What has frequently been termed “contact-period” archaeology has assumed a prominent role in North American archaeology in the last two decades This article examines the conceptual foundation of archaeological “culture contact” studies by sharpening the terminological and interpretive distinction between “contact” and “colonialism” The conflation of these two terms, and thereby realms of historical experience, has proven detrimental to archaeologists’ attempts to understand indigenous and colonial histories In light of this predicament, the article tackles three problems with treating colonialism as culture contact: (1) emphasizing short-term encounters rather than long-term entanglements, which ignores the process and heterogeneous forms of colonialism and the multifaceted ways that indigenous people experienced them; (2) downplaying the severity of interaction and the radically different levels of political power, which does little to reveal how Native people negotiated complex social terrain but does much to distance “contact” studies from what should be a related research focus in the archaeology of African enslavement and diaspora; and (3) privileging predefined cultural traits over creative or creolized cultural products, which loses sight of the ways that social agents lived their daily lives and that material culture can reveal, as much as hide, the subtleties of cultural change and continuity Lo que frecuentemente se denomina arqueologia del “periodo de contacto” ha adquirido en los ultimos 20 anos un papel prominente en la arqueologia norteamericana Este trabajo examina el legado conceptual de los estudios arqueologicos sobre el contacto cultural y aclara la importante distincion terminologica e interpretativa entre “contacto” y “colonialismo” La tendencia a confundir ambos conceptos, y por lo tanto el mundo de las experiencias historicas, ha perjudicado el intento arqueologico por comprender tanto la historia indigena como la colonial Bajo semejante predicamento, este articulo aborda tres problemas que se generan al equiparar colonialismo con contacto cultural: (1) poner enfasis en los encuentros de poca duracion—en vez de las relaciones prolongadas—lo que ignora las formas y los procesos heterogeneos del colonialismo, asi como las multiples dimensiones de las experiencias indigenas, (2) poner menor atencion a la intensidad de la interaccion y a los grados de poder politico tan diferentes, lo que no permite apreciar como la gente autoctona negocio en contextos sociales complejos, promoviendo ademas un distanciamiento entre los estudios de “contacto” y las investigaciones afines sobre la arqueologia de la esclavitud y diasporas africanas; y (3) privilegiar rasgos culturales predefinidos sobre formas culturales novedosas o criollas, lo que impide apreciar las formas en las que agentes sociales vivieron sus quehaceres cotidianos, olvidando a la vez que la cultura material puede revelar, asi como ocultar, las sutilezas del cambio cultural y de la continuidad

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Culture Contact or Colonialism? Challenges in the Archaeology of Native North America

Racism in. Racial Democracy: The Maintenance of White Supremacy in Brazil. France Winddance Twine. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998. xiii. 175pp. (Cloth US$49.00, Paper US$17.00)

Racism in a Racial Democracy: The Maintenance of White Supremacy in Brazil.

To 'Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women's Lives and Labors After the Civil War. Tera W. Hunter. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997. 311 pp. (Cloth US$29.95)

To 'Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women's Lives and Labors After the Civil War

Down by the Riverside: A South Carolina Slave Community

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Community-Based Archaeology: Research with, by, and for Indigenous and Local Communities

Archaeology has undergone a transition over the past two decades with the emergence of feminist discourses, and the mapping of women onto archaeological pasts. Yet Black feminist theorizing remains...

A Black feminist-inspired archaeology?:

Building a new anti-racist archaeology will require an unprecedented level of structural changes in the practices, demographics, and power relations of archaeology. This article considers why this iteration of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) Movement is proving to be unique in terms of its potential to transform the field. We discuss how anti-racist archaeologists arrived at this juncture prepared to meet the challenges now before us, and how members of the Society of Black Archaeologists are collaborating with others to enact change. We acknowledge the significant social justice efforts of others and suggest how archaeologists can get involved to keep this critical momentum going.

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The Future is Now: Archaeology and the Eradication of Anti-Blackness.

Archaeobotanical analysis remains one of the least-utilized strategies for investigating the lifeways of African diasporic peoples despite the fact that the field of African diaspora archaeology has grown exponentially over the last 30 years. We consider the botanical remains from the Rich Neck Slave Quarter site as constituting a significant line of evidence for illuminating the nature of plant use among enslaved Afro-Virginians. As a result of the ambitious flotation program undertaken during the excavation of the Rich Neck site, the botanical assemblage provides evidence allowing for interpretations of the role of plants in enslaved subsistence and potential medicinal practices. Our research illustrates that Afro-Virginians actively participated in the creation of cultural practices related to plant use, and strategically shifted their production activities in response to both internal and external factors that influenced their lives within the context of plantation slavery.

Archaeobotanical analysis and interpretations of enslaved virginian plant use at rich neck plantation (44wb52)

African Diaspora archaeologies: Present insights and expanding discourses

In conjunction with the proposed construction of the southwest segment of State Highway 45 in southern Travis County, the Texas Department of Transportation sponsored archeological testing and data recovery efforts at the Ransom Williams farmstead. Prewitt and Associates, Inc., conducted an interdisciplinary community-based historic archeological study of the farmstead from 2005 through 2011. Extensive archival research reveals that the 45-acre farm was owned and occupied by Ransom Williams and his wife Sarah, both former slaves, from about 1871 to ca. 1905. The Williams family lived in the predominantly white rural community of Bear Creek, but they had connections to the nearby freedmen communities of Antioch Colony in northern Hays County and Manchaca in southern Travis County. The stories of the Ransom Williams family and their connections to these communities are enhanced by extensive oral history research, with over 46 hours of taped and transcribed interviews with 27 descendant community members. Data recovery investigations focused on a landscape archeological study to define the layout and design of the entire farmstead, including a stock pond and a network of dry-laid rock walls that facilitated water drainage, demarcated property boundaries, and formed livestock pens. Intensive hand excavations were used to examine features associated with the Williams house, outbuildings and activity areas, and a large trash midden. This work recovered more than 26,000 artifacts. They constitute an impressive material culture assemblage that is associated, with few exceptions, with the Williams family tenure on the land. The combined archival data, oral history interviews, and archeological evidence tell the fascinating story of how one African American farm family lived and thrived in central Texas during Reconstruction and into the Jim Crow era.

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Maria Franklin

Papers

A Black feminist-inspired archaeology?:

The Future is Now: Archaeology and the Eradication of Anti-Blackness.

Archaeobotanical analysis and interpretations of enslaved virginian plant use at rich neck plantation (44wb52)

African Diaspora archaeologies: Present insights and expanding discourses

The Ransom and Sarah Williams Farmstead: Post-Emancipation Transitions of an African American Family in Central Texas Vol. 1