The Material Culture of Maroon Communities in the Early Circum-Caribbean

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Disentanglement: Reimagining Early Colonial Trajectories in the Americas" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper examines early maroon settlements of the Circum-Caribbean and is based upon original research in a wide assortment of Spanish archives, as well as archaeological investigations of African sites in the Americas. As in Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, in Spanish Florida, I find Africans readily adapted certain elements of European and indigenous cultures in their re-created communities, but they also retained at least some from their African homelands, despite the incalculable damage wrought by the slave trade. One maroon community in Colombia created a Christian church served by its own clergy who shared religious authority with an African religious specialist. Others had executioners and exorcised "witches." Some were led by Kings and Queens, others by war captains, and some featured family dynasties.

Spanish priests recorded their visits to maroon communities and at least some basic demographic information on their inhabitants Spanish maps and military accounts also document some of their building and fortification patterns, while surface collections and excavations yield metal objects such as bracelets, arrow tips, and lance points, as well as slag deposits from their manufacture.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Disentanglement: Reimagining Early Colonial Trajectories in the Americas

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22889