Cited by 6Historical and Cultural Archaeology StudiesColonialism, slavery, and tradeHistory and Politics in Latin America

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 5 of the 5 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 22 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.

Las cicatrices del paisaje: cimarronaje colectivo y libertad en las tierras comunales de San Basilio de Palenque y La Bonga, norte de Colombia

Open access
Mantilla Oliveros, Johana Caterina·2022·Millars. Espai i Història

Abstract

A partir de l’anàlisi de les fonts d’arxiu, les característiques del paisatge i les evidències arqueològiques, propose una lectura del paisatge dels terrenys co-munals de Sant Basili de Palenque i la Bonga, en les muntanyes de Maria, al nord de Colòmbia. S’observen diverses tàctiques de defensa i mobilitat mitjan-çant les quals els esclaus accedeixen a la terra i hi mantenen el control en un context restrictiu com fou l’esclavitud. Així doncs, el sorgiment i la desaparició dels assentaments de Palenque, les modificacions i les alteracions realitzades a l’entorn, les evidències ceràmiques i les relacions sostingudes pels habitants d’aquests assentaments apareixen com petjades, esquerdes i cicatrius inscrites al paisatge creat des de la fractura i la disrupció, però articulat per processos de negociació i reinvenció quotidiana de la població allí assentada al llarg del temps. Based on the analysis of archival sources, landscape characteristics and archaeological evidence, I propose an interpretation of the landscape of the communal lands of San Basilio de Palenque and La Bonga, in the Montes de María, northern Colombia. Various defence and mobility tactics can be observed through which the maroons gained access to the land and maintained control of it in a restrictive context as was slavery. Thus, the emergence and disappearance of settlements, the modifications and alterations made to the environment, the ceramic evidence and the relationships maintained by the inhabitants of these settlements appear as traces, cracks and scars registered on a landscape created from rupture and disruption, but articulated by processes of negotiation and daily reinvention of the population that settled there over time. A partir del análisis de fuentes de archivo, características del paisaje y evidencias arqueológicas propongo una lectura del paisaje de las tierras comunales de San Basilio de Palenque y la Bonga, en los montes de María, norte de Colombia. Se observan diversas tácticas de defensa y movilidad mediante las cuáles los cimarrones acceden a la tierra y mantienen su control en un contexto restrictivo como lo fue la esclavitud. Así, el surgimiento y desaparición de asentamientos apalencados, las modificaciones y alteraciones hechas al entorno, las evidencias cerámicas y las relaciones sostenidas por los habitantes de estos asentamientos aparecen como huellas, hendiduras y cicatrices inscriptas en un paisaje creado desde la fractura y la disrupción, pero articulado por procesos de negociación y reinvención cotidiana de la población allí asentada a lo largo del tiempo.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

The paper reads the communal lands of San Basilio de Palenque and La Bonga, in the Montes de María, northern Colombia, through archival, landscape, and archaeological evidence to argue that collective marronage created a concrete spatial and material place for freedom. It proposes the “scar” as a metaphor for palenques as both wounds of slavery/persecution and results of collective healing.

Key findings

  • The 1695 testimony of María Josepha, a cimarrona “de más de cincuenta años,” shows three generations of kinship across palenques: she was born in the palenque de la Magdalena, was captured in the palenque de San Miguel during the 1694 military entrada led by Governor Sancho Ximeno, and was taken with daughters and grandchildren whose ages included 26, 23, 16, 13, 8, 7, 3, 1, and 8 months.
  • The palenque de la Magdalena had existed for “más de cincuenta años” before Governor Pedro Zapata attacked it in 1651; after that attack, cimarrones crossed the Magdalena River toward the sierra de la María, where palenques such as Joyanca, Domingo Angola/Arenal, San Miguel, and Duanga/Bonguê emerged or persisted.
  • Military attacks in 1684, 1686, and 1694 did not end occupation: San Miguel, Arenal, and Duanga were attacked in 1686 and referenced again in the 1694 entrada, while tactics included armed defense, ambush, flight, refuge, abandonment, and return/resurgimiento.
  • Current collective lands of San Basilio de Palenque and La Bonga cover 3353 Ha + 9957 m², approximately 73 km²; archaeological work recovered 5,200 ceramic fragments, 80% of the sample, and identified 30 colonial and republican ceramic types, with San Basilio showing greater density/diversity and La Bonga lower density.

Methods

  • The study combines archival sources—civil lawsuits and military reports, including declarations by captured cimarrones in the late seventeenth century—with observation of the contemporary landscape of the communal lands.
  • Archaeological prospection and surface collection were conducted at San Basilio de Palenque, La Bonga, and Palenquito during the author’s doctoral dissertation, aiming to address the material dimension of freedom exercised during colonial marronage.
  • Analysis is qualitative and interpretive, organized around spatial/material traces, settlement articulation, defense tactics, and the proposed “cicatriz” metaphor.

Limitations

  • The paper states that a complete answer to why Bongueros currently travel to and return to their lands would require additional analysis of present kinship and land-tenure rules, and that new research at different scales and chronologies is needed.
  • It states that at Palenquito, the absence of context prevented interpretations despite high material density, and that at La Bonga the low proportion of early colonial fragments did not allow linking them to a particular colonial occupation phase.
  • Evident from the text: the early marronage reconstruction depends heavily on fragmentary colonial documents produced by authorities and courts, and the archaeological evidence comes from survey/surface collection rather than extensive excavation, making some chronological and occupational inferences partial.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.6035/millars.2022.53.3

Cites

5 of 5 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Figures

Fig. 1 Ubicación de palenques en la sierra de la Maria. Elaboración personal. 2020.
Fig. 1 Ubicación de palenques en la sierra de la Maria. Elaboración personal. 2020.CC-BY-SA · From the PDF
Fig. 2 Camino a la Bonga. Archivo personal, 2017.
Fig. 2 Camino a la Bonga. Archivo personal, 2017.CC-BY-SA · From the PDF
Fig. 3 Huellas del andar. Caminos en el Bajo Grande, San Basilio de Palenque. Archivo personal 2020
Fig. 3 Huellas del andar. Caminos en el Bajo Grande, San Basilio de Palenque. Archivo personal 2020CC-BY-SA · From the PDF
Fig. 4 Límites actuales titulación colectiva de San Basilio de Palenque y la Bonga. Elaboración personal, 2020.
Fig. 4 Límites actuales titulación colectiva de San Basilio de Palenque y la Bonga. Elaboración personal, 2020.CC-BY-SA · From the PDF
Fig. 5 Ruta o camino que conecta a San Basilio de Palenque con la Bonga. elaboración personal 2017.
Fig. 5 Ruta o camino que conecta a San Basilio de Palenque con la Bonga. elaboración personal 2017.CC-BY-SA · From the PDF
Fig. 6 Algunos de los tipos cerámicos identificados:: A) Abo Polícromo, B) Cartagena Rojo Compacto, C) Cartagena Criollo Colonial, D-E) Palenque Crema Burdo, F) Crespo Rojo Arenoso, G) Columbia Plain, H) Green Bacin, I) Hard Paste Mayólica, J) Loza Industrial Blanca, K) Loza Industrial Decoración Lineal, L) Loza Industrial 'Floral Pintado a Mano', M) Loza Industrial Moderna, N) Mayólica Cartagena.
Fig. 6 Algunos de los tipos cerámicos identificados:: A) Abo Polícromo, B) Cartagena Rojo Compacto, C) Cartagena Criollo Colonial, D-E) Palenque Crema Burdo, F) Crespo Rojo Arenoso, G) Columbia Plain, H) Green Bacin, I) Hard Paste Mayólica, J) Loza Industrial Blanca, K) Loza Industrial Decoración Lineal, L) Loza Industrial 'Floral Pintado a Mano', M) Loza Industrial Moderna, N) Mayólica Cartagena.CC-BY-SA · From the PDF
Image 7
CC-BY-SA · From the PDF

Verification

Claims the paper makes

45 Own interpretation · 24 Own result · 15 Not checked yet · 14 Sources not found · 1 No basis given

  • Probably not a substantial claim. 26
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 42
  • The quote only partly states this claim. 2
55 of 55
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The 1714 agreement occurred while slavery was still legally in force.

    “Llama la atención en este panorama, el acuerdo de 1714 pues ocurre en un contexto en el que la esclavitud aún se encontraba vigente.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Legal means for access to freedom did not imply immediate access to land tenure.

    “Aunque existieron medios legales para el acceso a la libertad por parte de la población esclavizada (ej.auto-manumisión o liberación por parte del amo), lo anterior no significaba acceso inmediato a la tenencia de tierra.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The declarations and reports in the archive accurately record the events, statements, and conditions they describe.

    “Según las declaraciones de sus hijas Leonor, Lucrecia y Maria Magdalena, estas tenían otra hermana llamada Ana, así como otros tres hermanos llamados Pablo, Diego y García.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Una arremetida paramilitar en la zona obligó al abandono inmediato del asentamiento de la Bonga y de otros caseríos.

    “Una arremetida paramilitar en la zona obligó al abandono inmediato del asentamiento.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    La historia oral transmite de manera confiable que los ancestros de los bongueros llegaron al área de la Bonga un siglo antes huyendo de otra entrada militar contra San Basilio de Palenque.

    “La historia oral permite conocer que los ancestros de los bongueros habían llegado al área de la Bonga un siglo antes huyendo de otra entrada militar, esta vez contra San Basilio de Palenque.”
5 of 5

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

1 of 1

Citations

Cites

Show all 4 references

Research works printed but not linked: 7

  1. ESCALANTE, Aquiles. (1979), El Palenque de San Basilio. Una comunidad de descendientes de negros (2da ed.), Universidad del Atlántico, Barran- quilla, Colombia.
  2. FUNARI, Pedro P. (1999), "Etnicidad, Identidad y cultura material: Un estu- dio del cimarrón Palmarés, Brasil siglo XVII". en ZARANKIN, A y ACUTO, F. (ed), Sed non satiata. Teoría social en la Arqueología Latinoamericana Contemporánea, Ediciones del Tridente (Colección Científica), Buenos Ai- res, pp. 77-96.
  3. FRIEDEMANN, Nina. S. (1998), "San Basilio en el universo Kilombo-África y palenque-América", en Geografía Humana de Colombia. Los Afrocolom- bianos. Tomo VI, Instituto Colombiano de Cultura Hispánica, Bogotá, pp. 81-101.
  4. HEYWOOD, Linda M. (2009), "Queen Njinga Mbandi Ana de Sou- sa of Ndongo/Matamba: African Leadership, Diplomacy, and Ideology, 1620s-1650s". en McKNIGHT, K. y GAROFALDO, L. (ed.), Afro-Latino Voi- ces. Narratives from the Early Modern Ibero-Atlantic World, 1550-1812, Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., Indianapolis/Cambridge, pp. 38-51.
  5. LAVIÑA , Javier., MENDIZÁBAL, Tomás., PIQUERAS, Ricardo., DE GRACIA Guillermina I., HIDALGO, Marta., TOUS, Meritzell. y TRESSERAS, Jordi. (2015), "La localización de la villa de Santiago del Príncipe, Panamá. Pruebas históricas e indicios arqueológicos", Canto Rodado, vol. 10, pp. 125-146.
  6. MANTILLA, Johana. C. (2013), "Transformacoes na paisagem cultural con- temporânea de uma povoação de origem quilombola na costa norte da Colômbia. San Basilio de Palenque. Séculos XIX e XX", en AGOSTINI, C. (ed.), Objetos da Escravidao: abordagens sobre a cultura material da escravidao e seu legado, Editora 7 Letras, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, pp. 105- 127. http://dx.doi.org/10.6035/Millars.2022.53.3 -ISSN: 1132-9823 -vol. LIII 2022/2 -pp.55-77 · DOI
  7. MENEZES, Lucio. (2015), "A global perspective on Maroon Archaeology in Brazil", en WILSON MARSHALL, L., The Archaeology of Slavery: A Com- parative Approach to Captivity and Coercion (Center for Archaeological In- vestigations Occasional Paper), Southern Illinois University Press, cap.

Metadata

Authors
Mantilla Oliveros, J. C.
Venue
Millars. Espai i Història
Published
2022-12-26
Pages
55-77
ISSN
  • 1132-9823 (ISSN-L)
  • 2340-4809
OpenAlex
W4320725018
Cited by
3
References
4
Citations by year
2026: 3
FWCI
0.00
Type
journal article
Language
es
Open access
Licence
cc-by-sa
Locations
  • Millars Espai i Història (publishedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
  • Repositori UJI (Universitat Jaume I) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Anthropology › Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Colonialism, slavery, and trade
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › History and Politics in Latin America
Keywords
cimarrones, San Basilio de Palenque, Montes de María, landscape, slavery, resistance, settlement patterns, ceramics (art and archaeology), everyday life, freedom, northern Colombia

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