Documentary Archaeology in the New World

It outlines a fresh approach to the archaeological study of the historic cultures of North America.

Mary C. Beaudry (Edited by)

9780521449991, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 25 June 1993

228 pages, 48 b/w illus. 42 maps 29 tables
27.5 x 21.8 x 1.2 cm, 0.523 kg

'These essays prove unequivocably that historical archaeology has its own set of issues and techniques that are of value in and of themselves.' G. J. Gumerman, Choice

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 which 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.

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.

Subject Areas: Archaeology [HD]