Documentary Archaeology in the New World

Designed to appeal to a broad spectrum of archaeologists and historians, Documentary Archaeology in the New World outlines a fresh approach to the archaeological study of the historic cultures of North America that places history alongside anthropology, cultural geography, and a whole range of cognate disciplines. The authors' common belief is that historical archaeologists must develop their own frameworks for interpretation through exhaustive documentary research rather than simply borrow models from colleagues working in the prehistoric past. Specific topics examined include urban archaeology, historical ecology, consumerism, smuggling, folk classifications, gender relations, ethnicity, seasonality and ideology. This volume will serve both as a guide to the available techniques of documentary analysis and as a source for the innovative interpretation of historical archaeological materials anywhere in the world.

Introduction; Part I. Archaeology is Not Enough: 1. Legends, houses, families and myths: relationships between material culture and American ideology Anne E. Yentsch; 2. Perceptions of an artifact: Chinese porcelain in colonial Tidewater Virginia Julia B. Curtis; 3. Documentary insights into the archaeology of smuggling Peter R. Schmidt, and Stephen A. Mrozowski; 4. Words for things: linguistic analysis of probate inventories Mary C. Beaudry, Janet Long, henry M. Miller, Fraser D. Neiman, and Garry Wheeler Stone; Part II. Documents and the Archaeologist: The Data Base: 6. Artifacts are not enough Garry Wheeler stone; 7. The behavioural context of probate inventories: an example from Plymouth colony marley R. Brown III; 8. Occupational differences reflected in material culture Kathleen J. Bragdon; 9. On the use of historical maps Nancy S. Seaholes; 10. Military records and historical archaeology Lawrence E. Babits; 11. The material culture of the Christian Indians of New England, 1650–1775 Kathleen J. Bragdon; 12. Anthropological title searches in Rockbridge County, Virginia H. Langhorne and lawrence E. Babits; Part III. Ecological Questions In Historical Archaeology: 13. Farming, fishing, whaling, trading: land and sea as resource on eighteenth-century Cape Cod Anne e. yentsch; 14. Seasonality: an agricultural construct Joanne Bowen; Part IV. Consumerism, Status, Gender, and Ethnicity: 15. Classification and economic scaling of nineteenth-century ceramics george l. miller; 16. For gentlemen of capacity and leisure: the archaeology of colonial newspapers stephen A. mrozowoski; 17. What happened to the silent majority? Research strategies for studying dominant group material culture in late nineteenth-century California Mary Praetzellis, Adrian Praetzellis, and Marley r. brown III.

This book outlines a fresh approach to the archaeological study of the historic cultures of North America. Instead of historical archaeologists borrowing models from colleagues working in the prehistoric past, Beaudry believes that historical archaeologists must develop their own framework for interpretation. It is designed to appeal to a broad spectrum of archaeologists and historians.