The Archaeology of Colonialism Intimate Encounters and Sexual Effects

This volume examines human sexuality as an intrinsic element in the interpretation of complex colonial societies. While archaeological studies of the historic past have explored the dynamics of European colonialism, such work has largely ignored broader issues of sexuality, embodiment, commemoration, reproduction and sensuality. Recently, however, scholars have begun to recognize these issues as essential components of colonization and imperialism. This book explores a variety of case studies, revealing the multifaceted intersections of colonialism and sexuality. Incorporating work that ranges from Phoenician diasporic communities of the eighth century to Britain's nineteenth-century Australian penal colonies to the contemporary Maroon community of Brazil, this volume changes the way we understand the relationship between sexuality and colonial history.

1. Intimate encounters: an archaeology of sexualities within colonial worlds Eleanor Conlin Casella and Barbara L. Voss; 2. Sexual effects: postcolonial and queer perspectives on the archaeology of sexuality and empire Barbara L. Voss; Part I. Pleasures and Prohibitions: 3. Little bastard felons: childhood, affect, and labour in the penal colonies of nineteenth-century Australia Eleanor Conlin Casella; 4. The currency of intimacy: transformations of the domestic sphere on the late nineteenth-century diamond fields Lindsay Weiss; 5. 'A concubine is still a slave': sexual relations and Omani colonial identities in nineteenth-century East Africa Sarah K. Croucher; 6. The politics of reproduction: rituals and sex in Punic Eivissa Mireia López-Bertran; Part II. Engaged Bodies: 7. Fear, desire, and material strategies in colonial Louisiana Diana DiPaolo Loren; 8. Death and sex: procreation in the wake of fatal epidemics within indigenous communities Kathleen L. Hull; 9. Effects of empire: gendered transformations on the Orinoco frontier Kay Tarble de Scaramelli; 10. In-between people in colonial Honduras: reworking sexualities at Ticamaya Russell N. Sheptak, Kira Blaisdell-Sloan and Rosemary A. Joyce; 11. The scale of the intimate: imperial policies and sexual practices in San Francisco Barbara L. Voss; Part III. Commemorations: 12. Life and death in ancient colonies: domesticity, material culture, and sexual politics in the western Phoenician world, 8th–6th century BC Ana Delgado and Meritxell Ferrer; 13. Reading gladiators' epitaphs and rethinking violence and masculinity in the Roman Empire Renata S. Garraffoni; 14. Monuments and sexual politics in New England Indian country Patricia E. Rubertone; 15. Gender relations in a Maroon community, Palmares, Brazil Pedro Paulo A. Funari and Aline Vieira de Carvalho; Part IV. Showing and Telling: 16. Sexualizing space: the colonial leer and the genealogy of Storyville Shannon Lee Dawdy; 17. Showing, telling, looking: intimate encounters in the making of South African archaeology Nick Shepherd; 18. Obstinate things Mary Weismantel; 19. Conclusion: sexuality and materiality: the challenge of method Martin Hall.

This volume examines human sexuality as an intrinsic element in the interpretation of complex colonial societies. Archaeological studies of the historic past have largely ignored issues of sexuality, embodiment, commemoration, reproduction and sensuality. Recently, however, scholars have begun to recognize these issues as essential components of colonization and imperialism.

Barbara L. Voss is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Stanford University, where she is also affiliated with the Stanford Archaeology Center, Feminist Studies and the Center for Comparative Study on Race and Ethnicity. She is the author or editor of several books, including, most recently, The Archaeology of Ethnogenesis: Race, Sexuality, and Identity in Colonial San Francisco; The Archaeology of Chinese Immigrant and Chinese American Communities (co-edited with Bryn Williams) and Archaeologies of Sexuality (co-edited with Robert A. Schmidt).
Eleanor Conlin Casella is Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Manchester, where she is also affiliated with the Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change. She has directed archaeological projects in Australia, North America, northwest England and the Scottish Highlands. She is the author or editor of several books, including, most recently, The Alderley Sandhills Project: An Archaeology of Community Life in (Post)-Industrial England, The Archaeology of Institutional Confinement, The Archaeology of Plural and Changing Identities and Industrial Archaeology: Future Directions.