CANCELLED - Trials, Tests and Technology: Indigo Manufacture in Colonial Yucatan

This paper examines the early history of Colonial New World indigo, following the progression from artisanal, indigenous systems of extraction towards large-scale manufacturing, mapping evolving practices in New Spain and Guatemala. A rich body of surviving sources, including detailed accounts of cultivation and production, illuminate the earliest Spanish efforts to develop indigo into an export commodity – episodes of experimentation and innovation, the influence of pre-Hispanic models and the diffusion of new techniques.