ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the foundational role of colonialism in historical archaeology. It traces the ways that colonialism has structured research and terminology, the manner in which it has been approached or neglected by historical archaeologists, and the variety of concepts that have been utilized in such studies: culture contact, colonialism, postcolonialism, resistance, hybridity, creolization, entanglement, persistence, survivance, and ethnogenesis. The chapter not only evaluates these analytical developments and shortcomings with respect to the core focus of historical archaeologies of colonialism – indigenous people – but also identifies several lacunae pertaining to necessary connections to the African Diaspora and colonizers themselves.
