Trading Tones: Exploring the Soundscape of Human Trafficking in Spanish Colonial Panama

Summary

Set in the World Heritage site of Old Panama (1519–1671), the House of the Genoese Slavery Memorial project brings together the lessons of over a decade of archaeological and archival research focusing on the ruins of one of the largest centers of human trafficking to have operated in Spanish America in the late 1600s. Building upon a growing body of literature addressing phenomenological approaches in archaeology and museum studies, this paper explores how an object-based reenactment of what may have been the rich soundscape of Old Panama’s slave market can allow us to rethink its remains as a powerful lieu de mémoire critically showcasing the difficult legacy of the transatlantic slave trade.  Moving beyond traditional visual cues tending to essentialize the experience of both slaves and slavers in the New World, this paper examines the acoustic dimension of the slave trade as a novel and relevant field of memorialization.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Sensory Engagement in Historical Archaeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 833