scholars. While many of these problems linger today, Caribbean archaeology has made enormous progress in the past few decades to the point that unilinearity and insularity are not as intense as they used to be. In the last few years, we have seen a number of publications that attempt to address some of these problems. The Oxford Handbook of Caribbean Archaeology, in my opinion, stands out significantly in these efforts. Its treatment of a wide range of topics and presentation of multiple perspectives represents an important departure from past