Neither Contact nor Colonial: Seneca Iroquois Local Political Economies, 1675-1754

Author(s): Kurt Jordan

Year: 2016

Summary

Fine-grained attention to the material conditions of indigenous daily lives over time reveals myriad changes completely incapable of being explained by models such as "traditional sameness" or "acculturative change." Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) sites were occupied for only 15-40 years before planned abandonment, so examining a sequence of these sites provides an excellent way to look at change over time. This paper examines local dynamics at three Seneca sites, illustrating strategic Seneca engagements with dynamic local and regional conditions over time. Seneca practices 150 years after the first recorded "contacts" promoted a supple form of social autonomy, navigating the opportunities and challenges arising from engagements with European colonists and other indigenous groups.

Cite this Record

Neither Contact nor Colonial: Seneca Iroquois Local Political Economies, 1675-1754. Kurt Jordan. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Washington, D.C. 2016 ( tDAR id: 434561)

Keywords

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): 419

Notes

General Note: Interested researchers should consult the published version of this paper, which is Kurt A. Jordan and Peregrine A. Gerard-Little, 'Neither Contact nor Colonial: Seneca Iroquois Local Political Economies, 1670-1754' in Heather Law Pezzarossi and Russell N. Sheptak, editors: Indigenous Persistence in the Colonized Americas: Material and Documentary Perspectives on Entanglement. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, pages 39-56 (2019).