Robin Beck | University of Michigan (original) (raw)
Books by Robin Beck
Built in 1566 by Spanish conquistador Juan Pardo, Fort San Juan is the earliest known European se... more Built in 1566 by Spanish conquistador Juan Pardo, Fort San Juan is the earliest known European settlement in the interior United States. Located at the Berry site in western North Carolina, the fort and its associated domestic compound stood near the Native American town of Joara, whose residents sacked the fort and burned the compound after only eighteen months.
Drawing on archaeological evidence from architectural, floral, and faunal remains, as well as newly discovered accounts of Pardo's expeditions, this volume explores the deterioration in Native American–Spanish relations that sparked Joara's revolt and offers critical insight into the nature of early colonial interactions.
This book provides a new conceptual framework for understanding how the Indian nations of the ear... more This book provides a new conceptual framework for understanding how the Indian nations of the early American South emerged from the ruins of a precolonial, Mississippian world. A broad regional synthesis that ranges over much of the Eastern Woodlands, its focus is on the Indians of the Carolina Piedmont – the Catawbas and their neighbors – from 1400 to 1725. Using an “eventful” approach to social change, Robin Beck argues that the collapse of the Mississippian world was fundamentally a transformation of political economy, from one built on maize to one of guns, slaves, and hides. The story takes us from first encounters through the rise of the Indian slave trade and the scourge of disease to the wars that shook the American South in the early 1700s. Yet the book's focus remains on the Catawbas, drawing on their experiences in a violent, unstable landscape to develop a comparative perspective on structural continuity and change.
Papers by Robin Beck
The 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2015
Current Anthropology, 2020
Few concepts in the anthropology of colonialism stir as much debate as hybridity, a term borrowed... more Few concepts in the anthropology of colonialism stir as much debate as hybridity, a term borrowed from postcolonial theory in literary studies that—initially at least—was used to refer to the actions of marginalized and subaltern groups to subvert prevailing relations of power. While archaeologists have emphasized group ideologies and personal motivations that promote cultural mixing, the absence of analytical frameworks for modeling how such mixing unfolds in practice makes it difficult to reconcile philosophical debates about hybridity and related approaches. This article lays out such a framework, starting with an assumption that the problem of mixed material culture is structural at its core and thus requires a structural solution. Building on the conception of social structure promoted by sociologist William Sewell Jr., the proposed model considers the incorporation of novel forms at two different loci of agency—the object and the assemblage—and through their respective practices of production and consumption. The object-assemblage model is used, in turn, to explore a colonial encounter between the Native town of Joara and the Spanish garrison, Fort San Juan, from 1566 to 1568, uniquely allowing us to envision how native and settler participants engaged new ideas and resources to transform their material cultures.
The primary purpose of this edited volume is to formalize as a theory the historical turn in sout... more The primary purpose of this edited volume is to formalize as a theory the historical turn in southeastern archaeology (and American archaeology) and provide a number of case studies illustrating the use of the theory in the region. In previous decades, archaeologists and other scholars studying what is commonly termed “prehistoric” America emphasized long-term, evolutionary change and adaptation, and archaeologists conceptualized pre-colonial societies like living organisms adapting to environmental challenges rather than as collections of people responding to historical trends and forces. The history of archaeology and the reasons for this conceptual frame are complex and deeply rooted in misconceptions about indigenous people as unchanging, static “people without history” who disappeared soon after Europeans arrived in North America. Today, however, archaeologists are combining evolutionary processes with a new understanding that so-called prehistory was also historical, contingen...
American Antiquity, 2018
From 1565 to 1570, Spain established no fewer than three networks of presidios (fortified militar... more From 1565 to 1570, Spain established no fewer than three networks of presidios (fortified military settlements) across portions of its frontier territories in La Florida and New Spain. Juan Pardo's network of six forts, extending from the Atlantic coast over the Appalachian Mountains, was the least successful of these presidio systems, lasting only from late 1566 to early 1568. The failure of Pardo's defensive network has long been attributed to poor planning and an insufficient investment of resources. Yet recent archaeological discoveries at the Berry site in western North Carolina—the location of both the Native American town of Joara and Pardo's first garrison, Fort San Juan—warrants a reappraisal of this interpretation. While previous archaeological research at Berry concentrated on the domestic compound where Pardo's soldiers resided, the location of the fort itself remained unknown. In 2013, the remains of Fort San Juan were finally identified south of the com...
Historical Archaeology, 2017
American Anthropologist, 2016
Archaeological Research Facility, Feb 1, 1999
American Antiquity, 2016
Beginning with Kathleen Deagan’s description of the St. Augustine Pattern, in which domestic rela... more Beginning with Kathleen Deagan’s description of the St. Augustine Pattern, in which domestic relations between Spanish men and Native American women contributed to a pattern of mestizaje in Spanish colonies, gender has assumed a central role in archaeological perspectives on colonial encounters. This is especially true for those encounters that accompanied colonialism in the Americas during the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. Gender relations were essential to the creation of new cultural identities during this time, as indigenous communities encountered immigrant, European settler groups often comprised mostly or entirely of adult men. Yet as significant as gender is for understanding how an encounter unfolded in time and space, it can be a challenge to identify and evaluate the archaeological correlates of such relations through material culture patterns. In this article, we use the related domains of food and foodways, particularly in the social context of provisionin...
Southeastern Archaeology, 2014
Abstract The recent turn in archaeology and other social sciences to the microscale analysis of a... more Abstract The recent turn in archaeology and other social sciences to the microscale analysis of agency, personhood, and identity has led to a neglect of analysis at the macroscale. With older frameworks such as neoevolution discredited or rejected, there has been relatively little emphasis on patterns of social change at larger geographical and temporal scales. Proceeding from the work of sociologist William Sewell Jr., I suggest that a focus on structures, events, and processes offers Southeastern archaeology a useful and theoretically flexible perspective on such patterns of incremental and exponential social change.
Latin American Antiquity, 2004
A regional approach to public architecture offers a useful medium through which to study changes ... more A regional approach to public architecture offers a useful medium through which to study changes in the scale of integrative institutions. Changes in political structure are often associated with changes in the scale and complexity of public ritual space. In Bolivia’s Lake Titicaca Basin, Middle Formative period (800–250 B.C.) villagers along the Taraco Peninsula built earthen platforms that visually dominated their settlements. Until recently, research on the peninsula had focused almost exclusively on the site of Chiripa, with the result that little was known of the regional context in which this site and its neighbors emerged. Now, after excavations at the contemporaneous site of Alto Pukara, the sequence of public architecture at Middle Formative communities may be viewed within a regional context. This paper evaluates the trajectory of institutional complexity along the Taraco Peninsula through a formal comparison of public ritual architecture at Alto Pukara and Chiripa. Six cr...
Current Anthropology, 2007
... for durable, structural change, bridging the disciplinary divide between narrative history an... more ... for durable, structural change, bridging the disciplinary divide between narrative history and social theory. While his project is an explicit invitation to historians, cultural anthropologists, and sociologists for sweeping interdisciplinary dialogue, we believe that archaeology has a ...
The Durable House: House Society Models in …, 2007
Leadership and polity in Mississippian society, 2006
Built in 1566 by Spanish conquistador Juan Pardo, Fort San Juan is the earliest known European se... more Built in 1566 by Spanish conquistador Juan Pardo, Fort San Juan is the earliest known European settlement in the interior United States. Located at the Berry site in western North Carolina, the fort and its associated domestic compound stood near the Native American town of Joara, whose residents sacked the fort and burned the compound after only eighteen months.
Drawing on archaeological evidence from architectural, floral, and faunal remains, as well as newly discovered accounts of Pardo's expeditions, this volume explores the deterioration in Native American–Spanish relations that sparked Joara's revolt and offers critical insight into the nature of early colonial interactions.
This book provides a new conceptual framework for understanding how the Indian nations of the ear... more This book provides a new conceptual framework for understanding how the Indian nations of the early American South emerged from the ruins of a precolonial, Mississippian world. A broad regional synthesis that ranges over much of the Eastern Woodlands, its focus is on the Indians of the Carolina Piedmont – the Catawbas and their neighbors – from 1400 to 1725. Using an “eventful” approach to social change, Robin Beck argues that the collapse of the Mississippian world was fundamentally a transformation of political economy, from one built on maize to one of guns, slaves, and hides. The story takes us from first encounters through the rise of the Indian slave trade and the scourge of disease to the wars that shook the American South in the early 1700s. Yet the book's focus remains on the Catawbas, drawing on their experiences in a violent, unstable landscape to develop a comparative perspective on structural continuity and change.
The 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2015
Current Anthropology, 2020
Few concepts in the anthropology of colonialism stir as much debate as hybridity, a term borrowed... more Few concepts in the anthropology of colonialism stir as much debate as hybridity, a term borrowed from postcolonial theory in literary studies that—initially at least—was used to refer to the actions of marginalized and subaltern groups to subvert prevailing relations of power. While archaeologists have emphasized group ideologies and personal motivations that promote cultural mixing, the absence of analytical frameworks for modeling how such mixing unfolds in practice makes it difficult to reconcile philosophical debates about hybridity and related approaches. This article lays out such a framework, starting with an assumption that the problem of mixed material culture is structural at its core and thus requires a structural solution. Building on the conception of social structure promoted by sociologist William Sewell Jr., the proposed model considers the incorporation of novel forms at two different loci of agency—the object and the assemblage—and through their respective practices of production and consumption. The object-assemblage model is used, in turn, to explore a colonial encounter between the Native town of Joara and the Spanish garrison, Fort San Juan, from 1566 to 1568, uniquely allowing us to envision how native and settler participants engaged new ideas and resources to transform their material cultures.
The primary purpose of this edited volume is to formalize as a theory the historical turn in sout... more The primary purpose of this edited volume is to formalize as a theory the historical turn in southeastern archaeology (and American archaeology) and provide a number of case studies illustrating the use of the theory in the region. In previous decades, archaeologists and other scholars studying what is commonly termed “prehistoric” America emphasized long-term, evolutionary change and adaptation, and archaeologists conceptualized pre-colonial societies like living organisms adapting to environmental challenges rather than as collections of people responding to historical trends and forces. The history of archaeology and the reasons for this conceptual frame are complex and deeply rooted in misconceptions about indigenous people as unchanging, static “people without history” who disappeared soon after Europeans arrived in North America. Today, however, archaeologists are combining evolutionary processes with a new understanding that so-called prehistory was also historical, contingen...
American Antiquity, 2018
From 1565 to 1570, Spain established no fewer than three networks of presidios (fortified militar... more From 1565 to 1570, Spain established no fewer than three networks of presidios (fortified military settlements) across portions of its frontier territories in La Florida and New Spain. Juan Pardo's network of six forts, extending from the Atlantic coast over the Appalachian Mountains, was the least successful of these presidio systems, lasting only from late 1566 to early 1568. The failure of Pardo's defensive network has long been attributed to poor planning and an insufficient investment of resources. Yet recent archaeological discoveries at the Berry site in western North Carolina—the location of both the Native American town of Joara and Pardo's first garrison, Fort San Juan—warrants a reappraisal of this interpretation. While previous archaeological research at Berry concentrated on the domestic compound where Pardo's soldiers resided, the location of the fort itself remained unknown. In 2013, the remains of Fort San Juan were finally identified south of the com...
Historical Archaeology, 2017
American Anthropologist, 2016
Archaeological Research Facility, Feb 1, 1999
American Antiquity, 2016
Beginning with Kathleen Deagan’s description of the St. Augustine Pattern, in which domestic rela... more Beginning with Kathleen Deagan’s description of the St. Augustine Pattern, in which domestic relations between Spanish men and Native American women contributed to a pattern of mestizaje in Spanish colonies, gender has assumed a central role in archaeological perspectives on colonial encounters. This is especially true for those encounters that accompanied colonialism in the Americas during the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. Gender relations were essential to the creation of new cultural identities during this time, as indigenous communities encountered immigrant, European settler groups often comprised mostly or entirely of adult men. Yet as significant as gender is for understanding how an encounter unfolded in time and space, it can be a challenge to identify and evaluate the archaeological correlates of such relations through material culture patterns. In this article, we use the related domains of food and foodways, particularly in the social context of provisionin...
Southeastern Archaeology, 2014
Abstract The recent turn in archaeology and other social sciences to the microscale analysis of a... more Abstract The recent turn in archaeology and other social sciences to the microscale analysis of agency, personhood, and identity has led to a neglect of analysis at the macroscale. With older frameworks such as neoevolution discredited or rejected, there has been relatively little emphasis on patterns of social change at larger geographical and temporal scales. Proceeding from the work of sociologist William Sewell Jr., I suggest that a focus on structures, events, and processes offers Southeastern archaeology a useful and theoretically flexible perspective on such patterns of incremental and exponential social change.
Latin American Antiquity, 2004
A regional approach to public architecture offers a useful medium through which to study changes ... more A regional approach to public architecture offers a useful medium through which to study changes in the scale of integrative institutions. Changes in political structure are often associated with changes in the scale and complexity of public ritual space. In Bolivia’s Lake Titicaca Basin, Middle Formative period (800–250 B.C.) villagers along the Taraco Peninsula built earthen platforms that visually dominated their settlements. Until recently, research on the peninsula had focused almost exclusively on the site of Chiripa, with the result that little was known of the regional context in which this site and its neighbors emerged. Now, after excavations at the contemporaneous site of Alto Pukara, the sequence of public architecture at Middle Formative communities may be viewed within a regional context. This paper evaluates the trajectory of institutional complexity along the Taraco Peninsula through a formal comparison of public ritual architecture at Alto Pukara and Chiripa. Six cr...
Current Anthropology, 2007
... for durable, structural change, bridging the disciplinary divide between narrative history an... more ... for durable, structural change, bridging the disciplinary divide between narrative history and social theory. While his project is an explicit invitation to historians, cultural anthropologists, and sociologists for sweeping interdisciplinary dialogue, we believe that archaeology has a ...
The Durable House: House Society Models in …, 2007
Leadership and polity in Mississippian society, 2006
Southeastern Archaeology, 1997
... one of these sites might have been Cauchi. At Cauchi, Pardo met with several caciques, five o... more ... one of these sites might have been Cauchi. At Cauchi, Pardo met with several caciques, five of which, according to Charles Hudson, were: ...a most interesting group of chiefs: Nequase Orata, Estate Orata, Tacoru Orata, Utaca Orata, and Quetua Orata. ...
... 1983; Hudson et al. 1984). Excavations at the Berry site resumed in 2001 and 2002 as part of ... more ... 1983; Hudson et al. 1984). Excavations at the Berry site resumed in 2001 and 2002 as part of Warren Wilson College's Catawba Valley Archaeological Project (Hargroveand Beck 2001; Moore and Rodning 2001; Rodning et al. 2002). ...
Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, 2011
ABSTRACTMax Weber's concept of routinization offers a useful framework for understanding the ... more ABSTRACTMax Weber's concept of routinization offers a useful framework for understanding the relationship between political economy and the organization of religious movements. Here, we apply this concept to a comparison of Hopewell and Mississippian, two of the most important religious movements in the precolonial Eastern Woodlands. We focus on two archaeological contexts in particular—Mound 25 at the Hopewell site and Mound C at Etowah—to illustrate how Weber's concept allows for a more nuanced comparison than concepts associated with a more traditional neoevolutionary logic.