Negotiating Colonial Encounters:

Abstract

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.

A combined dietary approach using isotope and dental buccal-microwear analysis of human remains from the Neolithic, Roman and Medieval periods from the archaeological site of Tossal de les Basses (Alicante, Spain)

“…These commercial networks are mainly based in the Mediterranean, and finally resulted in the establishment of Phoenician (Valencian Country and Ibiza) and Greek (Catalonia) colonies whose interaction with local peoples led to the formation of the Iberic Iron Age Culture (Ruiz and Molinos, 1993;Knapp and Van Dommelen, 2015). This Iron Age culture had an important presence in Eastern Iberia and actively participated in the historical and economical processes of the Western Mediterranean at this time (Vives-Ferrándiz, 2008). A good example of this is the participation in the Second Punic War by the Iberic Iron Age People, which resulted in the progressive integration of the Roman Republic within their cities and villages between the 6th and 2nd centuries BCE (Aranegui et al, 1998).…”

Colonial Encounters in Ancient Iberia: Phoenician, Greeks, and Indigenous Relations, edited by Michael Dietler & Carolina Lopez-Ruiz, 2009. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-14847-2 hardback £38 & US$55; xiii+324 pp., 62 ills., 3 tables

“…Studying these colonial dynamics, mostly featuring groups of Phoenician origin, as well as the agencies that inhabited these spaces, is key to understanding the colonial encounters that would take place not just in the Iberian Peninsula but also in most of the central and western Mediterranean throughout the first millennium bc. This brings us closer to another diasporic reality of antiquity that, even today, has scarcely been present in Anglo-Saxon academia in spite of some recent publications on this world (Aubet 1993;van Dommelen 1998;2006;Delgado & Ferrer 2007;Vives-Ferrandiz 2008).…”

Interações coloniais no Mediterrâneo global da Idade do Ferro

“…Quanto aos fenícios, suas colônias em geral são caracterizadas nos termos de uma diáspora comercial, a qual foi definida como redes de troca inter-regionais compostas por grupos especializados dispersos no espaço, mas culturalmente distintos, socialmente independentes e organizacionalmente coesos em relação às comunidades nas quais se assentaram (STEIN, 2002;COHEN, 1971;AUBET, 2001, p. 350-351, baseado no trabalho de CURTIN, 1984VIVES-FERRÁNDIZ, 2008). Uma característica é que eles mantêm laços econômicos e sociais próximos com as comunidades relacionadas, as quais definem a si mesmas nos termos da mesma identidade cultural geral.…”