Abstract
This programme combines archaeological, archaeometric and ethnohistorical research to study the organisation of settlement space and residence rules among the Taíno Indians during the Late Ceramic Age (AD 1000-1492). Archaeological investigations are planned at Anamuya (Los Corosos and Pepe loci) in the Higüey region, Altagracia province of the eastern Dominican Republic, because they provide an excellent opportunity to study the spatial organisation of a Taíno settlement in the Greater Antilles. The resulting scheme of settlement organisation is subsequently contrasted with the available data from contemporary sites on other Caribbean islands. Stable isotope and DNA analyses, palaeopathology and the study of mortuary ritual are applied to human skeletal remains to target issues such as mobility, marital and residence rules, as well as descent among the prehistoric villagers. The archaeological data will be employed to evaluate existing interpretative models of Taíno village settlements and households organisation within the chiefdom polities, or so-called cacicazgos, in Hispaniola (present day Dominican Republic and Haiti), that are currently based largely on ethnohistoric texts and archival documents written by the Spanish during the early colonial period.