Archaeology of Identity and Dissonance

Archaeology of Identity and Dissonance
Author: Diane F. George
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Total Pages: 317
Release: 2019-01-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0813057027

This volume demonstrates how humans adapt to new and challenging environments by building and adjusting their identities. By gathering a diverse set of case studies that draw on popular themes in contemporary historical archaeology and current trends in archaeological method and theory, it shows the many ways identity formation can be seen in the material world that humans create. The essays focus on situations across the globe where humans have experienced dissonance in the form of colonization, migration, conflict, marginalization, and other cultural encounters. Featuring a wide time span that reaches to the ancient past, examples include Roman soldiers in Britain, Vikings in Iceland and the Orkney Islands, sex workers in French colonial Algeria, Irish immigrants to the United States, an African American community in nineteenth-century New York City, and the Taino people of contemporary Puerto Rico. These studies draw on a variety of data, from excavated artifacts to landscape and architecture to archival materials. In their analyses, contributors explore multiple aspects of identity such as class, gender, race, and ethnicity, showing how these factors intersect for many of the individuals and groups studied. The questions of identity formation explored in this volume are critical to understanding the world today as humans continue to grapple with the legacies of colonialism and the realities of globalized and divided societies.

An Archaeology of Ethnicity, Race, and Consumption in New York

An Archaeology of Ethnicity, Race, and Consumption in New York
Author: Jordon D. Loucks
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 165
Release: 2020-05-29
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1793611769

An Archaeology of Ethnicity, Race, and Consumption in New York examines the archaeological visibility of ethnicity within the confines of nineteenth-century material culture from across New York State. The author discusses the limits of archaeological interpretations of ethnicity, presents the utility of material indications of racism in the archaeological record, considers the archaeological footprint of immigrant groups, and contextualizes these discussions with the economic development of the state of New York. The author argues that the construction of canals and railroads causes drastic changes in trade networks and available goods throughout the state, and impacted the lives of immigrant populations who both built and depended on these systems. This book recounts the exploitation of immigrant groups for hard labor to complete these arterial constructions, which in turn increases reliable accessibility to trade goods, but also provides archaeologists today an increased ability to understand the treatment of those immigrant groups by American society.

Interpreting the Early Modern World

Interpreting the Early Modern World
Author: Mary C. Beaudry
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2010-10-20
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 038770759X

This volume is based on a session at a 2005 Society for Historical Archaeology meeting. The organizers assembled historical archaeologists from the UK and the US, whose work arises out of differing intellectual traditions. The authors exchange ideas about what their colleagues have written, and construct dialogues about theories and practices that inform interpretive archaeology on either side of the Atlantic, ending with commentary by two well-known names in interpretive archaeology.

The Children of Spring Street

The Children of Spring Street
Author: Meredith A. B. Ellis
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 153
Release: 2018-07-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 331992687X

This book examines how the shifts in the early 19th century in New York City affected children in particular. Indeed, one could argue that within this context, that “children” and “childhood” came into being. In order to explore this, the skeletal remains of the children buried at the small, local, yet politically radical Spring Street Presbyterian Church are detailed. Population level analyses are combined with individual biological profiles from sorted burials and individual stories combed from burial records and archival data. What emerges are life histories of children—of infants, toddlers, younger children, older children, and adolescents—during this time of transition in New York City. When combined with historical data, these life histories, for instance, tell us about what it was like to grow up in this changing time in New York City

The Archaeology of Race and Class at Timbuctoo

The Archaeology of Race and Class at Timbuctoo
Author: Christopher P. Barton
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Total Pages: 129
Release: 2023-03-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0813072913

Collaborative archaeology and the lasting character of a historic Black community The Archaeology of Race and Class at Timbuctoo is the first book to examine the historic Black community of Timbuctoo, New Jersey, which was founded in 1826 by formerly enslaved migrants from Maryland and served as a stop on the Underground Railroad. In collaboration with descendants and community members, Christopher Barton explores the intersectionality of life at Timbuctoo and the ways Black residents resisted the marginalizing structures of race and class. Despite some support from local Quaker abolitionists, the people of Timbuctoo endured strained relationships with neighboring white communities, clashes with slave catchers, and hostilities from the Ku Klux Klan. Through a multiscalar approach that ranges from landscape archaeology and settlement patterns to analysis of consumer artifacts, this book demonstrates how residents persevered to construct their own identities and navigate poverty. Barton incorporates oral histories from community elders that offer insights into the racial tensions of the early- to mid-twentieth century and convey the strong, lasting character of the community in the face of repression. Weaving together memories and inherited accounts, current archaeological investigations, historical records, and comparisons to nearby Black-established communities of the era, this book illuminates the everyday impacts of slavery and race relations in a part of the country that seemed to promise freedom and highlights the use of archaeology as a medium for social activism. Publication of this work made possible by a Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Identity and Power in the Ancient Andes

Identity and Power in the Ancient Andes
Author: John Wayne Janusek
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2004-12-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1135940886

The Tiwanaku state was the political and cultural center of ancient Andean civilization for almost 700 years. Identity and Power is the result of ten years of research that has revealed significant new data. Janusek explores the origins, development, and collapse of this ancient state through the lenses of social identities--gender, ethnicity, occupation, for example--and power relations. He combines recent developments in social theory with the archaeological record to create a fascinating and theoretically informed exploration of the history of this important civilization.

On the Edge of Purgatory

On the Edge of Purgatory
Author: Bonnie J. Clark
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2012-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0803262752

Southeastern Colorado was known as the northernmost boundary of New Spain in the sixteenth century. By the late 1800s, the region was U.S. territory, but the majority of settlers remained Hispanic families. They had a complex history of interaction with indigenous populations in the area and adopted many of the indigenous methods of survival in this difficult environment. Today their descendants compose a vocal part of the Hispanic population of Colorado. Bonnie J. Clark investigates the unwritten history of this unique Hispanic population. Combining archaeological research, contemporary ethnography, and oral and documentary history, Clark examines the everyday lives of this population over time. Framing this discussion within the wider context of the changing economic and political processes at work, Clark looks at how changing and contesting ethnic and gender identities were experienced on a daily basis. Providing new insights into the construction of ethnic identity in the American West over hundreds of years, this study complicates and enriches our understanding of the role of Hispanic populations in the West.

The Encyclopedia of New York State

The Encyclopedia of New York State
Author: Peter Eisenstadt
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Total Pages: 1960
Release: 2005-05-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780815608080

The Encyclopedia of New York State is one of the most complete works on the Empire State to be published in a half-century. In nearly 2,000 pages and 4,000 signed entries, this single volume captures the impressive complexity of New York State as a historic crossroads of people and ideas, as a cradle of abolitionism and feminism, and as an apex of modern urban, suburban, and rural life. The Encyclopedia is packed with fascinating details from fields ranging from sociology and geography to history. Did you know that Manhattan's Lower East Side was once the most populated neighborhood in the world, but Hamilton County in the Adirondacks is the least densely populated county east of the Mississippi; New York is the only state to border both the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean; the Erie Canal opened New York City to rich farmland upstate . . . and to the west. Entries by experts chronicle New York's varied areas, politics, and persuasions with a cornucopia of subjects from environmentalism to higher education to railroads, weaving the state's diverse regions and peoples into one idea of New York State. Lavishly illustrated with 500 photographs and figures, 120 maps, and 140 tables, the Encyclopedia is key to understanding the state's past, present, and future. It is a crucial reference for students, teachers, historians, and business people, for New Yorkers of all persuasions, and for anyone interested in finding out more about New York State.