Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Place of Strategy and the Spaces of Tactics: Structures, Artifacts, and Power Relations on Sugar Plantations of West Brazil

  • Article
  • Published:
Historical Archaeology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Archaeological research on two sugar plantations of the Chapada dos Guimarães region of West Brazil, the engenhos (sugar mills) of Rio da Casca and Água Fria, has provided an opportunity to study the organization and use of these spaces by planters, free laborers, and slaves. Planters organized the plantations according to a rigidly hierarchical model in which the planter’s house was the central location. They distributed European-produced goods among free laborers and slaves, aiming to reaffirm this hierarchical order. Though the slaves, in turn, had to live within this hierarchical system, they were also able to take advantage of opportunities to subvert this space, using it according to their own practices and traditions. In this sense, they invested the locally produced low-fired earthenware with sign-values and symbols related to their African backgrounds. Thus, two sets of discourses were fitted into the same landscape, composing a dialectic that characterized the multicultural space of the plantations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aleixo, Lúcia H. 1984 Mato Grosso: Trabalho Escravo e Trabalho Livre. Ministério da Fazenda, Brasília, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ashmore, Wendy, and Arthur Knapp 1999 Archaeological Landscapes: Constructed, Conceptualized, Ideational. In Archaeologies of Landscape, W. Ashmore and A. Knapp, editors, pp. 1–32. Blackwell, Malden, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Assis, Edvaldo 1988 Contribuição para o Estudo do Negro em Mato Grosso. UFMT, Cuiabá, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bandeira, Maria de Lourdes 1988 Território Negro em Espaço Branco: Estudo Antropológico de Vila Bela. Editora Brasiliense, São Paulo, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barickman, Bert 1994 “A Bit of Land which They Call Roça”: Slave Provision Grounds on Sugar Plantations and Cane Farms in the Bahian Recôncavo, 1780–1860. Hispanic American Historical Review 74(4):649–687.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bastide, Roger 1978 The African Religions of Brazil. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berns, Marla C. 1993 Art, History, and Gender: Women and Clay in West Africa. African Archaeological Review 11:129–148.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Birmingham, David 1966 Trade and Conflict in Angola. Oxford University Press, London, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, Pierre 1977 Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Capela, José 2002 O Tráfico de Escravos nos Portos de Moçambique, 1733–1904. Edições Afrontamento, Porto, Portugal.

    Google Scholar 

  • Capelo, Hildebrando, and Roberto Ivens 1978 De Angola à Contracosta. Editora Europa-América, Lisbon, Portugal.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carneiro, Edson 1964 Ladinos e Crioulos. Editora Civilização Brasileira, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Childs, Gladwin 1949 Umbundu Kinship and Character. Oxford University Press, London, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Corrêa Filho, Virgílio 1969 História de Mato Grosso. Instituto Nacional do Livro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crivelente, Maria A. 2001 Casamentos de Escravos Africanos em Mato Grosso— Um Estudo sobre Chapada dos Guimarães, 1798–1830. Master’s thesis, Department of History, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Curtin, Philip D. 1969 The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.

    Google Scholar 

  • Darish, Patricia 1990 Fired Brilliance: Ceramic Vessels from Zaire. University of Missouri Press, Kansas City.

    Google Scholar 

  • David, Nicholas, Julie Sterner, and Kodzo Gavua 1988 Why Pots are Decorated. Current Anthropology 29(3):365–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Certeau, Michel 1984 The Practice of Everyday Life, Steven Rendall, translator. University of California Press, Berkeley.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeCorse, Christopher 1999 Oceans Apart: Africanist Perspectives on Diaspora Archaeology. In “I, Too, Am America”: Archaeological Studies of African-American Life, Theresa Singleton, editor, pp. 132–158. University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Souza, Marcos A. T., and Luís C. P. Symanski 2009 Slaves Communities and Pottery Variability in Western Brazil: The Plantations of Chapada dos Guimarães. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 13(4):513–548.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Estermann, Carlos, and Gordon Gibson 1976 The Ethnography of Southwestern Angola. Holmers & Meier, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferguson, Leland 1992 Uncommon Ground: Archaeology and Early African America, 1650–1800. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Figueira, Luiz 1938 Africa Bantu—Raças e Tribos de Angola. Oficinas Fernandes, Lisbon, Portugal.

    Google Scholar 

  • Florence, Hércules 1977 Viagem Fluvial do Tietê ao Amazonas—1825 a 1829. Cultrix, São Paulo, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerdes, Paulus 1995 Women and Geometry in Southern Africa. Universidade Pedagógica de Moçambique, Maputo, Mozambique.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gosselain, Olivier 1999 In Pots We Trust: The Processing of Clay and Symbols in Sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of Material Culture 4(2):205–230.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haenstein, Alfred 1964 La Poterie Chez les Ovimbundu. Acta Tropica 21:48–81.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1988 Examen de Motifs Decoraties Chez les Ovimbundu et Tchokwe d’Angola. Instituto de Antropologia da Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hambly, Wilfrid 1934 The Ovimbundu of Angola. Field Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Series 21(2):1–370.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harding, Rachel 2000 A Refuge in the Thunder: Candomblé and Alternative Spaces of Blackness. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heywood, Linda 2000 Contested Power in Angola, 1840s to the Present. University of Rochester Press, Rochester, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirsch, Eric 1995 Introduction: Landscape: Between Place and Space. In The Anthropology of Landscape: Perspectives on Place and Space, Eric Hirsch and Michael O’Hanlon, editors, pp. 1–30. Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Instituto de Antropologia 1976 Angola—Culturas Tradicionais. Instituto de Antropologia, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karasch, Mary 2000 A Vida dos Escravos no Rio de Janeiro. Companhia das Letras, São Paulo, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kearney, Michael 1996 Reconceptualizing the Peasantry: Anthropology in Global Perspective. Westview Press, Boulder, CO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kiddy, Elizabeth 1999 Ethnic and Racial Identity in the Brotherhoods of the Rosary of Minas Gerais, 1700–1830. The Americas 56(2):221–252.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lamego Filho, Alberto 1996 A Planície do Solar e da Senzala. Arquivo Público do estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Langsdorff, George H. 1997 Os Diários de Langsdorff—Mato Grosso e Amazônia, Editora Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lefebvre, Henri 2002 The Production of Space. Blackwell, Malden, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lenharo, Alcir 1982 Crise e Mudança na Frente Oeste de Colonização. Editora UFMT, Cuiabá, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leone, Mark, and Gladys-Marie Fry 2001 Spirit Management among Americans of African Descent. In Race and the Archaeology of Identity, C. Orser, editor, pp. 143–157. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lima, Mesquitela 1988 Os Kiaka de Angola: História, Parentesco, Organização Política e Territorial. Edições Távola Redonda, Lisbon, Portugal.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lima, Tânia A. 1999 El Huevo de la Serpiente: Una Arqueologia del Capitalismo Embrionário en el Rio de Janeiro del Siglo XIX. In Sed non Satiata—Teoria Social en la Arqueologia Latinoamericana Contemporánea, A. Zarankin and F. Acuto, editors, pp. 189–238. Ediciones del Tridente, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lima Filho, Manuel 2001 O Universo Simbólico, Explorações Antropológicas: A Festa de São João do João Carlos. In Projeto de Levantamento e Resgate do Patrimônio Histórico- Cultural da Região da UHE-Manso. Relatório Final de Atividades. Report to Furnas Centrais Elétricas S.A., Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from Instituto Goiano de Pré-História e Antropologia, Universidade Católica de Goiás, Goiânia, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • March, Antogui Barroso 1988 Verde Planície, Velho Solar. Cromos, Niterói, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mbiti, John 1990 African Religions and Philosophy. Heinemann Press, Portsmouth, NH.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1991 Introduction to African Religion. Heinemann Press, Portsmouth, NH.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCulloch, Merran 1952 The Ovimbundu of Angola. International African Institute, London, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mesquita, José 1931 Grandeza e Decadência da Serra-Acima. Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico de Mato Grosso 28:31–56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, Joseph C. 1988 Way of Death: Merchant Capitalism and the Angolan Slave Trade, 1730–1830. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nishida, Mieko 2003 Slavery and Identity: Ethnicity, Gender, and Race in Salvador, Brazil. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oliveira, Maria C. 1995 Viver e Morrer no Meio dos Seus—Nações e Comunidades Africanas no Século XIX. Revista USP 28:174–193.

    Google Scholar 

  • Otto, John S. 1984 Cannon’s Point Plantation 1794–1860: Living Conditions and Status Patterns in the Old South. Academic Press, Orlando, FL.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pikirayi, Innocent 1993 The Archaeological Identity of the Mutapa State. Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.

    Google Scholar 

  • Posnanski, Merrick 1999 West Africanist Reflections on African-American Archaeology. In “I, Too, Am America”: Archaeological Studies of African-American Life, Theresa Singleton, editor, pp. 21–38. University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville.

    Google Scholar 

  • Redinha, José 1948 As Gravuras Rupestres do Alto Zambeze e a Primeira Tentativa de sua Interpretação. Subsídios para a História, Arqueologia e Etnografia dos Povos da Lunda 2:65–91.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reis, João J. 2003 Rebelião Escrava no Brasil: A História do Levante dos Malês. Companhia das Letras, São Paulo, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reis, João J., and Eduardo Silva 1989 Negociação e Conflito: a Resistência Negra no Brasil Escravista. Companhia das Letras, São Paulo, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reusch, Dieter 1998 Imbiza Kayibil Ingenambheki: The Social Life of the Pots. In Ubumba: Aspects of Indigenous Ceramics in Kwazulu-Natal, B. Bell and I. Calder, editors, pp. 19–41. Albany Print, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosa, Carlos 1996 A Vila do Senhor Bom Jesus do Cuiabá—a Vida Urbana em Mato Grosso no Século XVIII. Doctoral dissertation, Department of History, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rugendas, Juan M. 1979 Viagem Pitoresca Através do Brasil. Itatiaia, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Russell, Aaron E. 1997 Material Culture and African-American Spirituality at the Hermitage. Historical Archaeology 31(2):63–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Samford, Patricia 1996 The Archaeology of African-American Slavery and Material Culture. William & Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 53(1):87–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seckinger, Ron L. 1970 Politics in Mato Grosso, 1821–1851. Doctoral dissertation, Department of History, University of Florida, Gainesville. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, MI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Soares, Mariza 1998 Mina, Angola e Guine: Nomes d’ Africa no Rio de Janeiro Setecentista. Tempo 3(6):1–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • South, Stanley 1972 Evolution and Horizon as Revealed in Ceramic Analysis in Historical Archaeology. Conference on Historic Site Archaeology Papers 6(2):71–116.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sweet, James 2003 Recreating Africa: Culture, Kinship, and Religion in the African-Portuguese World 14412-1770. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Symanski, Luís C. 2002 Louças e Auto-Expressão em Regiões Centrais, Adjacentes e Periféricas do Brasil. In Arqueologia da Sociedade Moderna na América do Sul, A. Zarankin and M. Ximena, editors, pp. 31–62. Ediciones Del Tridente, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

    Google Scholar 

  • 2006 Slaves and Planters in Western Brazil: Material Culture, Identity and Power. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, MI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Symanski, Luis C., and Marcos A. T. de Souza 2001 A Arqueologia Histórica: Relações Sociais e Construção de Identidades na Região do Rio Manso, séculos XVIII e XIX. In Projeto de Levantamento e Resgate do Patrimônio Histórico-Cultural da Região da UHEManso. Relatório Final de Atividades. Report to Furnas Centrais Elétricas S.A., Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from Instituto Goiano de Pré-História e Antropologia, Universidade Católica de Goiás, Goiânia, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, Robert F. 1983 Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy. Vintage Books, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thornton, John 1993 Central African Names and African-American Naming Patterns. William & Mary Quarterly 3rd ser., 50(4):727–742.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 1998 Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • 2002 Religious and Ceremonial Life in the Kongo and Mbundu Areas, 1500–1700. In Central Africans and Cultural Transformations in the American Diaspora, L. Heywood, editor, pp. 71–90. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Volpato, Luiza R. 1987 A Conquista da Terra no Universo da Pobreza: Formação da Fronteira Oeste do Brasil, 1719–1819. Editora Hucitec, São Paulo, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1993 Cativos do Sertão: Vida Cotidiana e Escravidão em Cuiabá em 1850–1888. Editora Marco Zero, Cuiabá, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1996 Quilombos em Mato Grosso: Resistência Negra em Área de Fronteira. In Liberdade por um Fio: História dos Quilombos no Brasil, João J. Reis and Flavio S. Gomes, editors, pp. 213–239. Companhia das Letras, São Paulo, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkie, Laurie A. 1999 Evidence of African Continuities in the Material Culture of Clifton Plantation, Bahamas. In African Sites in the Caribbean, J. Haviser, editor, pp. 264–275. Marcus Wiener, Princeton, NJ.

    Google Scholar 

  • 2000 Culture Bought: Evidence of Creolization in the Consumer Goods of an Enslaved Bahamian Family. Historical Archaeology 34(3):10–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Sociologia e Antropologia, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antônio Carlos, 6627 Campus Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, MG, 31270-901, Brazil

    Luís Cláudio P. Symanski

Authors
  1. Luís Cláudio P. Symanski
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Symanski, L.C.P. The Place of Strategy and the Spaces of Tactics: Structures, Artifacts, and Power Relations on Sugar Plantations of West Brazil. Hist Arch 46, 124–148 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03376874

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03376874

Search

Navigation