Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: February 3, 2021 at 1:00:14 PM EST > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-LatAm]: Delucia on Beaule and Douglass, 'The > Global Spanish Empire: Five Hundred Years of Place Making and Pluralism' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Christine D. Beaule, John G. Douglass, eds. The Global Spanish > Empire: Five Hundred Years of Place Making and Pluralism. Amerind > Studies in Anthropology Series. Tucson University of Arizona Press, > 2020. Maps, charts, tables. 320 pp. $65.00 (cloth), ISBN > 978-0-8165-4084-6. > > Reviewed by Christine Delucia (Williams College) > Published on H-LatAm (February, 2021) > Commissioned by Casey M. Lurtz > > This volume explores the enormous variety of "place making" projects > that unfolded across the globe in Indigenous spaces affected by > Spanish colonialism. The collected essays originated from a session > at the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) annual meeting and > underwent further revision with SAA-Amerind Foundation Award support. > The resulting collection, organized largely chronologically, offers a > rich and wide-ranging survey of local experiences with Spanish > colonialism, with special focus on diverse Indigenous people's > dynamic strategies of response, resistance, and adaptation. > Contributors steer away from homogenizing, static, or essentialist > conceptions of identity and social practice, instead stressing the > heterogeneity, complexity, and continuous evolution of communities > and their intersections with one another. There is no singular > Spanish colonial identity or project but rather a shifting array of > ambitions, affiliations, practices, and compromises. Nor is there a > monolithic Indigenous experience or method of contending with > frequently violent and extractive Euro-colonial presences. The > contributors nonetheless all remain attentive to commonalities > spanning the wider Iberian enterprise of empire building and the > overarching policies, bureaucratic structures, and cultural outlooks > that shaped colonizers' trajectories in places as far-flung yet > interconnected as Ghana, Florida, the Andean highlands, and Oceania. > > The collection's focus on "place" reflects maturing scholarly > literature in multiple disciplines about locality, geography, and the > co-created relationships between human societies and their > environments. As many place-based historical works and theorizations > of recent decades have emphasized, understanding histories of social > change in place requires careful attention not only to material > factors of emplacement--the physical terrain in which communities > situate and sustain themselves--but also to imaginative, ideological, > cultural, religious, and other frameworks for devising meaning and > senses of belonging. Editors Christine D. Beaule and John G. Douglass > unpack these ideas in their introduction, where they delineate key > contours of "place making": "Place making in the geographic sense is > illustrated by the attachment of culturally specific meaning to a > location on the landscape, while place making in the social sense > involves the creation or modification of a group's place in a > socially or politically diverse setting" (p. 22). > > In centering pluralism, the volume emphasizes the multiplicity of > populations, identities, and forms of ethnogenesis that took shape in > local contexts. Contributors probe the uneven nature and impacts of > Spanish colonialism, taking care to differentiate between stated > colonialist objectives and the much more contested, ambiguous > realities of encounter and intercultural negotiation on the ground. > In many of the locales featured in the volume, Spaniards were, at > least initially, vastly outnumbered by Indigenous people--themselves > often from diverse backgrounds--and the would-be colonizers' power > remained severely conscribed or outright thwarted. Even in zones of > "conquest" where Indigenous people endured enormous trauma and > demographic losses, Native survivors and their descendants strongly > influenced the formation of new ways of being and devised highly > variable responses to Spanish military, economic, religious, and > other pressures. > > A major strength of the volume is the essays' deep attunement to the > local, the particular, and the material. Many of the contributors are > archaeologists/anthropologists, and their projects explore "the > material residues of this cross-cultural interaction" (p. 4). They > delve into assemblages of ceramics, floral and faunal remains, glass, > stone, metal, and other items to interrogate the lived experiences of > navigating cultural changes and to recognize in fine-grained ways how > objects' uses and values frequently shifted away from their makers' > original intentions. Many contributors deploy methods of historical > archaeology to braid together documentary and artifactual evidence, > and in some instances also draw on collaborations with present-day > communities to frame their interpretations. The resulting analyses > offer a potent counterpart to modes of inquiry based more strictly in > archival sources. They pose significant questions about the formation > and implications of documentary silences (as well as techniques for > working around them), and invite scholars from several disciplines to > reckon with multimedia and place-based sources. While the book is > organized chronologically, the comments below follow more thematic > lines in order to highlight salient pathways through the essays. > > The unevenness and ephemerality of material traces from early > Iberian, and particularly Spanish, colonialism figure prominently in > several chapters. Christopher R. DeCorse confronts the evident > paucity of extant archaeological evidence pertaining to formative > Iberian contacts in coastal West Africa. The most extensive work has > been conducted at Elmina, the former slave-trading fort in Ghana, > where Akan people residing in an African settlement (Aldea das Duas > Partes, or Village of Two Parts) became enmeshed with Portuguese and > later Dutch colonizers. Addressing the relatively "poor > archaeological visibility" of Portuguese presence, DeCorse contends > that the "limited amount of European artifacts speaks to both the > archaeological (in)visibility of the European trade and the > resilience of African cultural traditions," while also cautioning > that even when European-produced import wares are evident, they do > not constitute conclusive proof of "cultural transformation and > ethnogenesis" (pp. 45, 47). In their discussion of the Solomon > Islands of the Southwest Pacific, Martin Gibbs and David Roe assess > initial encounters between Indigenous islanders and Spaniards in the > late sixteenth century and the (mis)communications that resulted as > participants engaged in performance, gesture, gift giving, and other > forms of interaction. Noting the difficulty of locating cohesive > archaeological evidence of these early colonial forays (the first > being an exploratory voyage, the second expressly aimed at > colonization), the authors unfold the challenges of ascertaining > intentions and perceptions in liminal spaces. In both studies, > scholars work around the paucity of material traces by engaging in > close reading as well as speculative interpretation of written > documents, while also addressing the inherent coloniality of this > archive. > > Spanish colonialism seriously affected Indigenous populations and > settlement patterns, and several essays consider the reformation of > social landscapes as Spanish policies attempted to relocate and > contain Indigenous people. Corinne L. Hofman, Roberto Valcárcel > Rojas, and Jorge Ulloa Hung address the massive population > dislocations caused by Spanish colonialism in the Caribbean, notably > the forced removal of entire Indigenous groups from certain areas and > their transit to other locales as a consequence of the slave trade. > As Spaniards coercively relocated diverse Indigenous people across > the Lesser and Greater Antilles to exploit their labor in arduous > industries, such as pearl extraction and gold mining, colonizers > attempted to impose notions of a "homogenized 'Other' and negated > their likely diverse original ethnic identities" (p. 57). Yet the > authors are keen to recover the social and cultural heterogeneity of > Indigenous communities before and during this era of transformations, > in order to articulate the highly variable ways Indigenous actors > interacted with or resisted Spanish attempts at military and labor > dominance. Using the concept of _convivencia_ (living together), > Laura Matthew and William R. Fowler comparatively examine two Spanish > urban areas founded nearly simultaneously during a military conquest > of 1527-28 in Maya, Nahuat Pipil, and Xinka territories (Guatemala > and El Salvador). These highly defensive towns "reveal how Hispanic > idealizations of conquered, urbanized space were tempered by the > military and multiethnic realities of their founding" (p. 131). In > milieus where Europeans and Africans were minorities within > predominantly Indigenous worlds, Spanish ambitions to create > Castilian-style enclaves wound up compromising with much more > distinctively Indigenous modes of dwelling and spatial organization. > > Other essays spotlight the significance of inter-Indigenous networks, > alliances, and forms of mobility as essential preconditions for > comprehending Spanish colonial trajectories. Spaniards did not enter > static or ahistorical Indigenous spaces. They arrived in dynamic > settings in which Indigenous populations and polities regularly > angled for influence, engaged in conflict and peacemaking, and > underwent ethnogenesis. Christopher B. Rodning, Michelle M. Pigott, > and Hannah G. Hoover explore Spanish incursions into La Florida in > the North American Southeast and the powerful Indigenous chiefdoms > that pervasively shaped the nature, extent, and speed of > colonialism's impacts. "From an indigenous perspective," they assert, > "Spaniards were another group in an already pluralistic cultural > landscape" (p. 95). It was a landscape already thoroughly shaped by > Mississippian towns, mounds, and farming areas, across which Native > polities exercised well-developed protocols for engaging with > outsiders and newcomers. Within this terrain, early Spanish > settlements "were relatively impermanent and in many cases were > short-lived," though the longer-term regional repercussions of > Spanish colonization proved enormous (p. 93). Similarly, in the > multiethnic Sierra Sur region of Nejapa, in Oaxaca, Mexico, Stacie M. > King considers multiple waves of outsiders and invasions by the three > "colonizing regimes" of the Zapotec, Aztec, and Spanish (p. 106). > Characterizing Spanish colonizers as another variety of invading > newcomer rather than an altogether unprecedented presence, she > contends that in Nejapa "cultural pluralism had long been the > tradition; in short, what was persistent through conquests and > colonialisms was pluralism" (p. 107). > > Several chapters critically contextualize encounters between > Indigenous spiritual systems and Spanish missions, reevaluating the > dynamics of place making as colonizers endeavored to enter and at > times forcefully overwrite Indigenous sacred geographies. Kevin Lane > examines longstanding Indigenous Andean traditions of spatially > organized sacrality and the nuanced manner in which Spanish > Catholicism entered this domain. This was not a monodirectional > process or one that neatly effaced Indigenous beliefs and practices > in order to replace them with new monotheistic arrivals--even if > Catholic colonizers aspired to that supplantation. Instead, using > detailed place-base investigation, Lane identifies continuities of > Indigenous spiritualities (whether overtly maintained or subversively > continued) and matrices of multiple meanings wherein Spanish > religious structures and activities became intricately interlayered > with already extant, yet continuously evolving, Indigenous ones. > Turning to the borderlands of northeastern Mexico and Texas, Steve A. > Tomka considers how Indigenous communities grappled with the > expansion of Catholic missions into traditional homelands, where > communities already had extensive experience navigating differences > (for example, in the context of bison hunting in overlapping > territories). Within mission spaces, Coahuiltecan people participated > in dramatically altered social configurations where dominant and > underrepresented groups angled for influence and engaged in > intergroup marriages that fostered new identities. They devised ways > of continuing elaborate ceremonial systems (for example, mitotes, or > dances) that served crucial social roles, within a setting where > paternalistic Spanish religious leaders sought to sharply constrain > or eradicate non-Catholic beliefs and expressions. > > Geography itself became strategically mobilized by Indigenous and > African communities to evade Spanish efforts at surveillance, > control, and imposed change. Stephen Acabado and Grace > Barretto-Tesoro comparatively assess Indigenous place-based responses > to Spanish colonialism in the Philippines. In the highlands, Ifugao > people developed landscape management systems involving wet-rice > cultivation and terracing that allowed them to consolidate distinct > identities, facilitated by distance from centers of Spanish > governance. (By contrast, for Tagalog people in more urbanized > Pinagbayanan, _reducción_ caused immense reorganizations in space, > while it also presented opportunities for articulating new social > statuses.) Considering Chamorro society in the Mariana Islands, James > M. Bayman, Boyd M. Dixon, Sandra Montón-Subías, and Natalia Moragas > Segura explore strategies Chamorro people employed at _lånchos_ > (ranch-farms) to evade surveillance and imposed change by colonizers. > These remote areas "facilitated the persistence of intangible > cultural heritage" and precolonial traditions, contrary to colonial > designs upon transforming social identities and cultures (p. 235). In > a related fashion, Juliet Wiersema examines the "multicultural > backwater" of the Dagua River in Nueva Granada in the eighteenth > century, a remote region where geographic separation from Spanish > surveillance--enforced by arduous, lengthy travel routes to emerging > colonial centers--facilitated Africans' autonomous development of > identities that transcended prior ethnic differences (p. 267). Her > essay offers an innovative close reading and contextualization of a > 1764 manuscript map of the river area, unpacking how African people > who were coercively brought to work in gold extraction leveraged > skills such as canoe navigation to assert independence from colonial > repression. > > This collection presents innovative case studies illuminating the > diversity of Indigenous and Spanish spaces of encounter on a global > scale, presented in a manner that will be most accessible to > specialists interested in thinking across multiple localities and > historical moments. The essays productively re-periodize encounters > with Spanish colonialism by not assuming them to be pivotal turning > points that demarcated a neat Indigenous "before and after." Instead, > they situate Spaniards' arrivals within already dynamic histories of > encounter, violence, invasion, and ethnogenesis. Accompanied by > well-selected maps, charts, and tables, they invite further reading > in each author's larger body of work. As with any multivocal > endeavor, the authors diverge in small and larger ways about the > implications of their findings. Some contributions assert the > relative continuity of Indigenous cosmologies, beliefs, and > practices, maintained despite the upheavals of Spanish colonialism. > Others stress disruption, transformation, and creation of new social > orders and ways of being, characterizing Spanish colonization as a > key historical inflection point. > > Citation: Christine Delucia. Review of Beaule, Christine D.; > Douglass, John G., eds., _The Global Spanish Empire: Five Hundred > Years of Place Making and Pluralism_. H-LatAm, H-Net Reviews. > February, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55406 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#6074): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/6074 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/80360124/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
