Acting, Reacting, and Entangling at the Edge of the Spanish Colony: Maya Life at Progresso Lagoon, Belize in the Context of Colonization

Summary

The Maya of northern Belize were located at the edge of the Spanish colony, far from the Spanish capital at Merida, and visited only occasionally by encomenderos and priests. How much of Maya life then was a reaction to Spanish colonization? The archaeological data from Progresso Lagoon, Belize suggest that most contact and colonial period material culture at the Maya community was shaped by ongoing Maya political and economic processes, rather than by Spanish intervention. In addition, Maya leaders used European artifacts in ways consistent with longstanding Maya uses of foreign objects, for Maya political and economic purposes. This paper argues that concepts such as reaction, resistance, and hybridization fail to acknowledge the depth of Maya history and the role of Maya worldviews in shaping the colonial experience at Progresso Lagoon. I suggest that the concept of entanglement may better encapsulate the way Maya people continued to act in Maya ways, along their own historical timeline, even within the context of colonization.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 18843