Biocultural Histories in La Florida is a work about the experience of Guale and Apalachee people living under the Spanish crown. Christopher Stojanowski utilizes a unique source for this study, the physical remains of those who lived through the processes of colonialization. His analysis focuses on three periods: Late Precontact (ad 1200 – 1400), Early Mission (ad 1600 – 1650), and Late Mission (ad 1650 – 1706). By interpreting the collected biological data within the archaeological, historical, and ethnohistorical literature of La Florida, the author attempts to reconstruct the evolutionary impact of Spanish colonial policy on Native American groups.
Stojanowski seeks to trace Apalachee and Guale population dynamics by building models of two evolutionary forces: genetic drift, which decreases genetic diversity, and gene flow, which increases it. In the context of La Florida, genetic drift is the result of population loss and demographic collapse, and gene flow is the result...
