European Colonization Research Articles

How collections and reputation were built out of Tasmanian violence: thylacines (Thylacinus cynocephalus) and Aboriginal remains from Morton Allport (1830–1878)

Through European colonization, First Nations peoples were subjected to systematic and violent actions to dispossess them of their land and sovereignty. In Tasmania, this involved government-sponsored bounties as well as militaristic and diplomatic efforts to remove Indigenous peoples from the landscape. At the same time, and using similar rhetoric, thylacines ( Thylacinus cynocephalus (Harris, 1808)) suffered similarly from settler colonists. Thylacines (also known as Tasmanian tigers or Tasmanian wolves) were the largest marsupial carnivores of modern times, but became extinct in the twentieth century. There are several parallels between the treatment and representation of thylacines and Indigenous Tasmanian people, and how their remains were traded. This allows for analysis of how the environmental and human costs of the colonial project were enmeshed with practices of natural history. A central figure in the export of both thylacines and Indigenous remains from Tasmania was Morton Allport (1830–1878). This paper shows that Allport actively built his scientific reputation by exchanging specimens for honours. It asks whether this was a widespread model for other colonial figures who may have used specimen-based philanthropy to develop a form of soft power through associations with respected institutions such as learned societies, universities and museums. Figures like Allport played the role of a type of colonial settler-intermediary, valued for providing privileged access to specimens to the metropole. Allport also worked to augment scientific work in Tasmania and the economic reputation of the colony, demonstrating that the development of social networks and scientific reputations of colonial figures were entwined with the status and success of the colonies themselves.

A Model for Mid‐Holocene—Present U.S. Mid‐Atlantic Piedmont River Corridor Sediment Budgets Fit to Stratigraphic Data

AbstractFluvial sediment transport and deposition shapes river, floodplain, and estuarine systems but also can create water quality problems, which in some cases motivates efforts to reduce hillslope erosion. However, watershed management efforts rarely consider the fate of eroded sediments and the time scale of transport to estuaries. This study presents a modeling approach to estimate regionally averaged floodplain deposition, erosion, and sediment flux for the mid‐Atlantic U.S. caused by changing forest cover, urban development, and milldam construction. Regional regression equations estimate discharge at 3‐month intervals, and (temporally invariant) channel width and slope. Sediment concentrations are determined from a rating curve (defined for modern conditions by gaging‐station data). Tuning the model to floodplain stratigraphic data suggests that‐sediment concentrations prior to European colonization (i.e., before ∼1750) were 5%–8% of those prevailing today, while legacy (1750–1950) sediment concentrations were 25%–35% of present values. The calibration process, however, is only partly successful for the period before 1750 due to the limited number of older dated samples available. Nonetheless, the model accurately reproduces the observed age distribution of floodplain deposits. Computed sediment‐budget components increase monotonically from before 1750 to the present, and the ratio of budget components remains similar from one time period to the next. The model also predicts that millennial timescales are needed for mid‐Atlantic floodplains to equilibrate following a change in sediment regime, a finding with important implications for river corridor and watershed restoration planning.

The evolution of mental health facilities and treatment in Sri Lanka

The historical events reveal that therapeutic measures for mental illness were practised in Sri Lanka since the 6th century BC. The Indian Prince Vijaya suffered with mental illness. He got married to local princess named Kuweni and was treated with native medicine according to her tribal relatives. This was the most prominent incident in Sri Lankan history. The Western treatment was introduced in the early 19th century AD with arrival of European colonists. Further, to develop the treatment under law, the Lunatic Ordinance of 1873 Act was amended in 1956 as Mental Diseases Act No. 27 by the independent government of Sri Lanka. The mental disorder was not much familiar among Sri Lankans till then. The first mental asylum was established in Hendala, Gampaha District for patients who suffered from mental disorder due to leprosy. There are no records of diseases in Sri Lanka till Europeans landed in. During the British ruling period, two other asylums for mentally ill were established in Borella and Jawatte, Colombo District when the in-patient count went up. This proves that ill treatment and harsh policies of colonists have made locals to suffer from mental disorders in the past (before Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948). The most recognised non-profitable organisation Sumithrayo situated at Horton Place, Colombo, was introduced in 1974 to provide an emotional support to those who are at risk of suicide in Sri Lanka. There are ten Sumithrayo centres across the island with some special volunteer officers. These services are free of charge and function as independent organisations without any barriers. Workshops, awareness programmes, webinars provide emotional support for people who are stressed and strained of life everyday under the motto “There is a help – there is a hope”. Sumithrayo also focuses on supporting those who are going through difficult times in life, assuring confidentiality as well as acceptance with respect and care through their consultations to reduce mental illness. Another goal is to provide emotional support for school children to develop skills and how to deal with everyday stress before they face the society as adults. Due to psychological, social, biological and cultural factors without racial or class distinction, persons can be depressed and feel isolated with own problems. Sumithrayao takes care of them with non-judgemental approaches. Also, they are accepted by listening and befriending.

EDUCATIONAL AWARENESS OF THE HISTORICAL HERITAGE OF SERRA DA CAXEXA

The following article aims to direct the studies of archaeological sites in the Agreste region of Paraíba, more specifically in Serra da Caxexa, in the municipality of Casserengue – PB, 154 km from the capital, João Pessoa, developing the cataloguing, mapping and description of prehistoric sites existing there in order to contribute to their preservation process. Archaeological research in the State of Paraíba finds evidence of more than 500 archaeological sites, among these are the rock art sites “Pedra do Caboclo” and “Pedra do Letreiro”, belonging to the cultural universe of the Agreste Tradition, indicating strong evidence from the passage of indigenous groups that populated the Eastern Curimataú region before the European colonization process, being probably represented by the Sucurus of the Tarairiú nation with semi-nomadic characteristics. Cave paintings are classified as anthropomorphic, zoomorphic and geometric/schematic, generally in reddish tones resulting from the use of iron oxide. Unfortunately, the lack of knowledge about these archaeological sites leads to their destruction. Therefore, it is necessary to make all segments of society aware of the importance of the region’s archaeological heritage, seeking to await them for the knowledge of future generations and encourage new research that would rescue the historical value of local and regional culture. Thus, as an awareness of society in general, as a way of clarifying the importance of the historical and cultural heritage that surrounds them.

Prolegomena to Any Future Indigenous History of the Ancient World

Abstract The usual way of talking about indigenous peoples in antiquity is to assume analogies between any peoples who were not hegemonic or imperial and the modern victims of European settler colonialism. The merits of such comparison are less often considered, and almost never from the perspective of the population described as “indigenous.” The aim of this article is to define and apply the term more carefully as a concept for premodern historians. A series of case studies from Hellenistic Anatolia illustrate how a casual use of “indigenous” leads to serious misunderstandings of imperial and colonial dynamics and indigenous self-understandings that can be rectified only by a theoretically grounded and transhistorical understanding of indigeneity. Such an approach forces us to examine the logic behind power relations and imbalances, leading to more fruitful comparison with the more familiar colonialism of the modern period.

Constructing a borderlands in the ancient international four corners: Settlement layout, architecture, and mortuary practices in thirteenth through fifteenth century CE villages along the contemporary united states-Mexico border

Archaeological interpretations for the seemingly sudden introduction of new types of material culture or cultural practice often include attribution to the arrival of a migrant population as part the construction of a periphery or frontier zone. In the International Four Corners area of the American Southwest/Mexican Northwest, archaeologists often correlate the ascendancy of Paquimé in the late thirteenth century CE with the development of a northern periphery in southwestern New Mexico. Simultaneously, sites in far southeastern Arizona became partially integrated into the Salado phenomenon. I evaluate architecture, settlement, and mortuary data from 26 sites with respect to existing models. Given ongoing historian discourse regarding Indigenous borderlands during European colonization, I advocate a model enabling the occurrence of borderlands construction prior to colonization and lacking a predominate hierarchical society. I conclude that the inhabitants of the International Four Corners region situated themselves within multiple inter- and intra-regional zones of interaction and that existing models of frontiers and edge regions are inadequate to address the variability present, but that of the borderlands does as it recognizes relationships to adjacent culture cores as influential but also centers the local inhabitants and their agency.

The Distinctive Biology and Characteristics of the Bare-Nosed Wombat (Vombatus ursinus).

The bare-nosed wombat is an iconic Australian fauna with remarkable biological characteristics and mythology. This solitary, muscular, fossorial, herbivorous marsupial from southeast Australia has continent and continental island subspeciation. Vombatiformes also contains hairy-nosed wombats (Lasiorhinus spp.); koala (Phascolarctos cinereus); and extinct megafauna, Phascolonus gigas (giant wombat), Diprotodon, and Thylacoleo (marsupial lion). Culturally important to Aboriginal people, bare-nosed wombats engineer ecosystems through digging, grazing, and defecation. Olfaction and cubic fecal aggregations appear critical for communication, including identity, courtship, and mating. Though among the largest fossorial herbivores, they have a nutrient-poor diet, a home range up to an order of magnitude smaller than expected, and a metabolism among the lowest extreme for mammals >10 kg. Metabolic depression may confer advantages over resource competitors and fossorial lifestyle protection from predators, fires, and climatic extremes. Bare-nosed wombats are loved and persecuted by European colonists. Recent population increases may reflect softening attitudes toward, and greater protections of, bare-nosed wombats.

How global narratives shape local management: A history of fire in the tropical savannas of Belize and Guyana

AbstractThe suppression of anthropogenic fire is an important legacy of European colonisation worldwide. Fire suppression has undermined human livelihoods and fire‐dependent ecologies. Belize and Guyana are the only former British colonies on the mainland of Central and South America. Both countries have fire‐dependent tropical savanna ecosystems, where fire is used within local livelihoods, for example, for hunting. We compare the creation and implementation of savanna fire suppression and management policies and projects by agencies in twentieth to twenty‐first‐century Belize and Guyana, and the extent to which global environmental narratives have shaped this process. In both countries, a picture emerges of weak state efforts to control fire, largely driven by economic concerns. In colonial Belize, the state made intermittent attempts to suppress or manage savanna fires in limited areas, owing to interest in pine forestry. In Guyana, the colonial state did not attempt to control fires, given economic interest in cattle ranching, and the remoteness of the savannas. Since 2000, both states have developed new fire policies, and state agencies, conservation non‐governmental organisations and Indigenous advocacy groups have won funding for fire‐related projects. We show that these contemporary policies and projects, like those of the colonial period, primarily financed by inconsistent international funding, continue to lean heavily on international discourses about fire that make assumptions about fire problems and propose solutions incompatible with local realities. Understanding the local geography, ecology and politics, and recognising the ways colonial fire legacies altered, and continue to impact these places, could inform more just and productive approaches to working with local fire users in Belize, Guyana and beyond.

The Influence of African Tradtional Spirituality on Christian Practices in Africa

Human beings are religious by nature. In the discussion on African traditional spirituality, it provides the proofs on how Africans were and are notoriously religious even before the advent of Christianity. This article provides an overview of the influence of African traditional spirituality on Christian Practices in Africa. It is noted in this article that African traditional spirituality is a diverse and complex set of beliefs and practices that reflect the cultural and spiritual beliefs of the people of Africa. It encompasses a wide range of practices, including ancestor veneration, divination, healing practices, music and dance, and community building. Christianity was introduced to Africa in the 1st century AD, but it was not until the arrival of European colonizers in the 16th century that Christianity began to spread more widely throughout Africa. Today, Christianity is one of the most widespread religions in Africa, with over 541 million adherents on the continent. Christianity in Africa is diverse and complex, encompassing a range of denominations, including Catholicism, Protestantism, and various indigenous African churches. This article explores the ways in which African spirituality has influenced Christianity in Africa, and how this has shaped the religious and cultural landscape of the continent.

Detection of decadal time‐series changes in flow hydrology in eastern Australia: Considerations for river recovery and flood management

AbstractSince European colonisation, many coastal rivers of New South Wales (NSW) have been highly modified by channelisation, flow regulation, sediment mining, intensive grazing and agriculture, deforestation, and riparian vegetation and wood removal. Since the late 1980s, nearly 55% of these rivers have undergone a significant ‘re‐greening’ and geomorphic recovery with changes to instream and riparian roughness. However, little research has been undertaken to quantify if there have been any coeval changes in flow hydrology. Approximately 7000 flow hydrographs with one‐hour time‐steps from 117 gauges on 45 study rivers (17 of 20 coastal catchments of NSW) were used to assess changes to in‐channel and overbank hydrology over decadal timeframes. Hydrograph shape and attenuation characteristics for three morphologically defined flow stages were analysed: in‐channel fresh, high flow and overbank flood. Time‐series analysis was used to quantify changes in flow hydrology from the early‐20th century to present and identify trends occurring between known degradation phases (1910s–1940s and 1940s–1980s) and a recovery phase (1990s to present) for these rivers. Our findings indicate that, on average, and for some key examples, changes in flow hydrology are occurring. Flows are slowing and attenuating as indicated by decreases in flood wave celerity and hydrograph kurtosis, skewness and rate of rise and increases in peak‐to‐peak travel time, flood peak attenuation and flood wave attenuation index. The most significant changes have occurred since the 1980s with the most noticeable effects on the behaviour of high flows (around the bankfull stage). However, there is not a consistent direction change in these indicators in all places. We use these findings to categorise the flow mitigation signal of the study regions and catchments and discuss the implication for river and flood management.

Fear the Native woman: Femininity, food, and power in the sixteenth‐century North Carolina Piedmont

AbstractNative women in Indigenous‐Western colonial entanglements are often portrayed as passive agents with little transformative social power in an otherwise dynamic landscape. However, Native women throughout the European colonial world many times controlled the most important resource required by European colonists: the knowledge and materials necessary to transform raw materials into “food.” Their control over this invaluable resource provided Native women with avenues of power both within their own societies and in European colonies. Here, we explore constructions and perceptions of Native women's power during the period of sixteenth‐century Spanish expeditions into the Carolina Piedmont and mountains by reviewing documentary data from entradas led by Hernando de Soto and Juan Pardo, as well as archaeological data from the Indigenous town of Joara and the Spanish colonial outpost of Cuenca and Fort San Juan at the Berry site (31BK22), located near Morganton, North Carolina. Employing an Indigenous feminist framework, we argue that the power vested in Native women through their own societies, as well as by Spaniards through their dependence on them for survival, provided Native women with far greater agency and power in entanglements with Spanish colonists, and interactions with European colonists more broadly, than previously recognized.

Decolonizing Knowledge Production and Power Relations in African Studies: Prospects and Challenges

Intellectual efforts at removing the vestiges of colonialism in knowledge production and power relations in African studies are not a recent phenomenon. Power relations in this context refer to the binary nature of relations between Africa and the Western world in terms of knowledge production, application and transference. In its chronology, it has been in existence as far as the first decade of independence from European colonialism in the late 1950s. In spite of the novelty of these cerebral efforts in African studies in the post colonial era, little or no progress has been achieved in its application in our knowledge production processes. Postcolonialism as an intellectual binocular in the social sciences remains an under-explored standpoint even by African researchers in African Universities. Using the theory of Postcolonialism as its framework of analysis with primary and secondary materials, this article examines the prospect of decolonizing the epistemological processes and power relations in African studies. It also examines the factors that are responsible for the slow or no progress that has been achieved in this regard. While the article maintains a positive standpoint about the probability of decolonizing African knowledge and power relations, it concluded that the identified endogenic and exogenic challenges require an adequate attention from all the concerned stakeholders.

The Uncertain Atlantic: African and European Transformations of São Tomé Island c. 1533

As the first European colony to specialize in sugar cultivation using a labor force comprised exclusively of enslaved Africans, São Tomé island in the Gulf of Guinea is often considered the birthplace of the sugar plantation complex. But the rise of sugar cultivation there took place amidst deep uncertainties. This essay examines a previously unstudied sixteenth-century São Tomé estate inventory from the vantage points of merchants and officials on São Tomé and in Portugal, and to the extent possible, of the Africans they exploited. Without disputing the economic importance of sugar or that of key sites such as São Tomé for later Atlantic histories, we call attention to contingencies that included the waning fortunes of certain planters and their implications for the enslaved; slave routes’ subordination to changing political dynamics on the African mainland; and evidence of African resistance ranging from litigation to escape to maroon wars that threatened sugar production, the slave trade, and the viability of Portuguese rule on the island. During the 1520s-1530s many parties had a stake in the island’s future, and the rise of sugar was by no means a foreordained outcome.

From the ‘History of Western Philosophy’ to entangled histories of philosophy: the Contribution of Ben Kies

ABSTRACT The idea of ‘Western Philosophy’ is the product of a legitimation project for European colonialism, through to post-second world war Pan-European identity formation and white supremacist projects. Thus argues Ben Kies (1917-1979), a South African public intellectual, schoolteacher, trade unionist, and activist-theorist. In his 1953 address to the Teachers’ League of South Africa, The Contribution of the Non-European Peoples to World Civilisation, Kies became one of the first people to argue explicitly that there is no such thing as ‘Western philosophy’. In this paper, I introduce Kies as a new figure in the historiography of philosophy with important insights, relevant today. I outline his three key arguments: that ‘Western Philosophy’ is the product of political mythmaking, that it is a recent, largely mid-twentieth century fabrication, and that there is an alternative to ‘Histories of Western Philosophy’, namely ‘mixed’ or entangled histories. I show that Kies’ claims are supported both by contemporary scholarship and bibliometric analysis. I thus argue that Kies is right to claim that the idea of a distinctive, hermetically sealed ‘Western Philosophy’ is a recent, political fabrication and should be abandoned. We should instead develop global, entangled historiography to make sense of philosophy and its history today.

Redefining the Identity of People of Indian Origin in Mauritius

In the 19th century, Indian indentured labour went to Mauritius, facilitated by the European colonisers to accomplish their ambitious goal of dominating the world politically, economically and culturally. After the completion of the indenture period, Indians had little option but to stay in the new land as their zeal to return to India was sapped due to anticipated ostracisation by their respective communities. Despite the unique evolution of the identity and status of Indians in Mauritius, it has generated very little debate in academia. This article will attempt to understand whether the people of Indian origin in Mauritius can be termed as Indian diaspora at present or they have outgrown that status and evolved to attain an identity that can be defined as being ‘beyond Indian diaspora’. I argue that Indians in Mauritius were positioned in the wider Mauritian society in such a way that did not satisfy the criteria of them being referred to as diaspora, and, they have acquired a specific set of cultural, social and economic capital that brings them closer to being considered as Mauritian natives.

Before the Nation-State: Civilizations, World Orders, and the Origins of Global International Relations

Abstract The dominant perspectives on International Relations (IR) focus on the rise of the Western civilization and the global expansion of the European Westphalian system as their starting point. This leads to a narrow Eurocentric understanding of IR that obscures the role and contribution of other civilizations to the evolution of world order. However, during the last 5000 years, many civilizations have risen, fallen, and survived. This essay focuses on five world orders that made their mark before the “rise of the West” or the advent of European colonialism around roughly the 16th century AD: Near Eastern, Indian, Chinese, Islamic, and Indian Oceanic. A study of classical civilizations and world orders can help IR scholars to more fully engage history and reshape the study of IR theories and concepts in several ways. It helps us to understand, and if necessary, challenge, the dominance of certain key ideas that claim to be universal and have been taken for granted as such. Moreover, studying IR from a historical–civilizational perspective opens the door to understanding both material and ideational relationships among states and societies. It also encourages a shift in IR thinking from the conventional state-centric category of the “international system” to the broader framing of world order.

Loss of terrestrial biodiversity in Australia: Magnitude, causation, and response.

Australia's biota is species rich, with high rates of endemism. This natural legacy has rapidly diminished since European colonization. The impacts of invasive species, habitat loss, altered fire regimes, and changed water flows are now compounded by climate change, particularly through extreme drought, heat, wildfire, and flooding. Extinction rates, already far exceeding the global average for mammals, are predicted to escalate across all taxa, and ecosystems are collapsing. These losses are symptomatic of shortcomings in resourcing, law, policy, and management. Informed by examples of advances in conservation practice from invasive species control, Indigenous land management, and citizen science, we describe interventions needed to enhance future resilience. Many characteristics of Australian biodiversity loss are globally relevant, with recovery requiring society to reframe its relationship with the environment.

Justice, culture, and relationships: Australian Indigenous prescription for planetary health.

Indigenous communities shoulder a disproportionate burden of ill health compounded by climate change. In Australia, the oldest surviving cultures have adapted their ecological knowledge over millennia and across climatic ages. However, European colonization has severely curtailed Indigenous peoples' ability to adjust to climate change. An effective response to the climate crisis requires decolonizing processes to reform our relationship with the planet. From an Australian Indigenous perspective, precursors for a self-determined and healthier future are justice, culture, and relationships. We review existing studies on Indigenous-led contemporary climate and health initiatives to assess these precursors. There are examples that highlight the need to attend to issues of restorative justice as the basis for respectful valuing of culture and genuine collaboration to address the climate crisis.

Seasonal variation in defense behavior in European and scutellata-hybrid honey bees (Apis mellifera) in Southern California

Nest defense in the honey bee (Apis mellifera) is a complex collective behavior modulated by various interacting social, environmental, and genetic factors. Scutellata-hybrid (“Africanized”) honey bees are usually considered to be far more defensive than European honey bees which are therefore preferred for commercial and hobbyist beekeeping. In the most recent zone of scutellata hybridization, the southern USA, the degree to which this defensiveness differs among current strains, and the extent to which defensiveness varies across a season has not been measured. We quantified the levels of A. m. scutellata ancestry in colonies and conducted a seasonal assessment (May through November) of colony nest defensiveness in feral scutellata-hybrid and a popular lineage of European honey bee commonly used in managed environments (sold as A. mellifera ligustica) hives at two apiaries in Southern California. Standard measures of defensiveness were low in both scutellata-hybrid and European colonies during May. Defensiveness increased during the later months of the study in scutellata-hybrid colonies. Most measures of defensiveness did not increase in managed colonies. Defensiveness in the scutellata-hybrids appears lower than what has been previously documented in Brazil and Mexico, possibly due to their lower proportion of A. m. scutellata ancestry.

Things Fall Apart: The Title and Themes

A stanza of Yeats’ poem “The Second Coming” forms the epigraph Achebe’s novel “Things Fall Apart”. Achebe lifts a phrase from the same piece to entitle his novel. In this work Yeats records the breakdown of the old order, the Christian civilization, and its displacement by anew order to be dominated by ‘a beast’. Likewise, Achebe mourns the falling apart of the Ibo society and the disappearance of its culture as a consequence of the advent of European colonialism. But, unlike Yeats, the African writer focuses more on the old order at the moment of its collapse.