ABSTRACT
Children of mixed parentage, whether or not of marriages, are the common biological legacy of colonialism. However, as a manifestation of European capitalism in the world, it does share certain features and invite similar research questions. As we study creolization we also must be aware of the fluidity of frontier and borderland societies. Several archaeologists have suggested that capitalism be considered the proper primary focus of historical archaeology. An archaeology of slavery is not an archaeology of diasporic Africans, although it certainly includes that. Slavery created and sustained supply and demand for far-reaching trade in commodities like tobacco, sugar, rum, rice, and cotton. Slavery and the slave trade, like colonialism and capitalism, infiltrated the whole of the developing modern world. Neither capitalism, nor colonialism, nor slavery is monolithic; instead, regional differences in indigenous culture, historical contingencies, and ecological settings influence and are influenced by European-led economic conquest.
