Contact and Colonial Impact in Jamaica

Comparative Material Culture and Diet at Sevilla la Nueva and the Taíno Village of Maima

Bibliographic Data

ID20055025
AuthorsShea Henry, S D Henry, Robyn P Woodward, Robyn Woodward
Year2019
Pages84-101
Publication date2019-04-05
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueMaterial Encounters and Indigenous Transformations in the Early Colonial Americas (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/9789004273689_005
OpenAlexW2617758447
ISBN9789004273689
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited15

In June 1503, Columbus and his two battered ships were run aground in the sheltered harbor of St. Ann’s Bay Jamaica, 1.4 kilometers from the village of Maima. After spending a year marooned there, the Spanish left with the knowledge of the people and resources of the area. Six years later in 1509 the Spanish returned to found the Jamaican colonial capital of Sevilla la Nueva. By the time Sevilla la Nueva was abandoned in 1534, Maima was deserted. Historical records kept by the colonists indicate that the villagers were brought to the colony and made into laborers and wives. The material culture and dietary practices at Sevilla la Nueva reflects this through the presence of colonoware and Taíno adapted European goods. At Maima, very few European goods and domesticate animals were found. This, and the presence of traditional material culture and diet throughout the site, indicates continuity of a traditional way of life until their final act of resistance, abandoning Maima. This paper will discuss the adapted European/Taíno material culture and faunal remains found at both Sevilla la Neuva and Maima, illuminating, in some way, the ultimately devastating impact of contact and colonialism

Ancient history · Archaeology · Bay · Biology · Colonialism · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Ethnology · Geography · Caribbean history, culture, and politics · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · History · Ecology

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