Traditional Land Use and Resistance to Spanish Colonial Entanglement: Archaeological Evidence on Guam
Date
2020-04-09
Contributor
Advisor
Department
Instructor
Depositor
Speaker
Researcher
Consultant
Interviewer
Narrator
Transcriber
Annotator
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Volume
Number/Issue
Starting Page
Ending Page
Alternative Title
Abstract
Documenting the continuity of traditional land use practices on Guam, from before
Spanish Contact in 1521 to after the Colonial La Reducción ca. 1700, is provocative. La
Reducción refers to a period after Spanish settlement in 1668 when all indigenous
inhabitants of northern Guam were removed from their traditional homes and sent to six
southern villages under the watchful eye of administrative and religious authorities,
except those residing on the island of Rota. Recent geoarchaeological excavations at Site
66-08-0141, located on the northern plateau in South Finegayan, have exposed at least
two latte sets or pre-Contact habitations with traditional Micronesian earth ovens postdating
Spanish settlement. Artifacts included Latte Period pottery, marine shell adzes, a
limestone sling stone, and historic to modern refuse from WWII to the modern era.
Microfossil evidence of pandanus, coconuts, and likely cultivation of rice and taro have
expanded our understanding of subsistence farming in micro-environments within the
tropical forest a generation or more after 1700 and La Reducción. This suggests that
archaeological evidence of land use continuity and indigenous resistance and
accommodation to Spanish Colonial entanglement exists, while challenging prior
historiography across the Pacific; such sites hold much potential to bring native voices to
early communities long disenfranchised by the colonization experience.
Description
Keywords
entanglement, Guam, Spanish Contact, latte
Citation
Extent
Format
Geographic Location
Time Period
Related To
Related To (URI)
Table of Contents
Rights
Rights Holder
Local Contexts
Email libraryada-l@lists.hawaii.edu if you need this content in ADA-compliant format.