Cultural Interaction at Palmares

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter describes some of the long-term work undertaken by the Palmares Archaeological Project. The authors focus on the processes of syncretism and creolization at the seventeenth-century rebel polity of Palmares, where a unique identity was forged through resistance to colonial authority. Local wares depict poly-ethnic social interactions and the emergence of a new and cohesive ‘maroon identity’. Laden with the flux of past configurations enmeshed with fresh elements, cultures are shown here to be coiled with temporal fluidity, the present resonant with the past, and the past taking form from the present. Indeed, as a powerful symbol of resistance and subversion within modern Brazilian society, Palmares is a potent example of temporal fluidity. Study of the heritage of rebellious actions of maroons against colonial control was an expression of anti-regime sentiment under the rule of the military junta in Brazil (1964–85) and therefore duly supressed.