Exercising Freedoms: Historical Archaeology of the African Diaspora in Latin America

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Exercising Freedoms: Historical Archaeology of the African Diaspora in Latin America" at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Historical archaeology in Latin America is in the midst of a reassessment of African descendant presences, modes of life, and experiences. In this session contributors offer case studies of African diaspora populations living under diverse degrees of control or dependency, ranging from enslavement under direct Royal control to majority African descendant populations engaged in self organization. Incorporating experiences sometimes described as "maroonage" and in other sources as societies of “Free Blacks", and exploring the degrees of autonomy available to enslaved people under Spanish law and variable colonial conditions, papers in this session illustrate the diversity of experiences within African Diaspora populations in Latin America. Participants encourage archaeologists to reconsider the intertwined histories of African descendant and other subaltern groups, such as indigenous peoples. The session emphasizes the continuing connections between these histories and descendant populations today, who are often excluded from heritage discussions under national policies, and considers ways to connect archaeological research with contemporary people.

Other Keywords
Historical Archaeology • Power Relations and Inequality • Central America and Northern South America

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-5 of 5)

  • Documents (5)
Documents
  • African Diaspora Histories in Central America: The Case of Omoa, Honduras (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Rus Sheptak.

    This is an abstract from the "Exercising Freedoms: Historical Archaeology of the African Diaspora in Latin America" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the mid-eighteenth century, Spanish colonial authorities in Central America initiated the construction of a fortress on the Honduran Caribbean Coast, at a place bearing the indigenous name of Omoa. The construction of the fort drew on the labor of a massive population of enslaved people from Africa,...

  • Conjuring a moment in 1769 colonial Mexico (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Adela Amaral.

    This is an abstract from the "Exercising Freedoms: Historical Archaeology of the African Diaspora in Latin America" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1769, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de los Negros de Amapa was a newly built ‘free’ Black town, fenced in by multiple forms of unfreedom. However the traces of that attempt to build the conditions for Black colonial life that remain in Amapa today, more often than not, emerge as empty signs, memories...

  • <html>"100% afrodescendiente": (Counter) mapping <i>Heritage in la Ciudad Panamá</i></html> (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Pascale Boucicaut.

    This is an abstract from the "Exercising Freedoms: Historical Archaeology of the African Diaspora in Latin America" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the summer 2018 I conducted ethnographic research with activists and community members in Panama’s movimiento afrodescendiente. That year, preparations were being made for the capital city’s quincentennial celebrations, including the fashioning of new landmarks and museums. Responding to...

  • Kindred Beings: entwining biodata of African Diaspora populations in Latin America (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Julie Wesp.

    This is an abstract from the "Exercising Freedoms: Historical Archaeology of the African Diaspora in Latin America" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper explores how historical archaeology can integrate biological data to reconsider established narratives of the pathways of forced migration from specific regions in West and West Central Africa. Previous discussions tend to characterize migration of African diaspora populations solely within...

  • Multiple Perspectives on African Diaspora Histories: Archaeology of Black Communities in Latin America (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Rosemary Joyce.

    This is an abstract from the "Exercising Freedoms: Historical Archaeology of the African Diaspora in Latin America" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. For much of its history, the archaeology of Latin America has been framed as concerned primarily with the period before European colonization. Even as archaeological research on the colonial period expanded, a focus on a dichotomy of indigenous peoples and colonizers continued, an expression of the...