Dear HistArch’ers, 

El Casella and I are pleased to announce the world release of our new edited
book, The Archaeology of Colonialism: Intimate Encounters and Sexual
Effects. 

--Barb Voss

 

The Archaeology of Colonialism

Intimate Encounters and Sexual Effects

Barbara L. Voss

Stanford University, California

Eleanor Conlin Casella

University of Manchester

 

Order at: www.cambridge.org/us/9781107401266

 

Oct 2011 | 374 pages

70 b/w illus. | 17 maps | 5 tables

Hardback | 978-1-107-00863-2 

List Price: USD 99.00

Paperback | 978-1-107-40126-6

List Price: USD 36.99

 

About the Book

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.

 

Contents

Introduction

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; 

 

Conclusion

19. Sexuality and materiality: the challenge of method Martin Hall.