Doctoral Dissertation Research: Development of Colonial Interaction

University Of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA

Investigators

Abstract

Questions about how unequal power relations emerge and are transformed across time and space are central to the social sciences. Scholars studying colonial expansion are particularly interested in how novel configurations of land, labor, and capital structured asymmetrical power dynamics across colonial contexts. Assessing dynamics of power through specific relations of production is especially important within colonial borderlands, where diverse social networks, contested jurisdictions, and disputed resource control shaped the development of borderland institutions. Archaeology is particularly well suited for examining the political economy of colonial borderlands, through its ability to document the infrastructure and production strategies that characterized particular places. This project will explore political-economic relations in a colonial borderland. Through the investigation of the specific relations of production that supported local colonial institutions, this research will contribute to the political economy of colonialism. Focused on power dynamics in the decades leading up to a violent conflict, this research also enriches understandings of the conditions which lead to rupture and violence in colonial contexts. This research is part of an interdisciplinary heritage project that explores the relationship between cultural heritage and local community identity. Research will contribute to ongoing, community-driven efforts to uncover and preserve histories about life before, during, and after a violent conflict. This doctoral dissertation is primarily concerned with examining the political-economic relations that structured local power dynamics within a colonial borderland. More specifically, this research investigates local iterations of one colonial institution, the landed estate, and the role of local landed estates in the economic, political, and social networks of this region prior to violent conflict. The researchers assess evidence for estate control over the production of commercial goods, the organization of labor, and the distribution of scarce commodities by assessing the presence and distribution of infrastructure features (water management systems, sugar refining areas, laborer housing, storage features, roads) across four landed estates. The archaeological investigation of estate infrastructure will elucidate the specific production strategies that shaped the distribution of power within this colonial borderland. 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.