Long Term Effects of Colonization on Culture Change

Suny At Albany, Albany NY

Investigators

Abstract

This project investigates and compares nonelite Maya peoples’ contributions to social change associated with the profound impacts of the first century of Colonial encounters. This research, focuses on variable responses at the household and community scales, informs on the how these entities confronted and endured a period of dire social upheaval. There was little uniformity in the experiences, strategies enacted, and outcomes among indigenous settlements and the comparative, regional approach of this project at multiple settlements documents the strategies employed by ordinary people. The household was the fundamental unit of social and economic production for premodern states and in early Colonial settings. Focusing on household archaeology, this project compares rural perspectives on social change to understand local adaptations beyond the scope of written history. Cross-culturally and historically, countryside localities often served, in times of societal disjunction and collapse, as wellsprings of cultural preservation and innovation. Northern Maya peoples persisted through a century and a half of drastic depopulation due to famine, drought, pestilence, illness, persecution, and exploitation, followed by a demographic recovery. Historical sources inadequately credit the resiliency and innovations of indigenous householders of the early Colonial years, and their long-term historical successes, as indicated by the persistence of five million speakers of Yucatec Maya languages today and their ongoing contributions to society, globally. The project represents an international and interdisciplinary collaboration that provides research training and publication opportunities for university students and professional staff, including those of Yucatec Maya descent. It also contributes to the education and training of local Maya assistants and host villages in terms of understanding and preserving cultural heritage. How did towns, households, and individuals negotiate outcomes, passively or actively, in the emergent politico-economic contexts of this disjuncture? Did they engage in resistance (outright or hidden), negotiation (interpersonal or through legal mechanisms), incorporation (such as aspects of Christian doctrine or European cuisine), cooperation (fleeting or long-term), flight (temporary or permanent), or dynamically shifting combinations of these approaches? These responses are reconstructed from data bearing on the spatial organization of communities and house groups, family size, agrarian strategies, labor dedicated to crafting exchange or tribute goods, comparative family wealth or impoverishment, sanctioned and black market exchanges of goods, exploitation of wild, domesticated, and natural resources augmenting productive capacities, and the stability, duration, and growth of domestic units. The researchers bring expertise in the analysis of remote sensing data (Lidar), pedestrian settlement survey and mapping, excavation, and laboratory analysis of household material assemblages (artifacts), radiocarbon dating, faunal resources and botanicals (dietary reconstruction), and historical archives. Assessing changes during the first 100 years of colonialism will be facilitated by comparisons to the investigators’ extensive dataset (from prior research) on late Pre-Columbian household archaeology in the region and in the time period immediately preceding the Colonial era. 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.