Colonial Encounters in the Southern Lesser Antilles

Summary

During the colonisation processes, vast webs of social relationships emerged between Amerindians, Europeans, and Africans in the Lesser Antilles. The intercultural dynamics that materialized during this period were likely contingent on local and regional networks of peoples, goods and ideas which had developed in the Caribbean over the previous 5,000 years. This paper focusses on the impacts of colonial encounters on indigenous Carib societies by studying transformations in settlement pattern and organisation, material culture. and network strategies. Recent excavations at the early colonial sites of Argyle, St. Vincent and La Poterie, Grenada have revealed the remains of indigenous villages and a set of material culture evidencing the first Amerindian, European and African interactions in the southern Lesser Antilles. In this paper we will advance novel perspectives on intercultural dynamics in colonial encounter situations and contribute to discussions of indigenous resistance, cultural transformations, and cultural diversity in an ever globalizing world.

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): 15815