When Spain, the 16th century European superpower, spread into the Americas it created a plethora of “situations of contact," transforming all groups involved. Foreign items are often appropriated as luxury goods in sociopolitical struggles for power, and European colonialists realized they could use trade goods to manipulate local politics and loaded their ships with such items. Indigenous peoples often transformed desired trade goods into inalienable objects, which played critical roles in local political systems. The competition of local elites for these goods and their subsequent use as po
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