Archaeology of Culture Contact and Colonialism in Spanish and Portuguese America

The volume contributes to disrupt the old grand narrative of cultural contact and colonialism in Spanish and Portuguese America in a wide and complete sense. This edited volume aims at exploring contact archaeology in the modern era. Archaeology has been exploring the interaction of peoples and cultures from early times, but only in the last few decades have cultural contact and material world been recognized as crucial elements to understanding colonialism and the emergence of modernity. Modern colonialism studies pose questions in need of broader answers. This volume explores these answers in Spanish and Portuguese America, comprising present-day Latin America and formerly Spanish territories now part of the United States. The volume addresses studies of the particular features of Spanish-Portuguese colonialism, as well as the specificities of Iberian colonization, including hybridism, religious novelties, medieval and modern social features, all mixed in a variety of ways unique and so different from other areas, particularly the Anglo-Saxon colonial thrust. Cultural contact studies offer a particularly in-depth picture of the uniqueness of Latin America in terms of its cultural mixture. This volume particularly highlights local histories, revealing novelty, diversity, and creativity in the conformation of the new colonial realities, as well as presenting Latin America as a multicultural arena, with astonishing heterogeneity in thoughts, experiences, practices, and, material worlds.

Pedro Paulo A. Funari is professor of historical archaeology at the University of Campinas, Brazil, former World Archaeological Congress secretary, author and editor of several books, such as Historical archaeology, back from the edge (London, Routledge, 1999), Global Archaeological Theory (New York, Springer, 2005), Memories from Darkness, the archaeology of repression and resistance in Latin America (New York, Springer, 2009), with fieldwork in Brazil, England, Wales, Spain and Italy (several in each country). Funari is member of the editorial boards of several journals, notably the International Journal of Historical Archaeology (New York), Journal of Material Culture (London), Public Archaeology (London, UCL) and is referee in several other journals, like Current Anthropology. Funari has published papers in most prestigious journals, such as Historical Archaeology, Current Anthropology, Archaeologies, Révue Archéologique, Antiquity, American Antiquity, American Journal of Archaeology, and has edited archaeological encyclopedias.

María Ximena Senatore is a National Researcher at CONICET (National Council of Scientific and Technological Research), Argentina. Professor on Historical Archaeology and Heritage at University of Buenos Aires and National University of Patagonia Austral. Senatore has a degree in Archaeology (University of Buenos Aires, 1995) and PhD in History (2003, University of Valladolid, Spain). She is running research projects on Spanish Colonialism in South Patagonia, and Capitalism Expansion to Antarctica. Senatore has published papers in several journals such as International Journal of Historical Archaeology, Historical Archaeology, Polar Record, and 3 books in Argentina and Brazil.