 2008 by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. All rights reserved. 0011-3204/2008/4905-0004$10.00. DOI: 10.1086/591275 Current Anthropology Volume 49, Number 5, October 2008 861 Gender, Race, and Labor in the Archaeology of the Spanish Colonial Americas by Barbara L. Voss Gender and race are central to archaeological investigations of empire. In research on the Spanish colonization of the Americas, one prominent theory, the St. Augustine pattern, argues that cohab- itation between Spanish men and Native American and African women in colonial households resulted in a distinctly gendered form of cultural transformation: indigenous, African, and syncretic cultural elements appear within private domestic activities associated with women; and European cultural elements are conservatively maintained in publicly visible male activities. This article reconsiders the St. Augustine pattern through analyses of new research that has revealed considerable diversity in the processes and outcomes of colonization throughout the Spanish Americas. Archaeological meth- odologies such as the St. Augustine pattern that rely on binary categories of analysis mask the complexity and ambiguity of material culture in colonial sites. Additionally, the abundance and ubiquity of indigenous, African, and syncretic material culture and foodstuffs in colonial households in the circum-Caribbean indicate that macroscale economic, trade, and labor relationships, rather than household composition, were important causes of colonial cultural transformation in the Amer- icas. An analytical focus on labor in colonial settings provides a multiscalar methodology that en- compasses both institutional and household-level entanglements between colonizers and colonized. Historical archaeology emerged through the study of Euro- pean colonization of the Americas, and research on empire continues to be at the center of archaeological theory and method. This article reconsiders perhaps the longest held, and most widely disseminated, archaeological theory of coloni- zation: the St. Augustine pattern. 1 Developed by Kathleen Deagan (1974, 1983) through archaeological research at St. Augustine, Florida, the St. Augustine pattern holds that a distinct creole cultural pattern emerged through encounters among Spanish, Native American, and African peoples. 2 In- digenous, African, and syncretic cultural elements were adopted in domestic activities associated with women; and Spanish cultural elements were maintained in male colonial activities that were publicly visible. Intermarriage and cohab- itation between Spanish men and Native American and Af- rican women is argued to have been a central mechanism that integrated these diverse cultural traits. Scholars have widely cited the St. Augustine pattern as evidence of system- atic differences between Spanish colonial and British colonial enterprises in southeastern North America. At the time of its introduction, the St. Augustine pattern Barbara L. Voss is Assistant Professor in the Department of An- thropology at Stanford University (Stanford, CA 94305-2034, U.S.A. [bvoss@stanford.edu]). This paper was submitted 16 VII 07 and accepted 19 III 08. was unprecedented in its attention to gender and household practices in the archaeology of empire. Deagan showed that indigenous women actively participated as agents of cultural change, and that colonial cultures were transformed as much as, and at times perhaps more than, indigenous cultures. The St. Augustine pattern was also the first major archaeological theory to seriously consider the importance of mixed-race populations. These insights invigorated the archaeology of empire and inspired new generations of scholars to conduct research on colonization and its consequences. However, recent studies of Spanish colonial settlements have challenged the empirical validity and broad explanatory power of the St. Augustine pattern. In particular, postcolonial and poststructuralist feminist theories raise questions about whether binary categories of analysis are adequate to interpret the material culture of colonial sites. Despite these methodo- logical shifts in interpretations of Spanish colonization, some of which have been championed by Deagan and her colleagues, 1. “St. Augustine pattern” is no longer used by Deagan, but it is commonly found in archaeological publications as shorthand for the core hypothesis of Deagan’s early writings (1974, 1983). Because it is this hypothesis, rather than Deagan’s broader research program, that is the focus of critique, I continue this terminology in this article. 2. In this context, creole (criollo) designates American-born Spanish colonists and is used more broadly to refer to the formation of a distinct Spanish-American colonial culture.