Under the All-Seeing Eye: The Archaeology of Native Californian Resistance at Mission Santa Clara

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeologies of Surveillance: Seeing and Power in the Material World" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The façade of Mission Santa Clara de Asís features the All-Seeing Eye of God, a symbol that serves as a reminder of the omnipotence of the Christian God. This symbolism reinforces ample archival evidence that the Franciscan missions of Alta California—like Spanish missions elsewhere in the Americas—were strictly controlled social spaces that relied on real and perceived surveillance to enforce cultural conversion. Yet, recent archaeological research at Mission Santa Clara and other nearby missions in central California paints a more complex picture of how Native Californians navigated the structures of missionary colonialism. A key insight is drawn from the spatial distribution of certain features and materials from the Native neighborhood at Mission Santa Clara, including large quantities of projectile points and lithic debitage as well as features thought to represent traditional mourning ceremonies. Taken together, these archaeological patterns demonstrate that Indigenous people maintained spaces that were outside of the control of Franciscan missionaries and other colonial officials, underscoring the notion that Native Californians rejected large portions of the mission project.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeologies of Surveillance: Seeing and Power in the Material World   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39015.0