Contact and Colonial Impact in Jamaica: Comparative Material Culture and Diet at Sevilla la Nueva and the Taino Village of Maima

Summary

In June 1503, Columbus and his two battered ships were run aground in the sheltered harbor of St. Anns Bay Jamaica, 1.4 kilometers from the Taino village of Maima. After spending a year marooned there, the Spanish left with the knowledge of the people and resources of the area. Six years later, in 1509, the Spanish returned to found the Jamaican colonial capital of Sevilla la Nueva. By the time Sevilla la Nueva was abandoned in 1534, Maima was deserted. Historical records kept by the colonists indicate that the villagers were brought to the colony and made into laborers and wives. The material culture and dietary practices at Sevilla la Nueva reflect this through the presence of colonoware and Taino adapted European goods. At Maima, very few adapted European goods and remains of domesticate animals were found. This, and the presence of traditional material culture and diet throughout the site, indicates continuity of a traditional way of life until their final act of resistance, abandoning Maima. This paper will discuss the adapted European/Taino material culture and faunal remains found at both Sevilla la Nueva and Maima, illuminating, in some way, the ultimately devastating impact of contact and colonialism.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Material Encounters and Indigenous Transformations in the Early Colonial Americas   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15527