The Nanny Town Maroons of Jamaica (original) (raw)
Related papers
2022
The anthropological study of the African Diaspora is steeped in questions of identity. Slaves, people ripped from their homes and placed in a new socio-political and natural environment, had to create new identities; ones that were an amalgam of (predominantly) West African, Western European, and indigenous American cultures. This paper expands on these concepts by examining how the resistance of maroons, or escaped slaves, allowed for a unique series of cultures to be created during this ethnically concerning period of history. With anarchist theory and archaeological data from sites in the Caribbean and South America, I present a new image of these maroon communities: once where simply creating new lifeways was an everyday act of resistance. I conclude with an affirmation that these people were not only victims, but active, socially complex, and ingenuitive individuals who, through immense adversity, created lasting and successful communities.
In the context of the NEXUS1492 research programme, a pilot project on the Jamaican Encounter was launched in summer 2014. Traditional Jamaican histories present a narrative based on the “Myth of Indigenous extinction”, in which the Spanish colonization resulted in a rapidly declining Amerindian population and a complete destruction of indigenous communities by the time of the British take-over of the island in 1655. This project explores an alternative perspective, focused on Amerindian sociocultural connectivity, continuity and change. A primary aim was to undertake an inventory of encounter “Hot-spots”. Historical sources and information from previous archaeological surveys and excavations were used as a basis for an exploratory survey. Three regions were selected for further investigation in June-July 2014: West St. Ann parish, Guayguata (St. Mary parish) and Northeast Portland. Based on the results of this survey one of the identified “Hot-spots”, West St. Ann, was further explored in March 2015. The focus region covers the adjoining bays and interior of Puerto Bueno and Discovery Bay, and was the site of first interaction between Jamaican Amerindians and Columbus’ crew in 1494. We present here the initial results of the 2014 exploratory surveys and the 2015 excavations at the site of Bengal (A8) and survey of the inland Rio Bueno valley. Based on these preliminary results, a detailed reading of historical sources and newly developing subaltern histories of the Jamaican Encounter, we hypothesize that soon after first contact Jamaican communities abandoned coastal settlements like those at the Rio Bueno bay, possibly for the mountainous interior. This dispersal allowed them to escape colonial control. Indeed, Amerindian culture and society may have continued in a changed form through its connections with Maroon peoples.
Ethnohistory, 2000
Archaeological and historical research at Seville Plantation, Jamaica, are used to explain changes in settlement patterns within the estate's African Jamaican community between and the late nineteenth century. Sugar plantations, such as Seville, are marked by well-defined spatial order based upon economic and power relations that was imposed upon enslaved communities by planters and managers. Archaeological evidence is used to explore how enslaved Africans modified this imposed order and redefined boundaries in ways that correspond with the development of a distinct African Jamaican society. The rigidly defined linear housing arrangements initially established by the planter, and their relations to the Great House, sugar works, and fields, were reinterpreted by the enslaved residents of the village to create a degree of autonomy and freedom from constant surveillance that was at odds with the motives of the planter class. These changes occurred within the spatial parameters established by the planter, yet they reflect dynamic and creative social processes that resulted in the emergence of an African Jamaican community.
discussion demonstrates how people of African descent have incorporated Maroon history into a proud sense of heritage. Such incorporation of this terminology in the development of heritage identities represents instances of proud defiance, as the phrase was originally derived from a derogatory Spanish word of "cimarrone," which designated chattel that had run free. Similar communities of resistance were called palenques in Cuba and quilombos in Brazil. Q) In academic circles, Maroon archeology is often categorized as a "relatively new field of research." Why is this so?
Archaeology of marronage in the Caribbean Antilles
Revista do Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia, 2020
The archaeological study of maroons in the Caribbean Antilles presents both opportunities and challenges. On small islands, runaways had few places where they could seek refuge from slavery and elude capture for long periods of time. Consequently, such sites were occupied briefly and have been difficult to locate and identify. The Greater Antilles (Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico) had both short-term refuge sites and long-term settlements comparable to quilombos. Archaeologists have been most successful in their investigations maroons in Cuba and Jamaica. In Hispaniola, where I am working at the present, only a few cave sites and one presumed maniel (the local term for a long-term maroon settlements) have been studied. In this paper, I provide an overview of the archaeological study of maroons on the Caribbean Islands and my preliminary research to locate El Maniel de Ocoa, a major settlement of slave runaways for over a hundred years during 1500s-1660s.
The Jamaican Maroons of the 17th and 18th centuries: Survivalists of the New World
2021
The Jamaican Maroons, in the beginning, served as fugitive slaves avoiding captivity and liberating other enslaved people. To stop the Maroons from liberating other enslaved people, the British granting them freedom on the condition that they stop freeing slaves and even return runaways. Historians portray the Maroons as either freedom fighters or collaborators, sometimes even both. I argue that both narratives were a part of Maroon history, but I want to introduce them as survivalists. My research\u27s significance is that I am exploring how the Maroons transitioned from freedom fighters to collaborators through notions of cultural identity. This project aims to help people understand how identity is a social construct that can change over time
Decolonial Subversions, 2020
The intricate histories of Maroon ecology contain complex, layered histories of agency that shaped and redefined Maroon experiences. Rather than relying on one-sided colonial narratives of Maroon spatiality and ecological praxis that confine these experiences to the institution of slavery and defence against enslavement, this research goes deeper to explore agency through the ecological relations in the Maroon sites of Jamaica and Brazil from 1630 to 1780. By examining existing literature on Maroon experiences, this work seeks to re-imagine these relations by recognising Maroon ecology both in context and as a legitimate part of history. It also seeks to develop a framework that offers deeper insight into Maroon ecology, mainly through understanding the inextricable link between the environment and Maroon experiences.