the state or in adjacent lands. Consequently, the geographical scope dealt with
here is very ambitious and covers every continent. Even more than in the case
of the archaeology of the Great Civilizations, much of what is deWned as
archaeology in the following pages was not necessarily understood as such by
nineteenth-century scholarship. More important, studies in thisWeld con-
ferred much less prestige than those on any of the many ancient civilizations
around the world. This partly explains why archaeology did not become a
professional discipline in many of the areas discussed until after the First
World War or even, in the case of sub-Saharan Africa and Australia, after the
Second World War. Before that, as happened in Europe (Chapter 13), the
study of prehistoric implements, when it took place at all, was very much tied
to anthropology/ethnology and the natural sciences.
THE COLONIAL ENCOUNTER WITH THE PRIMITIVE—A
HISTORICAL BACKGROUNDThe European confrontation with non-state societies had taken place mainly
from the end of theWfteenth century when the Portuguese had established a
few trade outposts in Africa. The scale of these encounters became dramat-
ically enhanced with the Europeans’ conquest of whole areas located else-
where in the world which were subsequently incorporated into the territories
controlled by their monarchies. This happened in the American continent
from the sixteenth century and in Australia, Africa, and the PaciWc from the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The independence of America from its
old masters—Britain, France, Portugal, and Spain—from the 1770s highlights
the rupture between early and late modern imperialism. The new emphasis on
colonialism had many interrelated causes: the independence of some of the
early modern colonies; a connection of national pride and empire; population
increase and migration of great numbers of Europeans; technological advance;
development of transport systems; and capitalism and industrialization.
During this period Britain created the largest colonial empire, dominating
aWfth of the Earth’s landmass (Porter 1999). Although the extension of
the French Empire was comparatively much smaller, about one-third the
size of the British Empire, it still comprised overWfty-six million people.
Most of the French colonies lay in Africa and Southeast Asia (Osborne
1994: xiii). In addition to the late arrival into the colonial adventure of
Germany and Italy, countries outside Europe also became involved, Japan
being one of the most determined. New Imperialism included, as explained
above, colonialism in the classical sense of the word as well as what I have
Archaeology of the Primitive 279