Patterns of interaction between Phoenicians and indigenous communities in eastern Iberia between the 8th–6th centuries BC are examined through a study of social practices. Two contexts of interactions are identified according to the way colonial situations were developed. The contributions of all groups involved in the creation of new cultural forms, hybrid practices and, above all, the way in which material culture can illustrate the local system of significances and their transformation, will be evaluated in accordance with postcolonial theoretical perspectives. Moreover, I focus my analysis on the exchanges as evidence of the commercial nature of the colonial encounter, and the associated consumption patterns as a significant expression of social practices.
This article reviews a set of miniatures from domestic contexts in Iron Age eastern Iberia, and interprets them in terms of their role in forging social personae. After an introduction to the historical case under consideration, the miniatures are described in terms of their typology and their contexts of provenance are outlined. Though not abundant, they tend to occur in central places in the landscape; specifically, they are often found in houses of the powerful. The vast majority are miniatures of pottery and tools, though some miniature weapons are recorded. We contend that these objects were used as a means of enculturation and for the learning of values and norms. It is no coincidence that they emerge in the archaeological record of Iron Age Iberia at the same time as the rise of a social structure based on hereditary power.
In recent years, in the wake of postcolonial studies, archaeologists have gradually begun to stress the concepts of coexistence and hybridization in their attempts to understand situations of culture contact. Domination and hegemony have also begun to lose ground in narratives of the past, as if these two sets of tenets were contradictory. We argue that there is room for a reassessment of this dichotomy. In this paper we address the problem through two avenues of analysis: first, we reassess the theoretical interpretation of the concept of hybridity and its ability to shed light on ancient colonial situations and, second, we apply these thoughts to a case study from the Phoenician trade diaspora in Lixus (Larache, Morocco).
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.