Customer Reviews

The Timucuan Chiefdoms of Spanish Florida: Volume I: Assimilation

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I must confess, in this review, to some personal bias; Dr. Worth, the author of this book and its companion volume, is one of my doctoral committee members. Having said that, however, this book and its companion volume are landmark works, and this book is extremely interesting both from the standpoint of professional archaeologists and historians and from that of the general reader.

In this first volume, Worth provides a detailed picture of the Timucuan peoples of northern Florida and southern Georgia immediately prior to and during the initial phase of European colonization. The Timucuan chiefdoms were among the first peoples of North America contacted by Europeans, and they were also among the first to become a part of the worldwide colonial system created by imperial Spain. Since most history in the United States is taught from an English perspective (that's England the country, not English the language), it may come as a surprise to most American readers to discover that Spanish Florida predated the first British colonies by nearly fifty years. Likewise, the Spanish system of colonization was radically different from that of the English; the Timucuan chiefdoms were integrated into the Spanish empire through the process of Catholic missionization - through the use of social and political mechanisms which reinforced chiefly power, rather than destroyed it and pushed it aside as under the English.

This book is a highly interesting and very important look at the beginnings of American history and a people whose lifeways and cultures were profoundly changed by European contact. I encourage all readers with an interest in American history or anthropology to read this book and its companion.