A Material Science Consideration of New World Encounters: Multi-method Approaches to the Archaeology of the Caribbean

Author(s): Maria Mercedes Martinez Milantchi; Alice Samson; Jago Cooper; Michael Charlton; Carlos Pérez

Year: 2021

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Following a recent review of excavated materials from the island of Mona (Puerto Rico), this paper examines the transformation of cultural and technological practices brought about by New World encounters. We focus on the affective material conditions that emerge in the 16th century Caribbean by applying a materials science approach to the newly integrated materials in archaeological contexts. This sheds light on the interaction between the newly arrived European and local Taíno populations. From the re-cycling of iron ship nails in local structures to the refashioning of glazed ceramics into indigenous spindle whorls, this study reconsiders the agency that local Indigenous populations exercised by integrating aspects of European material cultures into traditional and transforming lifeways. Importantly, this paper raises questions about the brokering between experience and resistance in these complex spaces of interaction and exchange.

Cite this Record

A Material Science Consideration of New World Encounters: Multi-method Approaches to the Archaeology of the Caribbean. Maria Mercedes Martinez Milantchi, Alice Samson, Jago Cooper, Michael Charlton, Carlos Pérez. Presented at The 86th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 2021 ( tDAR id: 467607)

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Keywords

General
Archaeometry & Materials Analysis • Coastal and Island Archaeology  • contact period

Geographic Keywords
Caribbean

Spatial Coverage

min long: -90.747; min lat: 3.25 ; max long: -48.999; max lat: 27.683 ;

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33016