Archaeological Evidence of Change in Social Organization at Kiwulan, an Iron Age site in Northeastern Taiwan, during European Colonization

Abstract

Colonial encounters between Europeans and Indigenous people have long been an important topic in historical archaeology as scholars seek to explore their effects on Indigenous social, cultural, and material worlds. However, our current understanding heavily relies on studies of European colonies with obvious evidence of direct colonial rule, which provides limited insights into the reactions of Indigenous societies at the periphery of European colonial centers. In those places, Indigenous societies may face a relatively weak or indirect colonial power. Despite the colonization of Taiwan by Europeans from 1624 to 1662, little is known from the archaeological record about the nature of interaction between Indigenous groups and Europeans, and the role of European contact in social change in Indigenous social organization. Our current knowledge of Indigenous settlements in northeastern Taiwan suggests a relatively complex social system in the Iron Age around the 17th century, at the same time as the European presence. Northeastern Taiwan is an especially interesting example of European and Indigenous interaction because the degree of European colonization appears to have been much less pronounced compared to other places in Northern Taiwan. This region serves as a great example to explore the reaction of Indigenous people in the periphery of colonial centers. The aim of this dissertation is to explore whether there is a relationship between Indigenous social complexity in northeastern Taiwan and the European presence in the 17th century. I hypothesize that the kind of social complexity we observed throughout northeastern Taiwan may have resulted from the indirect impacts of European colonization and associated frequent trade activities. To test my hypothesis, I explore social changes at a major Iron Age site, Kiwulan (1350-1850 AD), by examining multiple lines of archaeological evidence. I use a conceptual framework of corporate/network modes to model changes in social complexity. I studied archeological materials, including trade ornaments, locally made ceramics, and burials, as proxies to investigate changes before and after the European arrival. The core of this dissertation is three research papers that focus on a specific element of the archaeological record of Kiwulan to measure and compare the extent of social inequality. I used novel methods applied for the first time to archaeological materials in this region, such as geometric morphometrics for ceramic shapes and Bayesian network modeling for understanding social changes via burial data. To better understand Indigenous reactions to foreign presence on a long-term scale, I also incorporate a later Chinese phase to provide a diachronic perspective to explore social change at Kiwulan from the 14th to 19th century. The results indicate that there was a social change from a more corporate mode to a more network mode after the European arrival in the 17th century, and before the influx of Han Chinese immigrants in the 19th century. This finding is supported by an uneven spatial distribution of prestige goods across the residential area, and a centralized pattern of burial networks that demonstrate an increased social inequality after the European presence. These changes suggest a form of indirect colonial impact – indirect stimulus of social reorganization – that is still not well understood in the archaeological literature. This dissertation demonstrates how an Indigenous society changes in a pericolonial context and shows the potential of this topic in East and Southeast Asia. In addition, an important technical contribution of this research is the use of novel reproducible quantitative methodologies. This dissertation takes an open science approach to enable maximum availability to research data, analytical processes, and final outputs through the practice of reproducible research to advocate research transparency and equal access to knowledge.