INDIGENOUS AGENCY AND COLONIALISM: A ARCHAEOLOGY OF CONTACT ON THE PRODUCTION OF TURTLE OIL IN THE MIDDLE ORENOCO, VENEZUELA (18TH AND 19TH CENTURIES)

Abstract

The economical practices articulated at exploitation of “arrau” turtle (Podocnemis expansa) in the Middle Orinoco allow us to raise some issues about the historical process in the Colonial and Republican periods. In this paper, we discuss, using a theoretical framework from the archaeology of culture contact, two major issues: the social control on the turtle beaches established by the Jesuit missions and later by the Creoles; and, above all, the agency of indigenous groups exerted before that contexts. The production techniques, social relations in temporary settlements, consumption and material culture were spheres in which existed an native preponderance, demonstrating that the effects of colonialism are always mediated and constituted by the native cultural logics.Key-words: Orinoco, turtle oil, colonialism, Jesuits, agency.