Ethnohistory Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

An inquiry into the ethnic and linguistic composition of the Late Postclassic and Colonial peoples of the Cotzumalhuapa region of the Pacific Coast of Guatemala. Documentary and archeological research provides a basis to locate Colonial... more

An inquiry into the ethnic and linguistic composition of the Late Postclassic and Colonial peoples of the Cotzumalhuapa region of the Pacific Coast of Guatemala. Documentary and archeological research provides a basis to locate Colonial towns in the area, and to identify their inhabitants as Pipil and Kaqchikel speakers. The latter were politically dominant, and their presence derived from the Late Postclassic expansion of the highland kingdom centered at Iximche, seeking the valuable cacao-producing territories of the Pacific piedmont. Excavations at a household compound near the site of Bilbao allow a preliminary glimpse at the Postclassic peoples of the area.

Ethnohistory 2009 In 2003, construction began on a graving dock that would bring marine projects to the Olympic Peninsula and provide family-wage jobs. It appeared to be a good fit for the city of Port Angeles, Washington, and its... more

Ethnohistory 2009
In 2003, construction began on a graving dock that would bring marine projects to the Olympic Peninsula and provide family-wage jobs. It appeared to be a good fit for the city of Port Angeles, Washington, and its surrounding communities. Shortly after construction began, workers unearthed an approximately 2,700–year- old Coast Salish village and cemetery, claimed by the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe as an ancestral site. Significantly, indigenous reports of being haunted by the spirits of their disturbed ancestors and nonnative desires to bury the past and move forward resulted in intercultural conflicts and misunderstandings. Such struggles speak to the contested nature of history and the deeply rooted concerns about the region’s socioeconomic future following the decline of natural resource industries.

La exposición “El Caribe precolombino. Fray Ramón Pané y el universo taíno”, organizada por el Museo Barbier-Mueller de Arte Precolombino de Barcelona, constituye un homenaje a Pané que nos permite al mismo tiempo conocer la vida de este... more

La exposición “El Caribe precolombino. Fray Ramón Pané y el universo taíno”, organizada por el Museo Barbier-Mueller de Arte Precolombino de Barcelona, constituye un homenaje a Pané que nos permite al mismo tiempo conocer la vida de este modesto fraile jerónimo, que sembró una pequeña semilla de integración. Este catálogo recoge textos de un grupo de reconocidos investigadores que realizan aquí una importante aportación: ponen a nuestro alcance una mirada próxima a la realidad personal de Pané, presentándonos en detalle la situación histórica que vivía España y el Caribe en el momento del segundo viaje de Colón, y nos analizan y describen las piezas de arte taíno que se presentan en la exposición.

The publication of my transcription of Paul Kane's field notes in 1989 shed a very different light on Kane as both a traveller and, perhaps more glaringly, an author. Not permitted schooling by his father because he wanted to be a... more

The publication of my transcription of Paul Kane's field notes in 1989 shed a very different light on Kane as both a traveller and, perhaps more glaringly, an author. Not permitted schooling by his father because he wanted to be a painter, Kane was hamstrung by only phonetic spelling. Nevertheless, his persona in his own writing is much more colourful and less typical than is the first-person persona in "his" book, *Wanderings of an Artist among the Indians of North America* (1859), in which Kane is bumped up to a refined gentleman. Moreover, the field notes show us how Kane recorded his encounters with native people from day to day, not in retrospect.

"Vienna’s Museum für Vökerkunde holds in its collections a rare sixteenth-century Taíno cotton belt from Hispaniola (today’s Dominican Republic/Haiti) – one of only two surviving Taíno cotton artefacts to feature European ‘exotics’,... more

"Vienna’s Museum für Vökerkunde holds in its collections a rare sixteenth-century Taíno cotton
belt from Hispaniola (today’s Dominican Republic/Haiti) – one of only two surviving Taíno
cotton artefacts to feature European ‘exotics’, including mirrors, jet beads and brass. This complex
woven structure – a wearable work of art – offers a rare window on to one of the most prestigious
of Taı´no valuables, a personal ornament that literally wrapped the wearer in wealth, status and
spiritual power. The paper charts the original context and use of Taı´no belts, and provides a
detailed account of the Vienna belt’s collection history, its construction and its chronological
placement (radiocarbon-dated using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) to AD 1475–1635). The
question of how and when the European materials were incorporated into the belt is explored,
critically engaging the entangled histories of association between the two."

In the eighteenth-century, France’s metropolitan authorities and colonial officials tasked the French western explorer Pierre de La Vérendrye to integrate the Indigenous peoples of the Petit Nord – Cree, Assiniboine, Monsoni,... more

In the eighteenth-century, France’s metropolitan authorities and colonial officials tasked the French western explorer Pierre de La Vérendrye to integrate the Indigenous peoples of the Petit Nord – Cree, Assiniboine, Monsoni, Anishinaabeg, and Dakota – into the network of French-mediated alliances emanating from the Great Lakes. The governor-general of New France, known as Onontio by the Natives, sought to ensure the symbolic subjugation of all Indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes and the Petit Nord. Unlike the Great Lakes, devastated by endemic warfare and virulent diseases, the Indigenous social formations of the Petit Nord and Northern Great Plains remained politically cohesive and autonomous in the eighteenth-century. Thus, the Cree, Assiniboine, Dakota, and others, resisted creating a “middle ground” with La Vérendrye and other French newcomers, as they had little desire or need of French mediation in their territories. La Vérendrye’s ambitions for a French-mediated peace, or “Pax Gallica,” were thwarted in the overwhelmingly Native political space of the Petit Nord and Northern Great Plains.

​ ​ This article explores the roles of the indigenous Nahuatl language in the production of the imagined nation of Aztlán, a central idea in the US Chicano movement. We adopt a theoretical approach from linguistic anthropology, in which... more

​ ​ This article explores the roles of the indigenous Nahuatl language in the production of the imagined nation of Aztlán, a central idea in the US Chicano movement. We adopt a theoretical approach from linguistic anthropology, in which we attend to the role of language as a source of historical knowledge about the past, and also as a medium for the production of metahistorical narratives. We describe the history of the Nahuatl language and its speakers, and how the concept idea of Aztlán has been used first as a source of identity among the Nahuatl speaking peoples of Mexico, then as a symbol of Mexican national origins, and finally as a source of identity and dignity among Chicano people in the US. We argue that just as the Nahuas saw the Nahuatl language as defining a pan-­Nahua identity including politically separate city-­states, today Chicanos use the Nahuatl language and its related cultural practices to embody a transnational community.

In some ways it is comforting that Mesoamerican archaeologists, especially Mayanists, return time and again to the same topics of investigation. Per-haps it is the embarrassment of riches we steward, the complex architecture and... more

In some ways it is comforting that Mesoamerican archaeologists, especially Mayanists, return time and again to the same topics of investigation. Per-haps it is the embarrassment of riches we steward, the complex architecture and breathtaking art of Classic urban centers. ...

Несколько тривиальных слов от исследователя, автора этих строк. Целеполагание является одной из характеристик научного познания, что наряду с верификацией делает историю наукой. четкое определение параметров исследуемого объекта позволяет... more

Несколько тривиальных слов от исследователя, автора этих строк. Целеполагание является одной из характеристик научного познания, что наряду с верификацией делает историю наукой. четкое определение параметров исследуемого объекта позволяет ограничить, отделить его от других объектов, если так можно выразиться объективировать объективное. В нашем случае параметрами объекта выступают заявленные в названии работы понятия «Документы», «Территория (земли) чКВ», «Граница», «Этническая история».

The article analyzes the phenomenon of tourism within the current globalizing and postmodern contexts. It is based on the cultural relationship between Chan Kom, a Maya community in the Yucatán Peninsula, and Cancún, the international... more

The article analyzes the phenomenon of tourism within the current globalizing and postmodern contexts. It is based on the cultural relationship between Chan Kom, a Maya community in the Yucatán Peninsula, and Cancún, the international tourist emporium. The tourist culture of Cancún embeds rules of production and consumption radically different from those encapsulated in the milpa or cornfield ideology that Maya experience in their communities. The study presents a dialogue between Chan Kom's social fragmentation due to out-migration to Cancún and the Mayanization of the socioeconomic and cultural landscape of the international Cancún. The goal is to discover the kaleidoscopic representations of Cancún as a tourist market product through the prism of the Maya ideological and socioeconomic presence.

This workshop will present the Florentine Codex Initiative at the Getty Research Institute and examine specific work issues related to it. With the goal of increasing global access to the Florentine Codex, the Initiative will provide full... more

This workshop will present the Florentine Codex Initiative at the Getty Research Institute and examine specific work issues related to it. With the goal of increasing global access to the Florentine Codex, the Initiative will provide full digital access to the folios of the illuminated manuscript as well as transcriptions and translations of its texts. The indigenous-focused, language-centered design of the website component of the project, titled the Digital Florentine Codex, will include a dynamic interface allowing users to seamlessly view folios alongside transcriptions and translations in with fully searchable data including keyword tagged images. In order to achieve this, three members of the team are dedicated to composing 4,000 trilingual (English, Spanish, Nahuatl) entries to the Getty vocabularies drawn from the codex’s encyclopedic visual and linguistic content. In addition to the website, the Initiative will produce a scholarly digital publication on Book 12 accompanied by educational programming and lesson plans for K-12 educators and their students. The presenters will report on the current state of the initiative, explore some of the challenges the Getty team has encountered and seek feedback on best practices and research utility of the initiative’s outcomes from the attendees.
Presenters: Rebecca Dufendach, Kim Richter, Alanna Radlo-Dzur, Bérénice Gaillemin, Josh Fitzgerald

Book Reviews. I95. Thunder Rides a Black Horse: Mescalero Apaches and the Mythic Present. By Claire R. Farrer. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland, I994. X + II3 Thunder Rides a Black Horse: Mescalero Apaches and the Mythic. Thunder Rides a... more

Book Reviews. I95. Thunder Rides a Black Horse: Mescalero Apaches and the Mythic Present. By Claire R. Farrer. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland, I994. X + II3 Thunder Rides a Black Horse: Mescalero Apaches and the Mythic. Thunder Rides a Black Horse: Mescalero Apaches and the Mythic. thunder rides a blck horse Essay Vocabulary words for Mescalero Apache: thunder rides a black horse. people were real once upon a time and are reborn and present when talked about. Sororal Polygynous mythical relationship construing generosity and sharing. farrerpublications.htm-CSU, Chico Thunder Rides a Black Horse. Mescalero Apaches and the Mythic Present. Third Edition. Claire R. Farrer. Thunder's focus on the ways in which old myths and Thunder Rides a Black Horse: Mescalero Apaches and the Mythic. AbeBooks.

В работе предлагается комплексный взгляд на проблему происхождения палеоэскимосов и их культуры. Показывается, что генофонд палеоэскимосов складывался из двух компонентов — древнего палеосибирского, представленного геномом индивида из... more

В работе предлагается комплексный взгляд на проблему происхождения палеоэскимосов и их культуры. Показывается, что генофонд палеоэскимосов складывался из двух компонентов — древнего палеосибирского, представленного геномом индивида из Дуванного Яра, и восточноазиатского (линия D2a мтДНК), вероятно близкого к тем, что обнаружены у древних индивидов из пещеры Чертовы Ворота в Приморье и представителя китойской культуры в захоронении на оз. Ножий в Забайкалье. Миграция предков палеоэскимосов на Аляску определяется в диапазоне 7500–5500 кал. л. н. Делается вывод, что основные элементы специализированной палеоэскимосской традиции арктических морских охотников фиксируются на этапе существования культур Пре-Дорсет, Индепенденс I и Саккак. / The paper offers a comprehensive approach to the problem of origin of the Paleoskimos and their culture. It is demonstrated that the Paleoskimo gene pool was a product of two components — the Ancient Paleosiberian, represented by the genome of individual from the Duvanny Yar, and the East Asian (mtDNA line D2a), the latter of which is probably similar to genomes of individuals from the Chertovy Vorota Cave in Primorie, and from a burial of a Kitoi culture at lake Nozhiy in the Trans-Baikal area. The ancestors of the Paleoeskimos probably migrated to Alaska between 7,500 and 5,500 cal. BP. It is concluded that the main elements of the specialized Paleoskimo tradition of the Arctic maritime hunters may be referred to the period of existence of the Pre-Dorset, Independence I, and Saqqaq cultures.

Con la stesura di questa analisi, a fianco di uno studio più generico sulle teorie che hanno cercato di spiegare la formazione etnica e l'origine dei popoli barbarici, ci si vuole soffermare sul ruolo politico e "situazionale" che ha... more

Con la stesura di questa analisi, a fianco di uno studio più generico sulle teorie che hanno cercato di spiegare la formazione etnica e l'origine dei popoli barbarici, ci si vuole soffermare sul ruolo politico e "situazionale" che ha avuto la percezione identitaria all'interno di questi gruppi insediatisi in Europa occidentale tra Tardoantico e Medioevo. La prospettiva etnogenetica permette di considerare i tratti culturali in termini nuovi, ossia come strumenti via via utilizzati dai vari leader e capi per creare aggregazione e consenso, e dai vertici del potere dominante per legittimare il proprio status. La strumentalizzazione politica dell'identità etnica era perpetrata in modi diversi: o facendo proprie e manipolando a piacimento, a seconda della situazione, tradizioni di natura assai eterogenea, oppure inventandone di nuove, come per esempio genealogie e discendenze regie, battaglie leggendarie, o autoproclamandosi gli eredi di popoli antichi. Dietro ai nomi dei popoli barbari che ritroviamo nei manuali e che sembrano indicare realtà stabili, se non addirittura metastoriche, si cela invece una storia discontinua di cambiamenti incessanti, di interruzioni politiche e culturali, una storia dove questi stessi nomi sono stati soggetti a ripetute riappropriazioni per definire realtà nuove. Porre a critica l'idea che i "popoli barbarici" godessero di lineamenti culturali e sociali stabili e di come questi caratteri fossero percepiti diffusamente all'interno dei gruppi medesimi e non soltanto dalle élites (impiegati da queste come strategie di distinzione), risulta doppiamente insidioso se si considera che le principali fonti a nostra disposizione sono provenienti da autori romani o fortemente romanizzati. Queste fonti infatti non sono da sé impiegabili-senza un approccio critico-per una ricerca in questo senso, perché descrivevano le genti germaniche sempre in relazione dialettica con la civiltà romana, o comunque a partire da prospettive totalizzanti sempre infarcite da topoi e da pregiudizi. A supporto di un'analisi generica sui processi di etnogenesi, e per aiutare la comprensione di quale sia stata l'utilità politica e materiale delle rappresentazioni identitarie nell'affermazione dei vari regni romano-barbarici, si considereranno esempi più specifici tratti dalla storia altomedievale, e in particolare due casi che a riguardo sono emblematici: gli Ostrogoti e i Longobardi in Italia.

Studies on tribal philosophical thoughts are rare or non-existent in a Philippine society that included over a hundred tribes. This study brings into mainstream Philippine philosophy the thoughts of the Higaunon tribe regarding space and... more

Studies on tribal philosophical thoughts are rare or non-existent in a Philippine society that included over a hundred tribes. This study brings into mainstream Philippine philosophy the thoughts of the Higaunon tribe regarding space and time, being and the self, ethics, and epistemology. Descriptive qualitative method was employed in this study. Higaunon stories from their culture and past were gathered through interviews with authoritative tribal leaders and shamans. Analysis was substantiated through community immersion and regular interaction with the tribal leaders so that structures of their thoughts can be revealed and considered as philosophical. The study found that the Higaunon consider space and nature as equally important as human beings, and duration instead of time prevails in their stories. Their "being" is found in the will of the Magbabaya, their one God. Their concept of "self" works under a tripartite structure that enables the learning of the past to be manifested in the projection of a future and in decision-making in the present. Decision-making is connected to their ethics, which essence is called Ginagawa, the source of love, compassion and judgment. The individual judges present circumstances and acts on them in the exercise of themselves as weighing scales referred as Gantangan. In terms of leadership, the Datu becomes Batasan Adansil, the exercise of Gantangan through tribal leadership. Epistemology is taken from human engagements and is kept within tradition by the Baylan. The study concludes that tribal philosophical thoughts are indeed viable and the Higaunon is a good example of it.

What is a 'traditional' society? How does the narrative of modernity clash with historical reality? This is the first paper I published which questions the prevailing wisdom of Mesoamerican ethnology, that we can read the ancient Maya... more

What is a 'traditional' society? How does the narrative of modernity clash with historical reality? This is the first paper I published which questions the prevailing wisdom of Mesoamerican ethnology, that we can read the ancient Maya past from their modern descendants. It has never been cited to my knowledge!

Located above Rincon Creek on the Santa Barbara coast, CA-SBA-141 produced an artifact assemblage that was important in the development of a cultural historical sequence for the Chumash region . This report documents the first radiocarbon... more

Located above Rincon Creek on the Santa Barbara coast, CA-SBA-141 produced an artifact assemblage that was important in the development of a cultural historical sequence for the Chumash region . This report documents the first radiocarbon dates for Harrison's collections, which suggest that the site was occupied at least twice, once at roughly 7,600 years ago and again around 5,000 years ago. What Harrison interpreted as an intermediate site dating to the Middle Holocene appears to have been a multicomponent site mixed by bioturbation, grading, and agricultural practices.

... were being held in such a frenzy that as a result of this immoderate dancing more than ... For example, the going rate for Indian labor at the time of the Ghost Dance was $1.25 a ... Contrast this situation with that of the Plains... more

... were being held in such a frenzy that as a result of this immoderate dancing more than ... For example, the going rate for Indian labor at the time of the Ghost Dance was $1.25 a ... Contrast this situation with that of the Plains groups which had adopted the horse and subsequently ...

The purpose of this study was to explore the ways in which working-class Kānaka Hawai’i (Native Hawaiian) immigrants in the nineteenth century repurposed and repackaged precontact Hawai’i strategies of accommodation and resistance in... more

The purpose of this study was to explore the ways in which working-class Kānaka Hawai’i (Native Hawaiian) immigrants in the nineteenth century repurposed and repackaged precontact Hawai’i strategies of accommodation and resistance in their migration towards North America and particularly within California. The arrival of European naturalists, American missionaries, and foreign merchants in the Hawaiian Islands is frequently attributed for triggering this diaspora. However, little has been written about why Hawaiian immigrants themselves chose to migrate eastward across the Pacific or their reasons for permanent settlement in California. Like the ali’i on the Islands, Hawaiian commoners in the diaspora exercised agency in their accommodation and resistance to Pacific imperialism and colonialism as well. Blending labor history, religious history, and anthropology, this thesis adopts an interdisciplinary and ethnohistorical approach that utilizes Hawaiian-language newspapers, American missionary letters, and oral histories from California’s indigenous peoples. I argue that precontact strategies were critical to preserving and holding onto an ethnic Hawaiian identity in encounters with merchants, missionaries, and indigenous peoples in California throughout the 1800s.

Birds and their feathers have long occupied a unique place in the social, cultural, and intellectual life of the Americas. This was particularly so in Mesoamerica, where ancient civilizations and colonial societies developed extensive... more

Birds and their feathers have long occupied a unique place in the social, cultural, and intellectual life of the Americas. This was particularly so in Mesoamerica, where ancient civilizations and colonial societies developed extensive knowledge of birds, their behaviors and habitats, and their vibrant plumage. This special issue brings together scholars from a variety of disciplines, including art history, history, and biology, to promote discussion among the arts, social sciences, and natural sciences on the role of birds and feathers in Mesoamerica. This introductory essay first provides a discussion of the major trends in the scholarship on birds and feathers in ancient and colonial Mesoamerica. It then highlights the contributions of the articles in the special issue to our understanding of the multifaceted roles that both symbolic and real birds and their feathers played in indigenous and transatlantic knowledge systems and societies.

Os territórios da bacia do rio Tibagi no Paraná foram ocupados, desde tempos imemoraveis, por populações indígenas, que sempre defenderam suas matas, seus campos e rios dos invasores. Pretendemos apresentar aqui a guerra de conquista... more

Os territórios da bacia do rio Tibagi no Paraná foram ocupados, desde tempos imemoraveis, por populações indígenas, que sempre defenderam suas matas, seus campos e rios dos invasores. Pretendemos apresentar aqui a guerra de conquista movida contra essas populações e seus territórios pelos brancos, europeus e nacionais, até o século XIX. Ela teve inicio já nas primeiras décadas do século XVI, em nome do "Rei" (Espanha e Portugal) e "Deus" (Reduções Jesuíticas), com as expedições portuguesas e espanholas cruzando a região em busca e metais, escravos, e de uma rota para o Paraguai e Peru. Acentuou-se nos seiscentos com a implantação das Reduções Jesuíticas no Guairá e com as bandeiras paulistas que invadiram a região capturando índios. Prosseguiu no século XVIII com a descoberta de ouro e diamantes no Tibagi e com as expedições militares que construíram fortificações e cruzaram o território rumo ao Mato Grosso. Recrudesceu no novecentos, em nome da "Nação Brasileira" que se fundava, com a ocupação da bacia oriental do Tibagi, e a partir da segunda metade do século, com a invasão dos campos do cacique Kaingang Inhoó, pelos grandes fazendeiros dos Campos Gerais paranaense na expansão de seus domínios

Presenta los resultados finales de nuestra investigación de maestría, que ubicó pueblos indígenas que habitaron la Meseta Central de Brazil (desde el año de 1700 AD), y por lo tanto una parte de la sabana, antes de la invasión... more

Presenta los resultados finales de nuestra investigación de maestría, que ubicó pueblos indígenas que habitaron la Meseta Central de Brazil (desde el año de 1700 AD), y por lo tanto una parte de la sabana, antes de la invasión luso-brasileña hasta el año de 1900 AD. La metodología se basa en la antropogeografía de Ratzel (1909), con el apoyo de la etnohistoria y asesoramiento de la cartografía. Fue utilizado como base el mapa etno-historico de Curt Nimuendaju que presenta un "vacío" etnográfico en esta zona. Es aclarado un problema que es la insuficiencia de información cartográfica sobre quien eran y dónde estaban los pueblos indígenas del Brasil Central, sobre todo en un polígono que abarca el noroeste y oeste del Estado de Minas Gerais, en todo el Estado de Goiás, extremo noreste de Mato Grosso y sudoeste de Pará, gran parte del Estado de Tocantins, la región sur de Maranhão y Piauí, y Bahía occidental. Fue utilizado varios productos cartográficos como el mapa etnolingüístico del Čestmír Loukotka y mapas históricos disponibles en archivos públicos en Brasil y Portugal. También es realizado un mapeo inédito de la ubicación de los grupos étnicos enumerados en el histórico de la base de datos IBGE ciudades. Ademas, es recopilado desde esta fuente las fechas de colonización y fundación de pueblos y ciudades, para ilustrar el progreso Luso-Brasileño en el territorio indígena, así como el despliegue de los asentamientos por parte del Estado. Las conclusiones son que hubó por lo menos 200 grupos étnicos en la meseta central del Brasil y las zonas adyacentes, añadindo 88 a los 112 que figuran en el mapa de Nimuendaju. Por medio de mapas es ilustrado la dinámica de ocupación indígena, con las migraciones, las diásporas y las desapariciones de decenas de estos grupos étnicos. La contribución de este trabajo consiste en fortalecer la territorialidad indígena en la historia del país, especialmente en el centro de Brasil. Los resultados pueden ilustrar libros de texto y el contenido pedagógico de la historia y de la geografía, de acuerdo con la Ley 11.645/08 del país. También pueden colaborar en los estudios sobre el origen étnica de las zonas rurales de Brasil. En general, hay al menos dos comunidades indí-genas emergentes, los Aricobé y los Xakriabá, es posible que tienga restos de otras comunidades, especialmente los Akroá, Cayapó y Guegue. La continuacion de esta investigación será presentada el la ponencia: "Reductos y refugios bioculturales en las fronteras de la globalización: sociobioterritorialidades en el este de Sudamerica durante y después de las invasiones europeas" en el EGAL 2019."

This research evaluates and discusses distinct types of data to propose the possible existence of an extinct lake which was reported by the chronicles and depicted on most South American maps from the end of the 16th century to the... more

This research evaluates and discusses distinct types of data to propose the possible existence of an extinct lake which was reported by the chronicles and depicted on most South American maps from the end of the 16th century to the mid-19th century. The methodology and results derive from the analysis and combination of historical sources, indigenous oral traditions, geological and archaeological studies, digital elevation models (DEM) as well as aerial, and satellite remote sensing surveys performed by NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Missions (SRTM), the Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) instrument, and the TanDEM-X synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). In addition, an assemblage of artifacts discovered within the study area is also assessed and contrasted to the historical and the remote sensing results.

This paper examines the documentary evidence regarding slaveholding by persons of mixed African and European descent in the West African coastal town of Elmina during the nineteenth century. It focuses on the extent of Afro-European... more

This paper examines the documentary evidence regarding slaveholding by persons of mixed African and European descent in the West African coastal town of Elmina during the nineteenth century. It focuses on the extent of Afro-European slaveholding, the tasks performed by the slaves, and the nature of master-slave relations. This evidence is then used to assess critically the developing "revisionist" interpretation of the nature of West African slavery after the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. In Elmina the Dutch settlers still hold their domestic slaves, and they are in a thriving condition. In its immediate neighbourhood I was surprised to find several fine gardens and plantations, belonging to different merchants established there. (Duncan 1847, I: 42-43) [W]ealth in slaves and pawns has always been considered the most desirable species of riches.... (Cruickshank 1853, I: 323) By the early nineteenth century a small but intriguing group of inhabitants of the West African coastal town of Elmina (located in the modern state of Ghana) had risen to particular prominence in the political and social affairs of the town. These were the people of mixed African and European descent who were known to the Dutch officials in Fort St. George1 at Elmina as tapoeyers or vrijburgers.2 The records of the Dutch "administration"3 at Elmina, a town of some fifteen to twenty thousand inhabitants in the mid nineteenth century, contain sufficient data to permit some reconstruction of the position of these Afro-Europeans in Elmina society and of their distinctive way of life. The present paper summarizes and analyzes material collected regarding one important facet of the life of the Afro-Europeans at Elmina: their activities as a slaveholding class during the first half of the nineteenth century. In particular, attention will be Ethnohistory 36:I (Winter I989). Copyright ? by the American Society for Ethnohistory. ccc ooi4-I8OI/89/$I.5o.

This article discusses the conditions of the genesis of the nineteenth century Wayana whip-dance, aiming for what Terence Turner coined “ethno-ethnohistory”, through the method of Neil Whitehead’s “ethnography of historical... more

This article discusses the conditions of the genesis of the nineteenth century Wayana whip-dance, aiming for what Terence Turner coined “ethno-ethnohistory”, through the method of Neil Whitehead’s “ethnography of historical consciousness”. This study outlines an indigenous historical consciousness of the social present in Guiana as related to events from the past, by means of the entanglement of things, places, and people related to this whip-dance ritual. The article discusses the Eastern Guiana whip-dance as a social field of interaction in three regions and three time periods: (1) the Upper Maroni Basin (French Guiana and Suriname) in the early twenty-first century; (2) the Franco-Brazilian Contested area (today’s Brazilian Amapá) in the nineteenth century; and (3) a posited origin of this ‘mythstory’ at the Lower Amazon in the sixteenth century. Rather than conducting a study of a ‘lost tradition’, these three case-studies will provide insight into the process of how Wayana indigenous people have managed their histories of first contact in Guiana through ritual performance and the materialization of the evil spirit Tamok.