Supplies, Status, and Slavery: Contested Aesthetics of Provisioning at the Jesuit Haciendas of Nasca

Heritage and the Archaeology of Afro-Peru: Community Engagement in the Valleys of Nasca

“…The spatial and material conditions of the estates revealed that the Jesuit hacienda administration deployed coercive technologies embodying an ideology of labor as Christian discipline (Weaver 2016 , 2018 ). Excavations of household middens demonstrated the intertwined nature of domestic and agro-industrial activities of enslaved residents, evidenced by refuse from productive tasks performed within domestic spaces (Weaver, Muñoz et al 2019 ). Still, enslaved actors found modes for expression and the building of meaning, as demonstrated in material correlates of slave-made ceramics and foodways, through which signs were evoked referencing aspects of Atlantic African political, religious, and culinary traditions (Weaver 2021 ).…”

“…Paleoethnobotanical and zooarchaeological analysis of domestic refuse has revealed that, while meat rations provisioned by the estate were likely insufficient, proteins and other nutrients were supplemented through usufruct gardens and small-animal husbandry. Atlantic African culinary aesthetics were evoked through the production of one-pot meals and the cultivation of flavors and textures available in self-provisioned supplements (Weaver, Muñoz et al 2019 ).…”

“…We interpret the high-quality polychrome majolica as likely purchased in bulk by the Jesuits, and hacienda administrators gifted the wares to enslaved households (Weaver 2018 :128). Likewise, rosaries were gifted to the enslaved by the Jesuits at regular intervals and were an evangelical tool that would have numbered among the few personal possessions in an enslaved household at the Nasca estates (Weaver, Muñoz et al 2019 :1017–1018). The clay tobacco pipes, one inscribed with tiny facing triangles, resonated broadly with the emerging Atlantic African diaspora and seem to have been rare items at the Nasca haciendas, perhaps indexing an elevated status of their enslaved owners.…”

“…The communities of San José and San Pablo observed the 400th anniversary of their founding as vineyard haciendas by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) (Archivo General de la Nación [AGN] 1620 , 1657 ). Over the last decade, the Proyecto Arqueológico Haciendas de Nasca (PAHN, Haciendas of Nasca Archaeological Project), the first archaeological project in Peru focused on slavery and the African diaspora, has conducted research on the valley’s former haciendas (Weaver 2015 , 2016 ; Weaver, Muñoz et al 2019 ). With major survey and excavation seasons in 2012, 2013, and 2018, PAHN has carried out archaeological and ethnohistorical research in close collaboration with the former estates’ modern descendant communities.…”

An Archaeology of the Aesthetic: Slavery and Politics at the Jesuit Vineyards of Nasca

“…Provisioning and foodways practices were a crucial aspect of political aesthetics at the haciendas (Weaver et al 2019). Foodways predominantly followed African culinary practices, combining provisioned meat with supplementary spices and flavours produced in slave gardens and usufruct fields.…”