Indigenous Agency & Limits to the Colonial Order in South America

BUSCAGLIA, S

Routledge Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous-Colonial Interaction in the Americas

Routledge and Taylor and Francis Group

Año: 2021; p. 292 - 307

Academic discussions about the interethnicrelationships operating during the colonial period in Atlantic Patagonia arerelatively recent, in contrast with research carried out in the rest of theArgentine Republic. It has resulted in a significant gap ?both empirical andepistemological- in the inquiry of the encounter between Europeans and natives,colonialism itself and its related materiality in the region. From historicalarchaeology approach, the purpose of this chapter is to discuss the agency and thediverse kinds of controls indigenous groups imposed over the Spanish colonialorder established in Patagonian Atlantic coast (Argentina Republic) by the endof the 18th century. Interethnic relationships are explored in three studycases from the same colonizing project: Nueva Colonia y Fuerte de Floridablanca(San Julián Bay, Santa Cruz province), the settlement of Real Compañía Marítima(Puerto Deseado, Santa Cruz province) and Fuerte San José and Puesto de laFuente (Valdés peninsula, Chubut province). Social practices, materialconditions of the colonial settlements, and particularly, the indigenousperceptions of the colonial posts are thoroughly considered. This informationis thus intended to discuss the divergent trajectories of interethnicrelationships, as well as to approach colonialism in Patagonia from thenatives? logics and experiences.