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Paper Information:
Type: Paper
Paper Title: CARIBBEAN CONTRADICTIONS: ENTANGLED NETWORKS AND SLAVERY IN THE FRENCH WEST INDIES
Author: HEATHER GIBSON (Virginia Commonwealth University), KENNETH KELLY (University of South Carolina)   
Date/Time: Wed., 8:15 PM
Co-Author(s): HEATHER GIBSON (Virginia Commonwealth University), KENNETH KELLY (University of South Carolina) 
Abstract: As it pertains to the study of slavery in the Caribbean, one of the most important insights that historical anthropology and archaeology bring is a focus on the material dimensions of social relations and historical processes. The dichotomies of powerful/powerless, colonizer/colonized, slave owner/enslaved, and urban/rural are called into question when we look more closely at the realities of day to day life for the laboring class. By integrating multiple source materials into our studies – artifacts, spatial data, textual evidence – we get a glimpse of a more dynamic environment that was characterized above all by movement and by contradictions. In this paper, we will discuss our research on French sugar plantations in Martinique and Guadeloupe which has suggested a number of strategies the enslaved developed to survive difficult circumstances, provide for their material needs, and develop important social and economic networks that extended far beyond the boundaries of individual plantations. This material is complemented by a regional study of low-fired earthenware in the French Caribbean which helps us better interpret trends related to foodways and challenges assumptions of insularity, allowing for the exploration of regional connections including material traces of informal trade networks, and the movements of people and goods across colonial borders.

Program Number: 1-0760
Session Title: MATERIALITY OF THE SLIPSTREAM: DEEPENING HISTORICAL ANTHROPOLOGIES OF THE CIRCUM-CARIBBEAN AND GULF COAST
Session Sponsor: Archaeology Division
Session Date/Time: Wed., 8:00 PM-9:45 PM
Organizer(s): ROB MANN (Louisiana State University), MARK REES (University of Louisiana-Lafayette) 
Chair(s): MARK REES (University of Louisiana-Lafayette)  
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