Landscapes of Mobility and Freedom: Maroonage and the Making of the New World

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Afro-Latin American Landscapes" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Francisca Angola, a creole woman of the seventeenth century, was born in one of the *palenques (maroon settlements) of the north coast of Colombia. Her mother, Lucia, and her father, Agustin, both identified as Angolas, ran away from Cartagena at the beginning of the same century. At the probable age of 70, Francisca and some of her descendants were caught by Spanish soldiers after a military entrance into her *palenque and taken to Cartagena for a trial. Francisca's declaration offers a glimpse into the dynamics of mobility, social relations, and daily life of the maroons of the second half of the seventeenth century. Based on colonial written sources, material evidence recovered through archaeological surveys, and spatial analysis, I propose a discussion about the role of belonging linked to the emergence of a particular landscape of maroonage during the seventeenth century. On one hand, the emergence, abandonment, and reemergence of *palenques in the same areas show that mobility was a decisive tactic probably linked to the memory of the ancestors. On the other, the coexistence of different *palenques with a defined military and social structure reinforced a sense of belonging, while granting the access and control of the land.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Afro-Latin American Landscapes

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33292