Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Use of Material Culture to Trace Historic Change

University Of Texas At Austin, Austin TX

Investigators

Abstract

This project will investigate the colonial history of Panama through the study of ceramics. The research is inspired by postcolonial debates that introduced notions of agency and negotiation in the structuration of colonial experiences. Local processes of colonial negotiations have been overshadowed by the splendor of the American, Asian, and European riches circulating through this region during the expansion of the imperial enterprise. As a result, non-European people still lack historical agency in the archaeological narratives of colonial Panama. Previous archaeological research highlights the disappearance of indigenous ceramic styles from the archaeological record and their replacement by European and creole styles. This evidence is used to affirm the extinction or assimilation of indigenous groups located in the areas the Spaniards occupied. However, in light of postcolonial debates, the previous statement raises questions about the process of technological change and the role of political and economic variables in colonial Panama. Did local communities keep control of some aspects of ceramic production? Did the Spanish appropriate local knowledge and resources in the production of ceramic technologies? The study of technology is a window to understand the impacts of colonization not accessible through documentary sources. This research will supplement and diversify the elite perspective of Spanish history and its narratives to include the participation of local and non-European communities in the construction of colonial Panama. Based on a combination of historical, archaeological, and archaeometric research, MS. Navas will study indigenous production and consumption of ceramics under the supervision of Dr. Rodríguez-Alegría, as part of her doctoral dissertation research at the University of Texas. She will focus on the possible continuity, transformation or disruption of ceramic production and consumption after European colonization. The researcher aims to identify raw materials and technologies used in the production of ceramics in the pre-Columbian and colonial periods. Her study will be centered on compositional analyses of pastes, slips, and glazes of ceramic samples collected in previous excavations from three different Spanish colonial settlements: Nata de los Caballeros, Old Panama (Panama Viejo), and the Panama Historic District (Casco Antiguo). The inclusion of samples from these three sites will allow a regional comparative study of technological and compositional changes in ceramics from different production centers over the long term, starting in the Late Ceramic period (700 AD to conquest) to the nineteenth century. The analyses of the samples will be based on neutron activation analysis (NAA), petrographic thin section analysis, and laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). These techniques will permit the identification of the constituent raw materials and techniques used in the production of ceramics and patterns of continuity or change in their use during the colonial period. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.