Roberto Valcárcel Rojas
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813061566
- eISBN:
- 9780813051499
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813061566.003.0002
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
Cultural contact is discussed as a perspective that can hide the colonial essence inherent in the processes of interaction between indigenous societies of the American continent and Europeans. The ...
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Cultural contact is discussed as a perspective that can hide the colonial essence inherent in the processes of interaction between indigenous societies of the American continent and Europeans. The history of investigation of the so-called contact period in the Greater Antilles are presented, and the need to implement a focus that permits understanding of its multiple facets and moments of interaction between the indigenous and the Europeans. The act of domination marks this process, as well as the difference between the contact situation and the colonial situation. The establishment of the encomienda as a system of domination and organization, and the exploitation of the indigenous societies and resources of the New World, represents the consolidation of a colonial situation. This domination reaches all aspects of life, from quotidian domestic activities and economy to the spiritual world and is managed and faced in diverse ways by the indigenous and other dominated groups.Less
Cultural contact is discussed as a perspective that can hide the colonial essence inherent in the processes of interaction between indigenous societies of the American continent and Europeans. The history of investigation of the so-called contact period in the Greater Antilles are presented, and the need to implement a focus that permits understanding of its multiple facets and moments of interaction between the indigenous and the Europeans. The act of domination marks this process, as well as the difference between the contact situation and the colonial situation. The establishment of the encomienda as a system of domination and organization, and the exploitation of the indigenous societies and resources of the New World, represents the consolidation of a colonial situation. This domination reaches all aspects of life, from quotidian domestic activities and economy to the spiritual world and is managed and faced in diverse ways by the indigenous and other dominated groups.
