Seasons of Gold

Abstract

This chapter builds from the previous two chapters and concludes the section on Gold. It uses linguistic and visual analysis to show how Taíno and Afro-Taíno understandings of the relationship between plants, metals influenced the legal codes and daily operations of gold processing in La Española. By juxtaposing colonial petitions, imperial ordinances, and Taíno oral traditions, this chapter argues for a new reading of the Afro-Taíno influences in the colonial gold industry – the very sector that epitomized the extractive nature of the early modern Spanish empire.