Material Encounters and Indigenous Transformations in the Early Colonial Americas brings together 15 case studies focusing on the early colonial history and archaeology of indigenous cultural persistence and change in the Caribbean and its surrounding mainland(s) after AD 1492. With a special emphasis on material culture and by foregrounding indigenous agency in shaping the diverse outcomes of colonial encounters, this volume offers new perspectives on early modern cultural interactions in the first regions of the âNew Worldâ that were impacted by European colonization. The volume contributors specifically investigate how foreign goods were differentially employed, adopted, and valued across time, space, and scale, and what implications such material encounters had for indigenous social, political, and economic structures.
Corinne L. Hofman, PhD (1993), Leiden University, is Professor of Caribbean Archaeology. She has published articles, book chapters, and edited volumes on the indigenous Caribbean, including The Oxford Handbook of Caribbean Archaeology and The Caribbean before Columbus (Oxford University Press, 2013 and 2017).
Floris W.M. Keehnen, MA (2012), Leiden University, is a PhD student. In 2013, he obtained a grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) to investigate indigenous Caribbean attitudes towards European-introduced material culture in early colonial times (AD 1492-1550).
Preface: Whatâs in a Name?
âCharles R. Cobb
Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
Notes on Contributors