Colonies, Colonialism, and Cultural Entanglement: The Archaeology of Postcolumbian Intercultural Relations

Incorporation and Colonization: Postcolumbian Iroquois Satellite Communities and Processes of Indigenous Autonomy

“…Although these Iroquois colonies shared some of the same motivations as European colonies—such as a desire to control resources and trade routes or cement social relations—they differed from larger, ongoing European colonies in that they did not establish relations of intercultural domination. They were what Stein (2002) might call “colonies without colonialism,” or, perhaps more accurately, colonies with a limited radius of control with numerous gaps and interstices (Jordan 2009:35). The example of Iroquois colonies underscores the variability in the social and ecological effects of colonization and suggests that contextual reexamination is crucial to analysis of colonies of all sorts (cf.…”

“…This view of autonomy is multiscalar and directly connected to daily practice: “the politics in which [people] engage, both in the public domain and in everyday life, involves a struggle … over freedom, agency, the power to choose, to act independently, to be free of ideology, domination and dependency” (Williams 2008:80). Autonomy in this sense can be dramatically limited (but never completely eclipsed) by institutions of repression, as in the case of enslaved individuals or indigenous groups subject to colonial containment, or can be expressed more readily, as in the situation of persons and groups living beyond the margins of state control, who are entangled with, but not dominated by, state societies (Alexander 1998; Jordan 2009).…”

Understanding the built environment at the Seneca Iroquois White Springs Site using large-scale, multi-instrument archaeogeophysical surveys

“…The forced abandonment of communities caused by the French invasion indicates the relative abruptness and unusual nature of this move and puts White Springs in a unique position for examining Seneca reactions to hardship created by colonial interactions. The site is also noteworthy because it was occupied during an interesting time in Seneca Iroquois history: a period of entanglement between the Northern Iroquoians and European colonists and traders (Alexander, 1998, p. 485), but before the full force of settlercolonialism descended on this region (Harris, 2004;Jordan, 2009;Silliman, 2005).…”

Re-emerging Frontiers: Postcolonial Theory and Historical Archaeology of the Borderlands

“…They found a fertile ground in the studies of colonial interactions in historical archaeology (so-called culture contact studies) and altered the way of looking at the process of acculturation and colonizer-colonized discourses (e.g. Hall 2000;Jordan 2008;Voss 2008). However, the relevance of postcolonial theories extends beyond the studies of colonial realities.…”