2003 CLAS Summer Research Report Esteban Gomez Anthropology "A Holistic-based Approach to Cross Cultural Interaction"

Introduction

An important focus of social theory and the analysis of social change in anthropology today is recognizing how indigenous peoples responded to European contact and colonialism, and how the outcomes of these encounters influenced cultural development in postcolonial contexts. The Culture Contact Research Project in the Gulf of Fonseca, El Salvador (Figure 1), is designed to confront issues concerning those encounters, as well as questions regarding long-term change that transcends the arbitrary distinction between prehistory and history. In light of contemporary discussions concerning the importance of the “colonial hinterlands” as a unit of analysis, it has been shown that true colonial hinterlands were not merely static spaces, but zones of open interaction involving one or more local native populations, European peoples of varied nationalities and background, and many “other” peoples of color.

It is in this regard that one of the first steps in elaborating upon my dissertation research topic in this area would have been an intense two month-long field season (June-July 2003), proposed in order to consolidate the ongoing survey of Precolombian and historic archaeological sites in the Gulf of Fonseca, which began in 2002 with the support of the National Salvadoran Institute of Culture and Art (CONCULTURA), and the Salvadoran Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MARN). The intent of the proposed survey was to focus on the islands of Conchagüita and Meanguera, the eastern Gulf coast of the mainland, and the Bay of La Unión. This region forms a good portion of the Department of La Unión, an area long known for its extended amount of culture contact between indigenous peoples in the Precolombian era, and even after Pedro de Alvarado’s establishment of San Miguel in 1524, the easternmost city of the San Salvadoran province.

Unfortunately, because of logistical problems, and lack of a permit, the field survey was not conducted this summer, and will more than likely be done next summer. Instead, archival research was undertaken in order to locate documentary sources from the sixteenth century, and early seventeenth century, that touched upon native residences, origins, diet or daily life in the Gulf of Fonseca during Spanish colonialism. Archival research was conducted at the National Museum of El Salvador, San Salvador, and the National Archives of Guatemala, Guatemala City.

Design

Prior to the field work conducted in 2002, there had been no type of modern survey to locate archaeological sites in the eastern Salvadoran region since John Longyear’s brief reconnaissance in the early 1940’s. In other words, culture contact studies, and archaeology in general, is under-developed in this region and has never been done before in the Gulf of Fonseca. In order to alleviate this small problem, my proposed dissertation research project is designed to incorporate data sources from ethnohistory, ethnography, native texts, and archaeology from the Gulf of Fonseca region. These different sources represent independently constituted lines of evidence that may be used to evaluate traditional historical scenarios and to construct new interpretations of the past. One of the more promising strengths of applying such a holistic approach is that a more balanced and multi-voiced perspective of the past may be generated. The site chosen for this research project is Conchagua Vieja (54-A2), on the island of Conchagüita. The visual remains of Conchagua Vieja are a number of house mounds, terraces, and the remaining walls and altar of a Spanish Mission (Figure 2).

Standing remains of the mission at Conchagua Vieja. View to the east, directly looking at the entrance of the mission.

Based on some of the archival research done this past summer it was discovered that Conchagua Vieja was a Spanish colonial site whose chronology spans from the mid-sixteenth century to approximately 1680. The site was subsequently burned that year in order to discourage English pirates (such as Sir Francis Drake) from using the available resources on the island. Moreover, based on preliminary survey reports of 2002 and ethnohistoric Spanish accounts of Conchagua Vieja it was also recognized that the site was Lenca in origin, and seemed to have spanned from the Late Postclassic through the middle Colonial Period (ca. 1250-1700 AD), thereby making Conchagua Vieja a multi-component site. It is a multi-component site in the sense that the Spanish community was settled directly above an existing Lenca settlement, consequently making it a site that incorporates both indigenous and Spanish material remains. The critical employment of archaeological findings at the site of Conchagua Vieja with archival research will provide a better grounded perspective on colonial and native encounters in this region. Conchagua Vieja is ripe with promise for generating new perspectives on the colonial past given the amount of archival data at the National Archives in Guatemala City.

Outcome

El Salvador was once a part of the Audencia of Guatemala, and most political and economic documents pertaining to the Gulf of Fonseca region will be found at the National Archives of Guatemala. Of most interest are the historical documents that relate to the understanding of the effects that global politics played on the local indigenous groups of the Gulf. The residents of Conchagua Vieja, as most residents in Spanish colonial towns, were subject to the economienda and the repartamiento which required them to pay taxes in goods and to work for at least some part of the year for the Spanish. Evidence of a repartamiento system on the island is evidenced by both the archaeological remains of a pueblo de indios, called Teca, on the northeastern portion of the island, and colonial reports that refer to the tribute policies inflicted on the community of Teca.

How these policies, which were based on the decisions of the colonial administrators, were actually enacted varies with localized responses to international politics and mercantile desires. The form that indigenous tribute was required to take was driven by confluence of local production ability and global demand for certain goods. The products that indigenous people were required to produce for tribute had profound impacts on the activities and practices that indigenous people were engaged in. Moreover, increases in conflicts between European nations that manifested themselves in the form of piracy in the Caribbean resulted in Spanish Americans needing to build forts. Indigenous peoples were the primary source of labor for these activities, as well as other such building projects.
Unfortunately, I was only able to spend a week at the National Archives of Guatemala. I was also by myself, which was a disadvantage because you can only take out ten documents a day. If you go with a number of individuals, you can greatly increase the number of documents you can observe in a given day. Copying the documents is not an issue because you can take digital photos of the available documents, which is really helpful for those (like myself) who think they are reading Chinese script when in fact they are looking at sixteenth and seventeenth century Spanish documents – sixteenth century documents (see Figure 3) being a bit easier to read on account of the amount of standardization of writing during that time period. In other words, a thorough analysis of the digital copies of the documents taken this summer has not been performed, but will receive a lot more attention later this semester and next semester.

An example of a sixteenth century document that does not specifically refer to the site of Conchagua Vieja itself, but does speak of the nature of indigenous labor in eastern El Salvador.

In the future I will be translating the primary documents into English. Among the primary sources are travel accounts, last wills and testaments, decrees, pronouncements, and inquisitorial confessions. The emphasis of primary material for this research project (to be joined later with archaeological data) will emphasize people at various levels of society in their places and times rather than as solitary thinkers or faceless masses, their backs turned towards us.

Current Activities

I am still currently in the process of getting a permit to do the survey on the islands for next summer. As we all know, working with bureaucracies in Latin America can be a bit tedious. However, the opportunity to fly down there and actually discuss with the National Institute of Culture and Art (CONCULTURA) my proposed research topics and methods of investigation has proved fruitful and appears to have been very helpful for the future. As for the documents, my aim is to produce more than a conventional treatment of the “great themes” associated with the study of the Spanish colonial period in Central America. These “great themes” include exploration; military and spiritual conquest; the formation and consolidation of colonial institutions; the accompanying changes of economy and labor; and the relations between and among: Native populations, Blacks, Mestizos, and Spanish settlers of various social ranks. Colonial settlements were pluralistic entrepôts where peoples of diverse backgrounds and nationalities lived, worked, and socialized.

With this in mind, the approach that will be utilized while investigating the modes of culture contact in the Gulf of Fonseca will be one that is holistic. Holistic in the sense that it is an approach that draws from multiple lines of evidence, combining archaeological data with the findings of historical linguistics, oral traditions, historical ethnography, and historical records as to produce a more balanced view of Precolombian history, as well as of ethnohistory and historical archaeology. Such is the aim of a dissertation research project that does not sit comfortably within its own discipline, but rather reaches across disciplinary confines as a means to productively engage in a dialogue with other ingrained scholarly traditions.