This volume offers lively current debates and case studies in historical archaeology selected from around the world, including North America, Latin America, Africa, the Pacific, and Europe.

• Authored by 19 experts in the field.
• Explores how historical archaeologists think about their work, piecing together information from both material culture and documents in an attempt to understand the lives of the people and societies they study.
• Engages with current theory in an accessible manner.
• Truly global in its approach but avoids subsuming local experiences of...

This volume offers lively current debates and case studies in historical archaeology selected from around the world, including North America, Latin America, Africa, the Pacific, and Europe.

• Authored by 19 experts in the field.
• Explores how historical archaeologists think about their work, piecing together information from both material culture and documents in an attempt to understand the lives of the people and societies they study.
• Engages with current theory in an accessible manner.
• Truly global in its approach but avoids subsuming local experiences of...

Native Americans who populated the various ranchos of Mexican California as laborers are people frequently lost to history. The "rancho period" was a critical time for California Indians, as many were drawn into labor pools for the flourishing ranchos following the 1834 dismantlement of the mission system, but they are practically absent from the documentary record and from popular histories. This study focuses on Rancho Petaluma north of San Francisco Bay, a large livestock, agricultural, and manufacturing operation on which several hundred--perhaps as many as two thousand--Native Americans...