Date Awarded
Fall 2016
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
Anthropology
Advisor
Neil Norman
Committee Member
Grey Gundaker
Committee Member
Frederick H Smith
Abstract
Though there is no shortage of 17th century plantation sites in the Chesapeake archaeology enslaved African populations is incipient, but not yetflourishing. This may be a reflection of the result of those communities’ underrepresentation in the archaeological and documentary records from that time period. Detailed analysis of archaeological sites where Africans were present can reveal the material residues of their lives, even when this material culture is inundated by European materials. This thesis marshals archaeological, historiographic, and ethnohistorical data to use the excavations at the Rich Neck Plantation as a window into the diversity of the 17th century Atlantic world. An interpretation that highlights the composite nature of captive African communities is produced and juxtaposed against interpretations of the same archaeological artifacts and features through the landscape features and material culture of the English land owners. Tandem analysis of the archaeological record through the perspectives of these groups provides insight into the ways their perceptions of their surroundings overlapped and diverged.
DOI
http://doi.org/10.21220/S29G6Z
Rights
© The Author
Recommended Citation
Cuthbertson, Thomas John, "A Confluence of Cultures: Complicating The Interpretation of 17th Century Plantation Archaeology using Data from Rich Neck Plantation" (2016). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. William & Mary. Paper 1477068099.
http://doi.org/10.21220/S29G6Z
