I am proposing a session for the 2007 SHA conference in Williamsburg, Virginia entitled “African Autonomy in the Atlantic World.” This idea coincides well with the conference theme “Old World/New World: Culture in Transformation.” I would like to enlist participants with studies that vary geographically thus suit the conference theme. The preliminary session abstract is: 
   
  Whether enslaved or not, people of African descent faced difficulties in attaining autonomy in historic times. Impacted by many outside pressures African descendants managed through cultural developments and continuities to maintain their cultural identities. Many were not independent, but their communities thrived in the face of slavery, persecution, and prejudice. Their power was wielded in their kinship practices, ideology, culinary traditions, and landscape and settlement patterns. Archaeology in conjunction with other disciplines enlightens modern researchers on the experience of African descendants throughout the Atlantic world and the levels of autonomy they were capable of achieving despite the pressures they faced.
   
  If you are interested in participating or know someone who is, please contact me at [log in to unmask] I expect the call for papers to be sometime in June, but would like to get those interested in taking part organized at this time. For your information, I am a Ph.D. student at Florida State University specializing in historic archaeology, African American studies, biological anthropology, and museum studies, and scheduled to graduate this year. 
   
  Amy Kowal


Amy C. Kowal, RPA
Department of Anthropology
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306-7772
(850) 644-4281
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