The Spanish Missions of La Florida: Archaeologies and Histories of Contact, Colonization, and Resistance

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Archaeologies of Contact, Colony, and Resistance" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The nearly 200 years of Spanish mission activity in La Florida had profound impacts on the lives of both the Native Americans and Spanish. Missions were places of new contact, culture change, cultural continuity, religious instruction, and the locations of exchange and introduction of new foods, materials, and ideas. This presentation examines the decades of historical and archaeological research on the Spanish mission system of La Florida, from its beginnings in the 16th century to its ultimate demise in the 18th century, in an effort to place the missions in the larger colonial landscape of the colonial Southeast. Combining historical and archaeological data can help inform how the Spanish missions functioned less as a force of colonization of Spanish Florida and more as a means to attempt to control the frontier and borderlands. Research has also informed on issues of contact and exchange, acceptance and resistance, and the active role Native American groups had in negotiating their place in the new colonial sphere in La Florida.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Archaeologies of Contact, Colony, and Resistance   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24769