Material Encounters and Indigenous Transformations in the Early Colonial Americas

Contributions of indigenous peoples to colonial encounters in the Americas were profound, varied, and dynamic. Instead of mere respondents, let alone passive bystanders, indigenous peoples were active agents in processes of colonialism, vital in the negotiation and recreation of new colonial realities. Paradoxically, they have long been some of the most invisible craftsmen of today’s societies. However, recent archaeological scholarship continues to provide material evidence that suggests that notwithstanding the severe and enduring impacts of intruding colonial powers, indigenous peoples continued to make choices that would benefit them. Among the many strategies they chose were alliance making, intermarriage, cooperation, negotiation, trading, escape, resistance, rebellion, and armed conflict. Engagement in this range of ( flexible) friendly and antagonistic social and material relationships was not restricted to two-sided indigenous-European affairs. Quite the contrary, colonial processes resulted as much in shifting relations and identities among indigenous peoples, Africans, and Europeans themselves, as well as between indigenous peoples and Africans, and Europeans and Africans. Over the past few decades, the study of colonial contact and interaction has progressed significantly with the adoption of new and revised theoretical paradigms, innovative research approaches, and multiscalar perspectives. Since the late 1990s, a conceptual framework has come to fruition that highlights colonialism’s entangled and transformative nature on the premise that all parties contributed to and were impacted by the process of interactions through negotiation, creativity, and innovation. Focusing on these and related aspects including local agency, power, and resistance, as well as social constructs such as gender, race, class, and identity, archaeologists have advanced considerably in reconstructing indigenous lives in colonial settings (e.g., Anderson-Córdova