Journal•ISSN: 1092-7697
International Journal of Historical Archaeology
Springer Science+Business Media
About: International Journal of Historical Archaeology is an academic journal published by Springer Science+Business Media. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Historical archaeology & Colonialism. It has an ISSN identifier of 1092-7697. Over the lifetime, 811 publications have been published receiving 8059 citations. The journal is also known as: Historical archaeology.
Topics: Historical archaeology, Colonialism, Politics, Archaeological record, Context (language use)
Papers published on a yearly basis
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TL;DR: Isotopic analysis of skeletons excavated during the 1950s has confirmed that they are the remains of shipwreck victims: slaves on board the Portuguese slaving brig Pacquet Real when it sank on 18 May 1818 as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Isotopic analysis of skeletons excavated during the 1950s has confirmed that they are the remains of shipwreck victims: slaves on board the Portuguese slaving brig Pacquet Real when it sank on 18 May 1818. Twenty-five slaves drowned and the remaining 133 became “Prize Negroes” at the Cape. The isotopic signatures are consistent with values expected for people living in an African village eating a terrestrially based diet. Analyses of different skeletal elements, i.e., teeth, long bone, and rib, are shown to be a valuable tool in tracing change or consistency in diet during a person's life, because different skeletal elements form at different stages of life and, subsequently, remodel at different rates. A comparison of isotope ratios from different skeletal elements indicates a change in diet in all these individuals, probably coincident with their enslavement. Variation between individuals in the isotopic composition of diets eaten early in life is sufficiently large to deduce heterogeneous origins for the group.
168 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors apply theories of group dynamics and individual agency to past material expressions of core symbols within particular African American religious beliefs, and demonstrate the ways in which facets of the core symbolic expressions of the BaKongo people of West Central Africa evolved over time and across the trans-Atlantic region.
Abstract: This article applies theories of group dynamics and individual agency to past material expressions of core symbols within particular African American religious beliefs. The past creation and use of such artifacts is analyzed using theories concerning modes of symbolic expression, the interplay of dominant and nondominant religions, formation and maintenance of social group identities, and the role of individual creativity and innovation within those processes. This analysis demonstrates the ways in which facets of the core symbolic expressions of the BaKongo people of West Central Africa evolved over time and across the trans-Atlantic region.
74 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on how people reproduce themselves as social beings and integrate both production and consumption, and privilege the autonomous individual as the preferred unit of analysis, and reinforce and validate ideologies that obscure inequalities and power relations in modern society.
Abstract: Consumer behavior and choice models have assumed a major role in historical archaeology. Recent interest in consumption is an honest attempt to move beyond an emphasis on production. Consumer models have clear material referents, making them useful in historical archaeology. These models, however, separate production from consumption, and privilege the autonomous individual as the preferred unit of analysis. They also reinforce and validate ideologies that obscure inequalities and power relations in modern society. For us the important issue is how people reproduce themselves as social beings. Focusing on social reproduction integrates both production and consumption.
73 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the relationship between European colonization, the rise of capitalism and the increased use of abstract space and make an appeal for adding environmental history to the research agenda of historical archaeology.
Abstract: This paper explores some of the theoretical issues surrounding the commodification of nature and its value as a research topic. In particular it examines the relationship between European colonization, the rise of capitalism and the increased use of abstract space. An appeal is also made for adding environmental history to the research agenda of historical archaeology. Case studies from South Africa and Virginia illustrate the manner in which abstract notions of space and the environment contributed to the commodification of nature. The Virginia case study from Jamestown Island provides a particularly vivid example of how micro- and macro-level environmental changes can be linked to important political and economic events.
71 citations
TL;DR: This article argued that the system of slavery in southern New England may represent an anomalous case in terms of the means of control or the mean of resistance, and argued that there may be more to be learned from William D. Piersen's concept of resistant accommodation as a middle ground between the two extremes of the theoretical spectrum.
Abstract: Scholarship concerning the lives of enslaved African Americans in southern New England has shifted rapidly from outdated models of acculturation to conflict-driven models of domination and resistance. With the assumption of conflict as the outcome of all power relations, both economic production and historical contextuality have been overlooked, with slavery systems in New England simply equated with other regions of the Atlantic world, rather than compared and contrasted. This essay reconsiders contests over power in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century New England. Drawing on the work of Greene (1966), Piersen (1988), and others, I argue that the system of slavery in the region may represent an anomalous case in terms of the means of control or the means of resistance. By examining demographic patterns, economic production, and agricultural landscapes in Rhode Island's East Bay, I argue that there may be more to be learned from William D. Piersen's (1988, p. 143) concept of “resistant accommodation” as a middle ground between the two extremes of the theoretical spectrum. The essay concludes with suggestions for further research on the archaeology of African-American lives in the region.
68 citations