Pottery and Identity: Elites in Puerto Rico
Author(s): Charles Cheek
Year: 2013
Summary
Late nineteenth century Puerto Rico was a Spanish colony whose economy depended on export crops like sugar and coffee. The elite were often Spaniards and ties to Spain were close because this helped the elite to maintain their control over the labor force. They imitated Spanish elite cultural behavior such as the promotion of thermal baths for improving health. This paper explores the social and economic context for an elite domestic assemblage from a large landowner household that established the Quintana Thermal baths near Ponce, Puerto Rico. The origin of the items in the assemblage differs from those in former Spanish colonies and reflects identification with Europe rather than the United States or England.
Cite this Record
Pottery and Identity: Elites in Puerto Rico. Charles Cheek. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Leicester, England, U.K. 2013 ( tDAR id: 428245)
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Keywords
General
Caribbean
•
Elites
•
Material Culture
Geographic Keywords
North America
•
United States of America
Temporal Keywords
19th Century
Spatial Coverage
min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;
Individual & Institutional Roles
Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology
Record Identifiers
PaperId(s): 730