The text deals with the protection of indigenous peoples' cultural heritage in the context of the United Nations, with an emphasis on traditional knowledge, genetic resources and traditional... Show moreThe text deals with the protection of indigenous peoples' cultural heritage in the context of the United Nations, with an emphasis on traditional knowledge, genetic resources and traditional cultural expressions as one of the challenges of contemporary law. The incorporation of rights already recognised in multilateral treaties on human rights, culture and biodiversity into the intellectual property system has been the demand of Indigenous Peoples in the discussion process underway in the World Intellectual Property Organisation's Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Traditional Knowledge, Genetic Resources and Folklore since 2000. The topic is analysed from the perspective of indigenous peoples, as collective subjects of international rights, authors, inventors and improvers, with the capacity to create and innovate using technologies that are continuously improved in their collective context. The work examines the contemporary challenges of balancing the rights of indigenous peoples and the large commercial interests involved in granting exclusive intellectual property rights. The thesis analyses, from the contexts of different indigenous peoples, the suitability of existing tools in the intellectual property system to prevent the erroneous granting of intellectual property rights and to prevent the misappropriation of the elements that integrate the cultural heritage of indigenous peoples. Show less
This study explores the process of identity creation in the Caribbean archipelagic space by examining the last five centuries of Grenada’s layered history through detailing and analyzing the major... Show moreThis study explores the process of identity creation in the Caribbean archipelagic space by examining the last five centuries of Grenada’s layered history through detailing and analyzing the major human-environment interactions that have transformed its landscape, particularly following the invasion of Europeans since the 17th century and the establishment of plantation agriculture and slavery (utilizing enslaved Africans and their descendants), village settlements and subsistence agriculture, and much later tourism. It will analyze its landscape transformations by examining land use and settlement patterns of its human occupants from the Indigenous Kali’nago to its current inhabitants via the concept of creolization. Centuries of interactions between and among these various groups of people and the Grenadian environment have created a landscape best described as a palimpsest where layer upon layer of interactions intertwine, overwrite and blend with each other through time. Yet leaving glimpses or blurred pictures of impacts in various and discernable ways, thus creating a long-term biography of this islandscape. By examining the Grenadian palimpsest and analyzing the concept of landscape identity through historical representations and memory-traces embedded in the Creole cultural landscape this study explores the relationship between people and the landscape over time. Show less
Plants and peoples’ connections intertwine in multiple histories, often captured in textual accounts and illustrations, such as the Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (1648) and the Libri Picturati (c.... Show morePlants and peoples’ connections intertwine in multiple histories, often captured in textual accounts and illustrations, such as the Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (1648) and the Libri Picturati (c. 1640). These materials originated in the colonial context of Dutch Brazil and circulated among naturalists, physicians, merchants, and wealthy collectors for centuries. Today, we looked at these collections to identify the documented flora. With an ethnobotanical approach, we analyzed whether these plants are still used the same way in Brazil, their origins, and how they were collected. This study pays attention to the Indigenous and enslaved peoples living in the colony, whose rich corpus of botanical knowledge was appropriated within Western epistemologies and used in the colonial enterprise in Brazil, and beyond. Show less
This thesis deals with establishing chronological data and palaeoenvironmental information for Neanderthal open-air sites on the European Plain with disputed ages. By employing geomorphological and... Show moreThis thesis deals with establishing chronological data and palaeoenvironmental information for Neanderthal open-air sites on the European Plain with disputed ages. By employing geomorphological and sedimentological methods as well as luminescence dating and pollen analysis on the two sites of Lichtenberg (GER) and Khotylevo I (RU), their occupations are assigned to the latest Early Weichselian. Show less
Before the introduction of Roman temples in the Low Countries, there used to be ‘open air cult places’ in the Iron Age. That is at least the assumption based on descriptions given by classical... Show moreBefore the introduction of Roman temples in the Low Countries, there used to be ‘open air cult places’ in the Iron Age. That is at least the assumption based on descriptions given by classical writers and several archetypical sanctuaries that were excavated in France. However, the rectangular structures regularly encountered in Belgium and the Netherlands that are so often interpreted by archaeologists as cult places are not comparable to the French examples. The evidence these structures deliver does not testify to long usage, modifications, disarticulated human remains, animal bones or Iron Age weaponry that is to be expected of such a place. Rather, short term utilisation, pottery depositions and a vaguely defined relation to cremation graves typify the rectangular structures. These finds and features could fit in the ancestral worship belief system, although what does that actually entail? How did Iron Age people actually conceptualise or practice interaction with ancestral spirits? In this thesis the use of rectangular structures during the Iron Age is explored and the meaning of related depositions interpreted. The structures fulfilled a special sociocultural position in Iron Age society, emphasised by the deliberately chosen liminal location in an increasingly structured landscape. Show less
The dynamics of the transition between late Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans (AMHs) are the subject of intense debate: the location and duration of the coexistence of these two hominins,... Show moreThe dynamics of the transition between late Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans (AMHs) are the subject of intense debate: the location and duration of the coexistence of these two hominins, as well as their relation and cultural exchanges that could have occurred during this transitional period also known as the Middle Palaeolithic to Upper Palaeolithic Transition.Timing these hominins is crucial in archaeology and paleoanthropology. The precise chronological position of the different cultural facies, as well as the human remains associated with them, are therefore key elements that delineate the chronological framework within which Neanderthals and AMHs could have interacted. While there is increasing evidence of admixture and co-existence of the two hominin species in central and eastern Europe, Belgium might show a different scenario: radiocarbon analyses, using the compound specific radiocarbon dating approach (CSRA) made on bone implements related to the Late Mousterian and the Early Aurignacian as well as late Neanderthal remains, highlight a hiatus in the occupation of the territory. Our new data tend to confirm that Neanderthals and AMHs did not coexist in this region. It seems that in northwest Europe, Neanderthals evolved and went extinct without any influence from modern humans. Show less
The Caribbean is a dynamic region with intense cultural interactions, from the pre-colonial period to the contemporary period. During the pre-colonial period, the social, cultural and political... Show moreThe Caribbean is a dynamic region with intense cultural interactions, from the pre-colonial period to the contemporary period. During the pre-colonial period, the social, cultural and political networks in which the island communities were involved were modified. The archaeology also demonstrates that the material culture of the populations was affected; it has allowed us to identify a diversity of ceramic styles influenced by multiple and plural contributions, witnessing the exchange of ideas and/or objects and/or know-how between the various communities. Colonization will disrupt the dynamics in place, introducing forced contacts of different social and ethnic groups at the origin of the emergence of a patchwork of new communities.My research proposes a multivocal anthropological reading of the material production of multicultural Caribbean societies from the pre-colonial period to the present. This study is approached through the prism of the concept of creolization.The methodology used is a holistic approach that combines technological, morphological, petrographic, stylistic and ethnographic studies.This research takes a new look at the material culture of the Amerindians of the Caribbean which induces cultural and social transformations during the pre-colonial period. Show less
Palaeolithic faunal assemblages provide a wealth of information, notably on paleoenvironment, site formation and past human subsistence strategies. However, obtaining a secure interpretation... Show morePalaeolithic faunal assemblages provide a wealth of information, notably on paleoenvironment, site formation and past human subsistence strategies. However, obtaining a secure interpretation requires the comprehensive taxonomic identification of faunal remains, traditionally done through visual morphological comparison. Due to high fragmentation, bone morphology is often insufficient to taxonomically identify a large proportion of faunal assemblages. Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) gives the opportunity to identify biological markers preserved in previously undiagnostic fragmentary or worked remains. This dissertation combines the analyses of bone surface modifications with biomolecular analyses in order to investigate the relationship between faunal composition and bone fragmentation, and to assess hominin subsistence behaviour through large-scale applications of untargeted ZooMS screenings. This study explores the synthesis and analysis of comparable data, for both the morphologically identifiable and unidentifiable portion of the same faunal assemblages, by investigating bone assemblages from European sites spanning the arrival of Homo sapiens within territories occupied by the last Neanderthals such as Fumane Cave (Italy), Bacho Kiro Cave (Bulgaria), La Ferrassie and Les Cottés (France). In addition, the recent development of non-destructive proteomic extraction techniques, notably on fragmented Palaeolithic worked bones, required a controlled sampling experiment to determine how sampling techniques such as the eraser extraction method affect ancient bone surfaces at a microscopic level. Through the combination of methods and the integration of complementary datasets, this dissertation demonstrates the potential of the inclusion of ancient protein analysis within the framework of zooarchaeological analysis at Palaeolithic sites. Show less
