Between Slavery and Indenture: Spatial practices, Materiality, and the Memory of Coercion on Sugar Plantations in Mauritius

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology in the Indian Ocean" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The archaeology of Trianon and Bras d’Eau sugar estates in Mauritius are case studies of the multi-vocal practices – both at the household and regional scale – that shaped landscapes around the plantation industry in the Indian Ocean. In this paper we examine material evidence and archival documentation that reveals a long process of negotiation between enslaved and indentured laborers and colonial planters and administrators. Plantation material culture reveals how the complexity of laborers’ experiences enmeshed in social dynamics of an interconnected Indian Ocean island. More broadly, this archaeology illustrates how western colonial models of capitalist production and transplanted South Asian spatial practices shaped unique, multilayered Mauritian landscapes. GIS approaches, excavations, artifact studies, and comparative analysis are used to trace the long discourse of spatial appropriation. Lastly, we consider how local debates over ‘otherness’ and social confrontation have contributed to the definition and memorialization of the island’s urban history.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020   •
• Historical Archaeology in the Indian Ocean

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 830