Archaeology and Anthropology of Guyana
Archaeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, and cultural landscapes. Archaeologists have been making groundbreaking discoveries in Guyana for many years, including unearthing the remains of a whale, a giant porpoise and a rock fish, all of which could be about 10,000 years old. Another significant discovery is that of pottery, perhaps as old as 5,000 years, at Kabakaburi in the Pomeroon. These finds would indicate that something very unique was going on in Guyana 1000 to 5000 years ago.
To learn more about Guyanese archaeology, read Materializing the Past - Archaeology, History and Ethnography among the Lokono (Arawak) of the Berbice River, Guyana.
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Anthropology is the study of humans and their societies in the past and present. Its main subdivisions are social anthropology and cultural anthropology, which describes the workings of societies around the world, linguistic anthropology, which investigates the influence of language in social life, and biological or physical anthropology, which concerns long-term development of the human organism.
The Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology is a museum of anthropology in Georgetown, Guyana and is the oldest such museum in the English-speaking Caribbean region. It was established in 1974, but not opened to the public until 1982. The museum is a non-profit institution created by the Government of Guyana to collect, exhibit and conserve artifacts relating to the ancient cultures of Guyana, to conduct anthropological research and disseminate knowledge of the Indigenous Peoples of Guyana through its in-house and out-reach programmes.
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The diversity of the Guyanese heritage is represented in the museums across the country. Artefacts from the early years across cultural line and boundaries from the Dutch bottles, to the coal pot stove to the kerosene lanterns, are found in the museums.
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