Primary Sources and the Design of Research Projects

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Primary Sources and the Design of Research Projects," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This symposium explores ways in which primary sources can used as a baseline for the development of research that focuses on "otherness" in Puerto Rico during the 16th and 20th century. Shifting away from traditional lines of investigation in the historical archaeology of the Spanish Caribbean, various case studies will address the relevance of using archival data as an integral tool to design research questions that can be studied in short-term projects. The examples will concentrate on the successful use of 19th century newspaper advertisements, registries of vessels and passengers, litigation documents, population census data, registries of merchants, maps and photographs with the objective of constructing narratives of the "other".