Abstract

An unprecedented process of commercialization and circulation of goods began with European expansion in the fifteenth century. This included majolica, a type of tableware that has been associated with the European upper class. Majolica was desired by the early American urban elites and circulated extensively in the colonies. This work presents majolica plates found at Indigenous cemeteries in the jurisdiction of Valdivia, in the southern Viceroyalty of Peru. Exploring Spanish-Indigenous interaction and material and temporal differences in the circulation of goods into Indigenous territory, we discuss how colonial tastes were appropriated by the Indigenous population and redefined within their own cultural patterns. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2025.