<p>This chapter uses a small set of religious artifacts to support a broad comparative argu... more <p>This chapter uses a small set of religious artifacts to support a broad comparative argument about the impact of Catholic evangelization efforts (and colonialism more generally) on indigenous cultures in the southern Andes and Philippines. A set of religious images used as evangelical tools of conversion by diasporas of Spanish Catholic missionaries from both regions are used to document variability in ways that Spanish culture infiltrated indigenous ideologies. Differences in sociopolitical complexity and population densities are the reasons why religious art and architecture show different levels of transculturation in the two regions. Indigenous imagery permeates Andean religious Colonial Period art and architecture, while it is virtually absent from the Philippine examples. This variability is also the basis for reconceptualizing the Spanish empire as an archipelago of islands of colonial influence in a broader geopolitical landscape claimed by an imperial power.</p>
dict their beliefs” (p. 155). Part III includes four more chapters (Chapter 7–10) and represents ... more dict their beliefs” (p. 155). Part III includes four more chapters (Chapter 7–10) and represents the primary argumentative section of the book. The authors’ central argument is twofold, which includes a problem and its solution. First, the problem. They assert that “repatriation ideology” (p. 94)—as promoted by both Native and non-Native “repatriationists” (an oft-used moniker in this book that ironically invokes the “resurrectionists” of the nineteenth century, who illegally excavated recently dug graves to provide bodies for anatomical research) and enshrined in a U.S. federal law (NAGPRA) that gives unfair racial preferences to Native Americans and their religious beliefs (see especially pp. 170– 174, 176)—threatens to control and censor all bioarchaeological and DNA research in the United States and will inevitably end all scientific research on U.S. Indigenous peoples, dead or alive. Then, they propose a remedy to this problem—namely a return to the values espoused by “traditional anthropologists [who] believed they could produce an objective and universally valid body of knowledge” (p. 1) about human cultures and biology. Weiss and Springer state their claims about science plainly: “Science is neutral; it does not take sides and is utterly without prejudice. And that is the beauty of science” (p. 218). Here and everywhere in the book, the authors display a breathtaking ignorance of their own reactionary political project—so much so that they even distort the main text on which they base their definition of scientific objectivity. It should be noted that they take pains, throughout their book, to contrast scientific truth with Native peoples’ “unbelievable” (p. 5) oral traditions. They use Karl Popper and John C. Eccles’s The Self and Its Brain: An Argument for Interactionism (1985 [first published in 1977]), and their three-world concept (World 1 = physical objects, World 2 = human consciousness, and World 3 = “the products of the human mind” [1985:38]) to assert an “ideal of objective knowledge” (p. 213) embodied only in science and scientific research. They conveniently leave out, however, that Popper and Eccles clearly meant World 3 to include all products of all human minds, including mythology, art, philosophy, science, and religious belief (Popper and Eccles 1985:16, 38, 48, 359). The usual Western philosophical chauvinism aside, Popper and Eccles imply that Indigenous peoples’ concept of the world is on par with that of the West, noting that Maori legends line up well with “tests giving the dating of their time of arrival and where from” (1985:457). Moreover, Popper and Eccles also wrangle with the difference between Hopi and Western concepts of time, not relegating the Hopi view to a lesser stage within their World 3 (1985:466–467). It is also not clear for whom Repatriation and Erasing the Past is written. The language is generally too technical for beginning students and lay readers; the tone is alarmist, patronizing, and pedantic; and the main content, especially in the bioarchaeology chapters, is outdated and comically selective. Furthermore, evidently only a scientistic bioarchaeologist and a lawyer could so thoroughly erase history, including the history of colonial oppression in the United States, the history of the often violent and disproportionate collection of Native relatives and ancestors, and the entire history of the twentieth-century development of informed consent laws and regulations in scientific and medical research. In short, the very publication of this book is an insult to Native peoples, as well as to the disciplines of archaeology and bioarchaeology. Furthermore, it should not be read by anyone who cares one whit about the complex relationship between science and society or the ethical practice of science—but it will be or may be read by thosewho do not and then used to justify their positions. In that sense, this book is dangerous.
Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, Jul 24, 2016
We argue for an interdisciplinary pedagogical approach that we call the Integration of Research a... more We argue for an interdisciplinary pedagogical approach that we call the Integration of Research and Education in the Classroom, which highlights and crosses disciplinary boundaries to challenge each field’s assumptions, limitations, conceptual and interpretive purview. We use a set of examples that center on problematizing various aspects of the concept of indigeneity in the Spanish Colonial Period of Latin America. These examples draw explicitly on material from literary and culture studies, archaeology and anthropology, and foster students’ critical thinking about the works of early indigenous authors such as the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega and Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala. We show how an Integration of Research and Education in the Classroom approach provides rich fodder for classroom discussions as well as scholarship.
The introductory chapter argues that the archaeology of colonialism is hindered by scholars’ tend... more The introductory chapter argues that the archaeology of colonialism is hindered by scholars’ tendencies to avoid drawing on research that crosses two specific intra-disciplinary divides. The first is the frontier between historic and prehistoric archaeology. The second frontier is between cases of colonialism or political aggression initiated by European historical powers during the Age of Exploration and non-Western polities. Drawing also on relevant research from history and Classics, it offers a set of working definitions for key terms. This theoretical introduction offers the volume’s readers a new, productive approach to colonialism and imperialism by highlighting recent research in four areas of scholarship: prehistoric Western, historic Western, prehistoric non-Western, and historic non-Western case studies. It argues that theoretical foci such as community-level reorganization, social adaptations to epidemic disease, or ideological creolization are far more fruitful than adhering to a historically arbitrary tendency to avoid crossing disciplnary frontiers.
ABSTRACT This argument examines duality as part of a constellation of cultural traits used by And... more ABSTRACT This argument examines duality as part of a constellation of cultural traits used by Andean archaeologists in a prehistoric conception of lo andino, a regionally specific worldview and way of life that is presumed to have included ayllus, paired moieties, ecological complementarity or verticality, and dualism. Several lines of material evidence from Jachakala, a highland Bolivian site dating to ca. AD 170–1000, are presented. The timing of the appearance of duality at Jachakala suggests that the ideological division of the whole into two complementary halves may be most useful in times of crisis, as a mechanism for coping with socioenvironmental stress. The article compares this prehistoric version of lo andino to another version of cultural essentialism at work in Andean indigenous identity politics today, one that uses a different set of features (coca chewing, indigenous language and dress) to symbolize the regionally shared core of Andean indigenous cultures as a counterpoint to modernity.
The 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2018
The colonial empire built by the Spanish during the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries was th... more The colonial empire built by the Spanish during the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries was the first to reach a global scale. Although more archaeological research has been conducted on Spanish colonial outposts and the impacts of its territorial claims in the Americas than elsewhere, the Spanish empire also included outposts in the Carribean, the Pacific, Southeast Asia and Africa. This vast political undertaking was a crucial model for its European rivals and partners alike, and was arguably foundational in launching and shaping the early modern era of empire building across oceans and vast territories. Spanish colonists and administrators had measurable impacts on the political organization and economic foci of the local areas where they levied colonial demands for natural resources and labor. The indigenous peoples who occupied those areas on so many continents also had measurable, specific or diffuse impacts on the Europeans in their midst as well. Moreover, indigenous individuals and groups were moved around, both within regions such as the western coastal region of North America and across vast distances between regions, both forcibly and voluntarily. As has been well documented by historians of the era, intermarriage between indigenous, European, African, and other groups of people begat a plethora of new racial (e.g., caste) labels. These two phenomena – intermarriage and migration – produced multicultural, pluralistic colonies, within which individuals variably adopted or invented different material manifestations of identity in dual processes of ethnogenesis and cultural persistence.
Purpose – A study of the origins of socioeconomic complexity at the agropastoral site of Jachakal... more Purpose – A study of the origins of socioeconomic complexity at the agropastoral site of Jachakala in the eastern altiplano of Oruro, Bolivia with pre-Tiwanaku and Tiwanaku-contemporary components (ca. AD 150–1100). It uses faunal remains to explore differential access to subsistence resources. Methodology/approach – Synchronic and diachronic analyses of camelid faunal remains from the multicomponent highland Bolivian site of Jachakala are used to explore access to cuts of meat of variable meat utility value among three areas of the village community. The merits of interzonal analyses, rather than inter-household comparisons, are argued as well. Findings – Differential access to cuts of camelid meat among residents of Jachakala indicate early and sustained wealth differences beyond those typical of a subsistence-oriented economy. This is significant in part because of the clear absence of political elites at the site who might have controlled or directed resource distributions. Research limitations/implications – This study suggests the origins of socioeconomic complexity can be divorced from the development of a political elite, providing a comparative case study for archaeologists interested in similar issues elsewhere. Originality/value – This approach to the origins of complexity focuses not on agricultural resources or control over the production or distribution of craft or exotic trade goods, but rather on animal remains. Using faunal remains as a proxy for wealth, not just protein or pastoralism, this case study contributes to discussions about incipient complexity.
The colonial empire built by the Spanish during the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries was th... more The colonial empire built by the Spanish during the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries was the first to reach a global scale. Although more archaeological research has been conducted on Spanish colonial outposts and the impacts of its territorial claims in the Americas than elsewhere, the Spanish empire also included outposts in the Carribean, the Pacific, Southeast Asia and Africa. This vast political undertaking was a crucial model for its European rivals and partners alike, and was arguably foundational in launching and shaping the early modern era of empire building across oceans and vast territories. Spanish colonists and administrators had measurable impacts on the political organization and economic foci of the local areas where they levied colonial demands for natural resources and labor. The indigenous peoples who occupied those areas on so many continents also had measurable, specific or diffuse impacts on the Europeans in their midst as well. Moreover, indigenous indi...
<p>This chapter uses a small set of religious artifacts to support a broad comparative argu... more <p>This chapter uses a small set of religious artifacts to support a broad comparative argument about the impact of Catholic evangelization efforts (and colonialism more generally) on indigenous cultures in the southern Andes and Philippines. A set of religious images used as evangelical tools of conversion by diasporas of Spanish Catholic missionaries from both regions are used to document variability in ways that Spanish culture infiltrated indigenous ideologies. Differences in sociopolitical complexity and population densities are the reasons why religious art and architecture show different levels of transculturation in the two regions. Indigenous imagery permeates Andean religious Colonial Period art and architecture, while it is virtually absent from the Philippine examples. This variability is also the basis for reconceptualizing the Spanish empire as an archipelago of islands of colonial influence in a broader geopolitical landscape claimed by an imperial power.</p>
dict their beliefs” (p. 155). Part III includes four more chapters (Chapter 7–10) and represents ... more dict their beliefs” (p. 155). Part III includes four more chapters (Chapter 7–10) and represents the primary argumentative section of the book. The authors’ central argument is twofold, which includes a problem and its solution. First, the problem. They assert that “repatriation ideology” (p. 94)—as promoted by both Native and non-Native “repatriationists” (an oft-used moniker in this book that ironically invokes the “resurrectionists” of the nineteenth century, who illegally excavated recently dug graves to provide bodies for anatomical research) and enshrined in a U.S. federal law (NAGPRA) that gives unfair racial preferences to Native Americans and their religious beliefs (see especially pp. 170– 174, 176)—threatens to control and censor all bioarchaeological and DNA research in the United States and will inevitably end all scientific research on U.S. Indigenous peoples, dead or alive. Then, they propose a remedy to this problem—namely a return to the values espoused by “traditional anthropologists [who] believed they could produce an objective and universally valid body of knowledge” (p. 1) about human cultures and biology. Weiss and Springer state their claims about science plainly: “Science is neutral; it does not take sides and is utterly without prejudice. And that is the beauty of science” (p. 218). Here and everywhere in the book, the authors display a breathtaking ignorance of their own reactionary political project—so much so that they even distort the main text on which they base their definition of scientific objectivity. It should be noted that they take pains, throughout their book, to contrast scientific truth with Native peoples’ “unbelievable” (p. 5) oral traditions. They use Karl Popper and John C. Eccles’s The Self and Its Brain: An Argument for Interactionism (1985 [first published in 1977]), and their three-world concept (World 1 = physical objects, World 2 = human consciousness, and World 3 = “the products of the human mind” [1985:38]) to assert an “ideal of objective knowledge” (p. 213) embodied only in science and scientific research. They conveniently leave out, however, that Popper and Eccles clearly meant World 3 to include all products of all human minds, including mythology, art, philosophy, science, and religious belief (Popper and Eccles 1985:16, 38, 48, 359). The usual Western philosophical chauvinism aside, Popper and Eccles imply that Indigenous peoples’ concept of the world is on par with that of the West, noting that Maori legends line up well with “tests giving the dating of their time of arrival and where from” (1985:457). Moreover, Popper and Eccles also wrangle with the difference between Hopi and Western concepts of time, not relegating the Hopi view to a lesser stage within their World 3 (1985:466–467). It is also not clear for whom Repatriation and Erasing the Past is written. The language is generally too technical for beginning students and lay readers; the tone is alarmist, patronizing, and pedantic; and the main content, especially in the bioarchaeology chapters, is outdated and comically selective. Furthermore, evidently only a scientistic bioarchaeologist and a lawyer could so thoroughly erase history, including the history of colonial oppression in the United States, the history of the often violent and disproportionate collection of Native relatives and ancestors, and the entire history of the twentieth-century development of informed consent laws and regulations in scientific and medical research. In short, the very publication of this book is an insult to Native peoples, as well as to the disciplines of archaeology and bioarchaeology. Furthermore, it should not be read by anyone who cares one whit about the complex relationship between science and society or the ethical practice of science—but it will be or may be read by thosewho do not and then used to justify their positions. In that sense, this book is dangerous.
Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, Jul 24, 2016
We argue for an interdisciplinary pedagogical approach that we call the Integration of Research a... more We argue for an interdisciplinary pedagogical approach that we call the Integration of Research and Education in the Classroom, which highlights and crosses disciplinary boundaries to challenge each field’s assumptions, limitations, conceptual and interpretive purview. We use a set of examples that center on problematizing various aspects of the concept of indigeneity in the Spanish Colonial Period of Latin America. These examples draw explicitly on material from literary and culture studies, archaeology and anthropology, and foster students’ critical thinking about the works of early indigenous authors such as the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega and Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala. We show how an Integration of Research and Education in the Classroom approach provides rich fodder for classroom discussions as well as scholarship.
The introductory chapter argues that the archaeology of colonialism is hindered by scholars’ tend... more The introductory chapter argues that the archaeology of colonialism is hindered by scholars’ tendencies to avoid drawing on research that crosses two specific intra-disciplinary divides. The first is the frontier between historic and prehistoric archaeology. The second frontier is between cases of colonialism or political aggression initiated by European historical powers during the Age of Exploration and non-Western polities. Drawing also on relevant research from history and Classics, it offers a set of working definitions for key terms. This theoretical introduction offers the volume’s readers a new, productive approach to colonialism and imperialism by highlighting recent research in four areas of scholarship: prehistoric Western, historic Western, prehistoric non-Western, and historic non-Western case studies. It argues that theoretical foci such as community-level reorganization, social adaptations to epidemic disease, or ideological creolization are far more fruitful than adhering to a historically arbitrary tendency to avoid crossing disciplnary frontiers.
ABSTRACT This argument examines duality as part of a constellation of cultural traits used by And... more ABSTRACT This argument examines duality as part of a constellation of cultural traits used by Andean archaeologists in a prehistoric conception of lo andino, a regionally specific worldview and way of life that is presumed to have included ayllus, paired moieties, ecological complementarity or verticality, and dualism. Several lines of material evidence from Jachakala, a highland Bolivian site dating to ca. AD 170–1000, are presented. The timing of the appearance of duality at Jachakala suggests that the ideological division of the whole into two complementary halves may be most useful in times of crisis, as a mechanism for coping with socioenvironmental stress. The article compares this prehistoric version of lo andino to another version of cultural essentialism at work in Andean indigenous identity politics today, one that uses a different set of features (coca chewing, indigenous language and dress) to symbolize the regionally shared core of Andean indigenous cultures as a counterpoint to modernity.
The 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2018
The colonial empire built by the Spanish during the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries was th... more The colonial empire built by the Spanish during the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries was the first to reach a global scale. Although more archaeological research has been conducted on Spanish colonial outposts and the impacts of its territorial claims in the Americas than elsewhere, the Spanish empire also included outposts in the Carribean, the Pacific, Southeast Asia and Africa. This vast political undertaking was a crucial model for its European rivals and partners alike, and was arguably foundational in launching and shaping the early modern era of empire building across oceans and vast territories. Spanish colonists and administrators had measurable impacts on the political organization and economic foci of the local areas where they levied colonial demands for natural resources and labor. The indigenous peoples who occupied those areas on so many continents also had measurable, specific or diffuse impacts on the Europeans in their midst as well. Moreover, indigenous individuals and groups were moved around, both within regions such as the western coastal region of North America and across vast distances between regions, both forcibly and voluntarily. As has been well documented by historians of the era, intermarriage between indigenous, European, African, and other groups of people begat a plethora of new racial (e.g., caste) labels. These two phenomena – intermarriage and migration – produced multicultural, pluralistic colonies, within which individuals variably adopted or invented different material manifestations of identity in dual processes of ethnogenesis and cultural persistence.
Purpose – A study of the origins of socioeconomic complexity at the agropastoral site of Jachakal... more Purpose – A study of the origins of socioeconomic complexity at the agropastoral site of Jachakala in the eastern altiplano of Oruro, Bolivia with pre-Tiwanaku and Tiwanaku-contemporary components (ca. AD 150–1100). It uses faunal remains to explore differential access to subsistence resources. Methodology/approach – Synchronic and diachronic analyses of camelid faunal remains from the multicomponent highland Bolivian site of Jachakala are used to explore access to cuts of meat of variable meat utility value among three areas of the village community. The merits of interzonal analyses, rather than inter-household comparisons, are argued as well. Findings – Differential access to cuts of camelid meat among residents of Jachakala indicate early and sustained wealth differences beyond those typical of a subsistence-oriented economy. This is significant in part because of the clear absence of political elites at the site who might have controlled or directed resource distributions. Research limitations/implications – This study suggests the origins of socioeconomic complexity can be divorced from the development of a political elite, providing a comparative case study for archaeologists interested in similar issues elsewhere. Originality/value – This approach to the origins of complexity focuses not on agricultural resources or control over the production or distribution of craft or exotic trade goods, but rather on animal remains. Using faunal remains as a proxy for wealth, not just protein or pastoralism, this case study contributes to discussions about incipient complexity.
The colonial empire built by the Spanish during the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries was th... more The colonial empire built by the Spanish during the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries was the first to reach a global scale. Although more archaeological research has been conducted on Spanish colonial outposts and the impacts of its territorial claims in the Americas than elsewhere, the Spanish empire also included outposts in the Carribean, the Pacific, Southeast Asia and Africa. This vast political undertaking was a crucial model for its European rivals and partners alike, and was arguably foundational in launching and shaping the early modern era of empire building across oceans and vast territories. Spanish colonists and administrators had measurable impacts on the political organization and economic foci of the local areas where they levied colonial demands for natural resources and labor. The indigenous peoples who occupied those areas on so many continents also had measurable, specific or diffuse impacts on the Europeans in their midst as well. Moreover, indigenous indi...
The Spanish Empire was a complex web of places and peoples. Through an expansive range of essays that look at Africa, the Americas, Asia, the Caribbean, and the Pacific, this volume brings a broad range of regions into conversation. The contributors focus on nuanced, comparative exploration of the processes and practices of creating, maintaining, and transforming cultural place making within pluralistic Spanish colonial communities.
The Global Spanish Empire argues that patterned variability is necessary in reconstructing Indigenous cultural persistence in colonial settings. The volume’s eleven case studies include regions often neglected in the archaeology of Spanish colonialism. The time span under investigation is extensive as well, transcending the entirety of the Spanish Empire, from early impacts in West Africa to Texas during the 1800s. The contributors examine the making of a social place within a social or physical landscape. They discuss the appearance of hybrid material culture, the incorporation of foreign goods into local material traditions, the continuation of local traditions, and archaeological evidence of opportunistic social climbing. In some cases, these changes in material culture are ways to maintain aspects of traditional culture rather than signifiers of new cultural practices.
The Global Spanish Empire tackles broad questions about Indigenous cultural persistence, pluralism, and place making using a global comparative perspective grounded in the shared experience of Spanish colonialism.
front matter (Table of Contents, Contributors, etc.), 2019
Ranging geographically from Tierra del Fuego to California and the Caribbean, and historically fr... more Ranging geographically from Tierra del Fuego to California and the Caribbean, and historically from early European sightings and the utopian projects of would-be colonizers to the present-day cultural politics of migrant communities and international relations, this volume presents a rich variety of case studies and scholarly perspectives on the interplay of diverse cultures in the Americas since the European conquest.
Subjects covered include documentary and archaeological evidence of cultural interaction, the collection of native artifacts and the role of museums in the interpretation of indigenous traditions, the cultural impact of Christian missions and the representation of indigenous cultures in writings addressed to European readers, the development of Latin American artistic traditions and the incorporation of motifs from European classical antiquity into modern popular culture, the contribution of Afro-descendants to the cultural mix of Latin America and the erasure of the Hispanic heritage from cultural perceptions of California since the nineteenth century.
By offering accessible and well-illustrated accounts of a wide range of particular cases, the volume aims to stimulate thinking about historical and methodological issues, which can be exploited in a teaching context as well as in the furtherance of research projects in a comparative and transnational framework.
Featuring case studies of prehistoric and historic sites from Mesoamerica, China, the Philippines... more Featuring case studies of prehistoric and historic sites from Mesoamerica, China, the Philippines, the Pacific, Egypt, and elsewhere, Frontiers of Colonialism makes the surprising claim that colonialism can and should be compared across radically different time periods and locations. This volume challenges archaeologists to rethink the two major dichotomies of European versus non-European and prehistoric versus historic colonialism, which can be limiting, self-imposed boundaries. By bringing together contributors working in different regions and time periods, this volume examines the variability in colonial administrative strategies, local forms of resistance to cultural assimilation, hybridized cultural traditions, and other cross-cultural interactions within a global, comparative framework. Taken together these essays argue that crossing these frontiers of study will give anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians more power to recognize and explain the highly varied local impacts of colonialism.
Book review of Territorios, Razas y Etnias en la Novela Boliviana (1904-1952), by Willy Oscar Mun... more Book review of Territorios, Razas y Etnias en la Novela Boliviana (1904-1952), by Willy Oscar Munoz (2016, Kipus).
Book review of Women Writing Cloth: Migratory Fitions in the American Imaginary, by Mary Jo Bona ... more Book review of Women Writing Cloth: Migratory Fitions in the American Imaginary, by Mary Jo Bona (2016, Lexington Books).
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Papers by Christine Beaule
The Spanish Empire was a complex web of places and peoples. Through an expansive range of essays that look at Africa, the Americas, Asia, the Caribbean, and the Pacific, this volume brings a broad range of regions into conversation. The contributors focus on nuanced, comparative exploration of the processes and practices of creating, maintaining, and transforming cultural place making within pluralistic Spanish colonial communities.
The Global Spanish Empire argues that patterned variability is necessary in reconstructing Indigenous cultural persistence in colonial settings. The volume’s eleven case studies include regions often neglected in the archaeology of Spanish colonialism. The time span under investigation is extensive as well, transcending the entirety of the Spanish Empire, from early impacts in West Africa to Texas during the 1800s. The contributors examine the making of a social place within a social or physical landscape. They discuss the appearance of hybrid material culture, the incorporation of foreign goods into local material traditions, the continuation of local traditions, and archaeological evidence of opportunistic social climbing. In some cases, these changes in material culture are ways to maintain aspects of traditional culture rather than signifiers of new cultural practices.
The Global Spanish Empire tackles broad questions about Indigenous cultural persistence, pluralism, and place making using a global comparative perspective grounded in the shared experience of Spanish colonialism.
Subjects covered include documentary and archaeological evidence of cultural interaction, the collection of native artifacts and the role of museums in the interpretation of indigenous traditions, the cultural impact of Christian missions and the representation of indigenous cultures in writings addressed to European readers, the development of Latin American artistic traditions and the incorporation of motifs from European classical antiquity into modern popular culture, the contribution of Afro-descendants to the cultural mix of Latin America and the erasure of the Hispanic heritage from cultural perceptions of California since the nineteenth century.
By offering accessible and well-illustrated accounts of a wide range of particular cases, the volume aims to stimulate thinking about historical and methodological issues, which can be exploited in a teaching context as well as in the furtherance of research projects in a comparative and transnational framework.
This volume challenges archaeologists to rethink the two major dichotomies of European versus non-European and prehistoric versus historic colonialism, which can be limiting, self-imposed boundaries. By bringing together contributors working in different regions and time periods, this volume examines the variability in colonial administrative strategies, local forms of resistance to cultural assimilation, hybridized cultural traditions, and other cross-cultural interactions within a global, comparative framework. Taken together these essays argue that crossing these frontiers of study will give anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians more power to recognize and explain the highly varied local impacts of colonialism.