The Comcáac Empire as Crossroads: An Initial Outline
Type of Presentation
Paper
Location
D1497
Start Date
4-12-2019 10:40 AM
End Date
4-12-2019 11:10 AM
Abstract
Pekka Hämäläinen’s The Comanche Empire reminds us that we scholars have not paid the indigenous dominance of large swaths of land (and water) claimed but not controlled by modern nation-states the attention that it deserves. The Comcáac (Seri) probably do not meet the criteria for having had an empire, but they did have a major impact on the settlement of non-indigenous peoples into their ancestral lands up until the late 1930’s (and perhaps beyond). Nonetheless, they have been (by me and other scholars) treated as victims of European colonial expansion. There are no doubts that the Comcáac faced a colonial onslaught at the hands of first the Spanish and then later Mexicans. These included pacification campaigns aimed at their permanent extermination as a people. Yet, the Comcáac persisted and made use of an array of strategies – ecological, political, and martial – to resist colonization. Here, through an exploration of the anti-colonial strategies that they adopted, I propose to reposition the Comcáac from victims of colonization to a people who often dominated the crossroads along the southeastern Gulf of California.
The Comcáac Empire as Crossroads: An Initial Outline
D1497
Pekka Hämäläinen’s The Comanche Empire reminds us that we scholars have not paid the indigenous dominance of large swaths of land (and water) claimed but not controlled by modern nation-states the attention that it deserves. The Comcáac (Seri) probably do not meet the criteria for having had an empire, but they did have a major impact on the settlement of non-indigenous peoples into their ancestral lands up until the late 1930’s (and perhaps beyond). Nonetheless, they have been (by me and other scholars) treated as victims of European colonial expansion. There are no doubts that the Comcáac faced a colonial onslaught at the hands of first the Spanish and then later Mexicans. These included pacification campaigns aimed at their permanent extermination as a people. Yet, the Comcáac persisted and made use of an array of strategies – ecological, political, and martial – to resist colonization. Here, through an exploration of the anti-colonial strategies that they adopted, I propose to reposition the Comcáac from victims of colonization to a people who often dominated the crossroads along the southeastern Gulf of California.
Other Presentation Disciplines:
Indigenous Studies, Border Studies