Frontiers, Peripheries, and Borderlands: Agents of Identity Change and Formation in Southern California

Summary

The study of frontiers and borderlands in archaeology has evolved over the years from viewing them as rigid boundaries, to permeable peripheries, to active areas of contact and interaction. They are fascinating moments in time that represent the meetings of different peoples, societies, cultures, and beliefs. They are also regions where profound personal and social changes occurred, oftentimes directly because of their removed nature from a central authority. This paper will consider one particular frontier region - Southern California - as it evolved from a Spanish, to Mexican, to American frontier area. It will incorporate new understandings of identity formation and fluidity in regions of  cultural contacts and interactions. It will also analyze the different types of frontiers and borderlands that the Native Americans and incoming European/American populations defined, dismantled, and negotiated to create the area we know today as Southern California.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Nodes and Modes of Connectivity: Old and New World Studies on Frontiers and Borderlands   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2015

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 517