Fall 2018
AFA 3360 (sect 23172)
ANT 3930 (sect 10673)
Download Syllabus Here (Adobe Pdf)
Fall 2018
Turlington Hall Room 2333
MWF Period 7 (1:55pm — 2:45pm)
Instructor: James M. Davidson, Ph.D.
Office: Turlington B134
Email: davidson@ufl.edu
Office Hours: Mondays: 3-5 pm (and by appointment)
Description: This course is designed to present a historical overview of the field of African-American archaeology, starting with the first scientific excavations in the 1940s. Participants will obtain knowledge of important case studies, key figures, major issues, and the overall development of the discipline. Theoretical, methodological, and ethical issues will be addressed. Through lectures, I will introduce the readings and provide broad overviews of the overarching topics and issues within the field of African-American Archaeology. A good portion of class time, however, will be spent discussing and critiquing the readings.
Required Readings:
- James Deetz 1996 In Small Things Forgotten: An Archaeology of Early American Life. Anchor (Revised and Expanded edition)
- Singleton, Theresa (editor) 1999 “I, Too, Am America”: Archaeological Studies of African-American Life. University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville.
- Electronic documents, comprising key articles and book chapters, will be posted and downloadable as .pdf files from a university server.
Requirements: There will be two non cumulative exams, the format of which will be a mixture of objective questions (e.g., true false, multiple choice, etc), and one or more short answer or essay questions. There will also be a final exam (cumulative). Participation in class discussions is expected. Each student’s input will be especially crucial, since this will be a small class. Students are expected to have read the readings for that day, and come to class prepared to discuss them.
There will be one writing component for this class, in the form of a critical response essay on key readings. This essay will be three to four pages in length, double spaced, 12 point font, and one-inch margins.
Volunteering in the Historical Archaeology Laboratory:
Each student will be required to spend 20 hours volunteering in the Historical Archaeology Laboratory located on the first floor of Turlington Hall, Room 1208B (this is directly across from Dr. Krigbaum’s office). These hours will be completed during the course of the sixteen week semester, as your schedule permits. You will be obtaining real hand-on training on archaeological materials recovered from the Kingsley Plantation excavations between 2012 and 2013, or the Bulow Plantation artifacts excavated in the summer of 2017 and 2018.
Grading:
Exams 1 and 2 (20% each) 40%
Critical response essay 10%
Hands-On Work in Archaeology Lab 20%
Attendance/Class Participation 10%
Final Exam (comprehensive) 20%
A final letter grade will be assigned at the end of the semester, according to this scale:
A (93-100%)
A- (90-92%)
B+ (88-89%)
B (83-87%)
B- (80-82%)
C+ (78-79%)
C (73-77%)
C- (70-72%)
D+ (68-69%)
D (63-67%)
D- (60-62%)
E (59% or below)
Attendance: Regular attendance is expected. Excessive unexcused absences will detract from the student’s final grade (see above).
Make-up Exams:
If an exam is missed, and the absence was pre-arranged, or in the event of illness accompanied by a physician’s note, a make-up exam will be given. No make-up exams will be given for students who miss the testing period due to unexcused absences.
Accommodating Students with Disabilities:
Students requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students Office. The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student, who in turn must provide this documentation to me when requesting accommodation.
Academic Honesty:
The University reminds every student of the implied pledge of Academic Honesty: “on any work submitted for credit the student has neither received nor given unauthorized aid.”
THIS REFERS TO CHEATING AND PLAGIARISM, AND IT WILL NOT BE TOLERATED IN THIS CLASS.
Download the Student Guide for further information:
http://regulations.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/4041.pdf
Students caught cheating will be referred to the University administration for disciplinary action, the consequences of which can include (among other things) failure of this course, and expulsion from the University.
Schedule and Topics:
Week 1 (Wednesday Aug 22 thru Friday Aug 24)
Introduction (Historical Archaeology, etc.).
Week 2 (Aug 27 thru Aug 31)
Deetz’s “In Small Things Forgotten
Tour of the Historical Archaeology Lab
Week 3 (Sept 3 thru Sept 7) NO CLASS MONDAY LABOR DAY
Deetz’s “In Small Things Forgotten”; Pioneering works and “Plantation Studies”
Week 4 (Sept 10 thru Sept 14)
Pioneering works and “Plantation Studies” (continued)
Week 5 (Sept 17 thru Sept 21)
Critiques of “Plantation Studies”
Week 6 (Sept 24 thru Sept 28)
Critiques of “Plantation Studies” (continued); Race, culture, ethnicity
Week 7 (Oct 1 thru Oct 5)
Race, culture, ethnicity (continued)
Week 8 (Oct 8 thru Oct 12)
Belief Systems/Spirituality
******Exam 1 (Wednesday – Oct 10) ******
Week 9 (Oct 15 thru Oct 19)
Belief Systems/Spirituality (continued)
Week 10 (Oct 22 thru Oct 26)
Belief Systems/Spirituality (continued)
Week 11 (Oct 29 thru Nov 2)
Mortuary Studies and Bioarchaeology
ESSAY NO. 1 (DUE Monday – Oct 29)
Week 12 (Nov 5 thru Nov 9)
Mortuary Studies and Bioarchaeology (continued)
Week 13 (Nov 12 thru Nov 16) NO CLASS MONDAY VETERANS DAY
Mortuary Studies and Bioarchaeology (continued)
Politics and Representation
Week 14 (Nov 19 thru Nov 23) NO CLASS WED OR FRIDAY THANKSGIVING
******Exam 2 (Monday – Nov 19) ********
Week 15 (Nov 26 thru Nov 30)
Politics and Representation (continued)
Week 16 (Dec 3 thru Dec 5)
Rosewood, Florida
******Final Exam ******
Final Exam Period 2/10/2018 @ 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM
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READINGS:
Week 1 (Aug 22 thru Aug 24)
Singleton, Theresa and Mark D. Bograd
1995 The African Experience in America: A Brief Overview. In The Archaeology of the African Diaspora in the Americas. Guides to the Archaeological Literature of the Immigrant Experience in America, Number 2. The Society for Historical Archaeology
Warren Perry and Robert Paynter
“Artifacts, Ethnicity, and the Archaeology of African Americans”
(Chapter 15 in Theresa Singleton’s edited volume)
Week 2 (Aug 27 thru Aug 31)
James Deetz’s (1996) book, In Small Things Forgotten: An Archaeology of Early American Life.
James Deetz
“Archaeology at Flowerdew Hundred”
(Chapter 3 in Theresa Singleton’s edited volume)
Weeks 3 and 4 (Sept 3 thru Sept 14)
(Finish reading Deetz’s book, In Small Things Forgotten…)
Pioneering works and “Plantation Studies”
Ascher, Robert and Charles Fairbanks
1971 Excavation of a Slave Cabin: Georgia, U.S.A. Historical Archaeology 5:3-17.
Bullen, Adelaide K. And Ripley P. Bullen
1945 Black Lucy’s Garden. Bulletin of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society 6(2):17-28.
Otto, John Solomon
1980 Race and Class on Antebellum Plantations. In Archaeological Perspectives on Ethnicity in America: Afro-American and Asian American Culture History, edited by Robert L. Schuyler, pp. 3-13. Baywood Publishing Co, Farmingdale, NY.
Ferguson, Leland
1980 Looking for the “Afro” in Colono-Indian Pottery. In Archaeological Perspectives on Ethnicity in America: Afro-American and Asian American Culture History, edited by Robert L. Schuyler, pp. 14-28. Baywood Publishing Co, Farmingdale, NY
Wheaton, Thomas R. and Patrick H. Garrow
1985 Acculturation and the Archaeological Record in the Carolina Lowcountry. In The Archaeology of Slavery and Plantation Life, edited by Theresa Singleton, pp. 239-269. Academic Press, Orlando, FL.
Moore, Sue Mullins
1985 Social and Economic status on the coastal Plantation: An Archaeological Perspective. In The Archaeology of Slavery and Plantation Life, edited by Theresa Singleton, pp. 2141-160. Academic Press, Orlando, FL.
Adams, William Hampton and Sarah Jane Boling
1989 Status and Ceramics for Planters and Slaves on Three Georgia Costal Plantations. Historical Archaeology 23(1):69-96.
Week 5 (Sept 17 thru Sept 21)
Critiques of Plantation Studies.
Baker, Vernon G.
1980 Archaeological visibility of Afro-American Culture: An Example from Black Lucy’s Garden, Andover, Massachusetts. In Archaeological Perspectives on Ethnicity in America, ed. Robert L. Schuyler, pp. 29-37. Baywood Press, Farmingdale, New York.
Potter, Parker B. Jr.
1991 What is the Use of Plantation Archaeology? Historical Archaeology 25(3):94-107.
Howson, Jeane E.
1990 Social Relations and Material Culture: A Critique of the Archaeology of Plantation Slavery. Historical Archaeology 24(4):78-91.
Thomas, Brian W.
1995 Source Criticism and the Interpretation of African-American Sites. Southeastern Archaeology 14(2):149-157.
Heath, Barbara J. and Amber Bennett
2000 “The little Spots allow’d them”: The Archaeological Study of African-American Yards. Historical Archaeology 34(2):38-55.
Farnsworth, Paul
2000 Brutality or Benevolence in Plantation Archaeology. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 4(2):145-158.
Weeks 6 and 7 (Sept 24 thru Oct 5)
Race, Culture, Ethnicity
Babson, David W.
1990 The Archaeology of Racism and Ethnicity on Southern Plantations. Historical Archaeology 24(4):20-28.
Stine, Linda France
1990 Social Inequality and Turn-of-the-Century Farmsteads: Issues of Class, Status, Ethnicity, and Race. Historical Archaeology 24(4):37-49.
Orser, Charles E. Jr.
1999 The Challenge of Race to American Historical Archaeology. American Anthropologist 100(3):661-668.
Epperson, Terrence W.
1999 The Contested Commons: Archaeologies of Race, Repression, and Resistance in New York City. In Historical Archaeologies of Capitalism, edited by Mark P. Leone and Parker B. Potter, Jr., pp. 81-110. Plenum Press, New York.
Mullins, Paul
2001 Racializing the Parlor: Race and Victorian Bric-Brac Consumption. In Race and the Archaeology of Identity, edited by Charles E. Orser, Jr., pp. 158-176. The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
Brown, Kenneth L.
1994 Material Culture and Community Structure: The Slave and Tenant Community at Levi Jordan’s Plantation, 1848-1892. In Working toward Freedom: Slave Society and Domestic Economy in the American South, edited by Larry E. Hudson, Jr., pp. 95-118.
Weeks 8 thru 10 (Oct 8 thru Oct 26)
Belief Systems/Spirituality
Leland Ferguson “The Cross is a Magic Sign”: Marks on Eighteenth Century Bowls in South Carolina.
(Chapter 6 in Theresa Singleton’s edited volume)
Christopher R. DeCorse
“Oceans Apart: Africanist Perspectives of Diaspora Archaeology.”
(Chapter 7 in Theresa Singleton’s edited volume)
Orser, Charles E. Jr.
1994 The Archaeology of African-American Slave Religion in the Antebellum South. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 4 (1):33-45.
Stine, Linda France, Melanie A. Cabak, and Mark D. Groover
1996 Blue Beads as African-American Cultural Symbols. Historical Archaeology 30(3):49-75.
Leone, Mark P. and Gladys-Marie Fry
2001 Spirit Management among Americans of African Descent. In Race and the Archaeology of Identity, edited by Charles E. Orser Jr., pp. 143-157. The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
Young, Amy
1996 Archaeological Evidence of African-Style Ritual and Healing Practices in the Upland South. Tennessee Anthropologist, 21(2):139-155.
Wilkie, Laurie A.
1995 Magic and Empowerment on the Plantation: An Archaeological Consideration of African-American World View. Southeastern Archaeology, 14(2): 136-157.
Russell, Aaron E.
1997 Material Culture and African-American Spirituality at the Hermitage. Historical Archaeology 31(2):63-80.
Fennell, Christopher C.
2003 Group Identity, Individual Creativity, and Symbolic Generation in a Bakongo Diaspora. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 7(1):1-31.
Davidson, James M.
2004 Rituals Captured in Context and Time: Charm Use in North Dallas Freedman’s Town (1869-1907), Dallas, Texas. Historical Archaeology 38(2):22-54.
Weeks 11 thru 13 (Oct 29 thru Nov 16)
Mortuary Studies and Bioarchaeology
Bolton, H. Carrington
1891 Decoration of Graves of Negroes in South Carolina. Journal of American Folk-Lore 4 (12):214.
Ingersoll, Ernest
1892 Decoration of Negro Graves. Journal of American Folk-Lore 5 (16):68-69.
Combes, John D.
1974 Ethnography, Archaeology and Burial Practices Among Coastal South Carolina Blacks. The Conference on Historic Site Archaeology Papers 1972, Volume 7. The Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia.
Garmon, James C.
1994 Viewing the Color Line through the Material Culture of Death. Historical Archaeology 28(3):74-93.
Blakely, Robert L., and Lane A. Beck
1982 Bioarchaeology in the Urban Context. In Archaeology of Urban America: The Search for Pattern and Process, edited by Roy S. Dickens, Jr., pp. 175-207. Academic Press, New York.
Harrington, Spencer P. M.
1993 Bones and Bureaucrats: New York’s Great Cemetery Imbroglio. Archaeology
46(2):30-38.
Davidson, James M., Jerome Rose, Myron Gutmann, Michael Haines, Cindy Condon, and Keith Condon
2002 The Quality of African-American Life in The Old Southwest Near the Turn of the 20th Century. In The Backbone of History: Health and Nutrition in the Western Hemisphere, edited by Richard Steckel, pp. 226-277. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
McCarthy, John P.
1997 Material Culture and the Performance of Sociocultural Identity: Community, Ethnicity, and Agency in the Burial Practices at the First African Baptist Church Cemeteries, Philadelphia, 1810-1841. In American Material Culture: The Shape of the Field, eds. Ann Smart Martin and J. Ritchie Garrison, pp. 359-379. Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Winterthur, Delaware.
Armstrong, Douglas V. and Mark L. Fleishman
2003 House-Yard Burials of Enslaved Laborers in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 7(1): 33-65.
Blakey, Michael L.
2001 Bioarchaeology of the African Diaspora in the Americas: Its Origins and Scope. Annual Review of Anthropology 30:387-422.
Week 14 — Exam 2 on Monday; rest of week Thanksgiving Holiday
Week 15 (Nov 26 thru Nov 30)
Politics and Representation
Franklin, Maria
1997 “Power to the People”: Sociopolitics and the Archaeology of Black Americans. Historical Archaeology 31(3):36-50.
Franklin, Maria
1997 Why are there so few black American archaeologists? Antiquity: an international journal of expert archaeology 71(274).
Barile, Kerri S.
2004 Race, the National Register, and Cultural Resource Management: Creating an Historical Context for Postbellum Sites. Historical Archaeology 38(1):90-100.
Davidson, James M.
2004 “Living Symbols of their Lifelong Struggles”: In Search of the home and household in the Heart of Freedman’s Town, Dallas, Texas. In Household Chores and Household Choices: Theorizing the domestic Sphere in Historical Archaeology, edited by Kerri S. Barile and Jamie C. Brandon, pp. 75-106. The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.
McDavid, Carol
1997 Descendants, Decisions, and Power: The Public Interpretation of the Archaeology of the Levi Jordan Plantation. Historical Archaeology 31(3):114-131.
McCarthy, John
1996 Who Owns These Bones?: Descendant Communities and Partnerships in the Excavation and Analysis of Historic Cemetery Sites in New York and Philadelphia. Public Archaeology Review 4(2):3-12.
Patten, M. Drake
1997 Cheers of Protest? The Public, the Post, and the Parable of Learning. Historical Archaeology 31(3):131-139.
La Roche, Cheryl and Michael L. Blakey
1997 Seizing Intellectual Power: The Dialogue at the New York African Burial Ground. Historical Archaeology 31(3):84-106.
Epperson, Terrence W.
2004 Critical Race Theory and the Archaeology of the African Diaspora. Historical Archaeology 38(1):101-108.
Edward A. Chappell
“Museums and American Slavery”
(Chapter 12 in Theresa Singleton’s edited volume)
Joseph, J. W.
2004 Resistance and Compliance: CRM and the Archaeology of the African Diaspora. Historical Archaeology 38(1):18-31.
Week 16 (Dec 3 thru Dec 5)
Rosewood: A Potential Archaeology
Streich, Gregory W.
2002 Is There a Right to Forget? Historical Injustices, Race, Memory and Identity. New Political Science 24(4):525-542.
Williams, John A.
1968 The Long Hot Summers of Yesteryear. The History Teacher 1(3):9-23.
Dye, T. Thomas
1996 Rosewood, Florida: The Destruction of an African American Community. The Historian 58(3):605-622.
James M. Davidson and Edward Tennant
2008 A Potential Archaeology of Rosewood, Florida: The Process of Remembering a Community and a Tragedy. The SAA Archaeological Record, the Magazine of the Society for American Archaeology (January) 8(1):13-16.