Towards a Comparative Approach to Archaeologies of Early Modern Spanish Colonialism

Abstract

This book seeks to contribute a global comparative archaeological approach to colonial processes and colonial situations related to the Hispanic Monarchy and the ways in which they were experienced. Beginning with the better known Americas, it follows with Africa and the Pacific in a wish to explore Spanish colonialism beyond the parameters of existing research. There is a preference for peripheral cases, many of them not yet well known and not yet present in the mainstream scholarly discourse. Ultimately, we have aimed at striking a balance between theoretical, methodological and empirical issues; at critically examining the construction of categories and discourses of colonialism, furthering issues raised by post-colonial and Latin American de-colonial theories; and at questioning the ideological underpinnings behind the source material required to address our topic.