NYAS @ WGF: Sarah K. Croucher and “Capitalism and Cloves”

We’ve just had another great season of NYAS Anthropology Section lectures here at the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and this upcoming Monday, April 28th, marks the final meeting for the 2013-2014 academic year. On this occasion we will welcome Wesleyan University’s Sarah K. Croucher, a historical archaeologist focused on race and colonialism in the 19th century, to present a talk entitled “Capitalism and Cloves: Islamic Plantations on Nineteenth-Century Zanzibar”

Plantation landscapes have been understood by historical archaeologists to be fundamentally part of the expansion of global capitalism. This talk explores this taken-for-granted assumption through the study of Islamic plantations on nineteenth-century Zanzibar. Through a combination of archaeological and historical data I explore how landscapes were understood by Omani settler colonists on the island during the 1800s, in the process questioning the manner in which capitalism and European culture are generally assumed to be synonymous.

This event will take place at the Wenner-Gren Foundation Building, 470 Park Avenue South, 8th Floor, New York (at 32nd Street). Dr. Croucher will begin her lecture at 7 PM, and a dinner and wine reception, free to students, will precede the talk at 6 pm. The event is free, but registration with NYAS is required.