So how do you posses the Americas??? Anybody???

Patricia Seed’s Ceremonies of Possession in Europe’s Conquest of the New World 1492-1640 is kind of a twist between landscape archaeology and nautical history, if that makes any sense to anyone reading this.  But don’t get me wrong I enjoyed the book; it was a fast read with interesting information.  How people physically possess land is an interesting concept when studying the past and as Seed explains no two really do the same thing. But back to the book…… Seed divided the book between the Spanish, English, Portuguese, and Dutch all prominent players in during the conquest of the Americas.  It is sometimes stated that Europe conquered the Americas, however, each country was made up of its own unique culture which influence not only how the interact with native people but how they posses the land.

While I liked how Seed structured and organized the research which produced a nice flow to the work, there were a few aspects which I did not agree with.  The two chapters based on sea travel were a little broader than I thought the scope of the book was intended to make.  In these two chapters Seed goes into aspects which ranged around the world and the New World was kind of lost until it resurfaced right at the end.  So in this aspect I would have liked to have seen more of a connection to the overall theme of the book.  A second aspect was the repetition I often felt like Seed was reiterating the same information again and again which did not seem necessary while you were reading.

Like I said I did enjoy the book in the past year I have done a lot of research concerning archaeological theory of landscapes and the English chapter really did ring true to what I have been looking at.  However, the book kind of left me wanting.  I felt like there should have been two more volumes to this book.  For instance I would have liked more information on how native peoples developed their concept of land possession.  And I know people say that Native Americans didn’t “own” the land but there are clear signs in the archaeological record of how communities defined their living space within the group and in relation to other groups they had to compete for resources against.  And secondly, Seed’s book covers the conquest but what happened afterward?  There has been a lot of research done on how American colonies organized themselves and the factors that influenced them.  As you can see with Seed the Europeans were highly influenced by the culture from their native land but once they got here you can see how a new culture grows out of the Americas.  Event the concept of the lock had a profound effect on how native peoples who were interacting with Europeans.  So in the end I found Seed’s book to be very interesting bringing together contrasting ideas that existed within Europe at the time of the conquest, however, I still would have liked to have seen more.