Description:This thesis is as much an investigation into colonialism as a social category, as it explores the specific historical conditions of a particular region. The approach can be ranked among the so-called 'postcolonial' perspectives, in conjunction with other current ideas about society, human agency and material culture. These ideas are practically applied in a detailed study of rural settlement in west central Sardinia. The archaeological evidence for this is based on the results of the Riu Mannu Survey, carried out from 1992, and published data. With summary in Dutch.