Material Culture Associated to Elite Females in 16th Century Puerto Rico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Primary Sources and the Design of Research Projects" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper presents a case study on how to approach the study of elite women in Puerto Rico during the 16th century using primary sources and archaeological evidence. The main objective of the research was to reconstruct aspects of the daily life of women through their cultural assemblages, as recorded during the early colonization of Puerto Rico. Primary documentation produced by the Royal Treasury of Puerto Rico, one of the first colonial institutions in the Island, was incorporated as a key source for establishing the types of objects associated to women. Two types of documents were consulted: registries of vessels and passengers for the first half of 16th the century (1510-1545), and litigation documents for the later part (1573-1599). These sources permit answers to questions related to the types of objects associated to women, and how these in turn can be used to identify status, occupations, and household related activities. The interpretation of this data was compared to existing archaeological collections from 16th century Spanish Caribbean sites and used to characterize a "female elite material culture".

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Primary Sources and the Design of Research Projects

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24950