Toward an Archaeology of the African Diaspora in Peru: The Jesuit Wine Estates of Nasca

Summary

During Peru’s colonial period free and enslaved African descended peoples made up a significant portion of the coastal population, living and working among indigenous, mestizo, and European peoples. Yet these populations have been underrepresented in archaeology or rendered invisible by methodologies and questions which have not directly engaged the diaspora. This paper discusses advances from the 2012/2013 field season of the Haciendas of Nasca Archaeological Project, the first such project in Peru to feature a principal research agenda on the material culture of African descended peoples. Through documentary research, survey, and excavation, the project explores the institutions of coerced labor and slavery and the daily praxis of enslaved workers and residents on two Jesuit wine estates and their corresponding annexes throughout the Rio Grande Drainage, and tracks the changing material conditions of labor on these haciendas from the Jesuit (1619-1767) through Crown (1767-1821) and Republican periods (post-1821).

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Las preguntas que cuentan: Ideas and interpretations in Latin American Historical Archaeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-33,20