Fall 2017
ANG 6186/ANT4930
Instructor: Dr. James M. Davidson
Course Level/Structure: Undergraduate/Graduate seminar
Time: Thursday only – Periods 4 through 6 (10:40 am to 1:40 pm)
Class Room: Turlington B357
Office: Turlington B134
Email: davidson@ufl.edu
Office Hours: Mondays 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm (and by appointment)
Website for electronic readings: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/davidson/
Course Description and Objectives: The seminar’s goal is to provide grounding in the anthropological literature of material culture. In addition to theoretical articles, there will be practical hands-on training on select 19th and early 20th century material culture, including bottles, ceramics, “small finds,” such as clothing-related objects, and the material culture of historic cemeteries (e.g., coffins and caskets, coffin hardware).
Course Requirements:
Class participation/attendance 20%
Synopses of Key Readings (18) 20%
Leading Class Discussion: 10%
Major research paper 50%
Required Texts:
There are no required textbooks to purchase, but the course will rely heavily on a number of individual readings (e.g., articles, book chapters).
Attendance: Regular attendance and participation in class discussions is a requirement. Students are expected to have read the material for that day, and come to class prepared to discuss the readings.
Leading Discussion: For some weeks, one or more students will lead class discussion, and will need to prepare a list of questions/points of discussion.
Synopses of Readings:
For some key readings, a synopsis (i.e., a critical summary) ranging from one to three paragraphs (not to exceed one page in length for each reading) will be required and due at the beginning of each class, before we begin the discussion. Readings requiring synopses are marked with a bold, underlined XXX at the end of each citation.
Research Paper:
One major research paper will be due at the end of the semester (15 to 20 pages).
Each student will choose the individual topics of the paper, after consultation with me. It could involve original research, an analysis of an existing dataset, or a comparison of two or more papers, sites, or theories. Each student will be required to present his or her work to the class, during the last week of the semester. The formality of this presentation (e.g., power point, etc.) is negotiable.
Grading:
A final letter grade will be assigned at the end of the semester, according to this scale:
A (90-100%)
B+ (86-89%)
B (80-85%)
C+ (76-79%)
C (70-75%)
D+ (66-69%)
D (60-65%)
E (59% or less)
Attendance: Regular attendance is expected. Excessive unexcused absences will detract from the final grade (see above).
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. Consult the Student Guide at www.dso.ufl.edu/stg/ for further information. 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.
Schedule/Topics/Readings
Week 1 (Aug 24): General discussion of course and content
Week 2 (Aug 31) Some Definitions of Material Culture
Ferguson edited volume: Historical Archaeology and the Importance of Material Things. Special Publication Series, Number 2. Society for Historical Archaeology.
- Stanley South: Foreword
- Leland Ferguson: Preface
- Leland Ferguson: Historical Archaeology and the Importance of Material Things 5
- James Deetz: Material Culture and Archaeology-What’s the Difference? 9
Shackel, Paul A. and Barbara Little
1992 Post-Processual Approaches to Meanings and Uses of Material Culture in Historical Archaeology. Historical Archaeology 26(3):5-11.
Yentsch, Anne and Mary Beaudry
1999 American Material Culture in Mind, Thought and Deed. In Archaeological Theory Today, edited by Ian Hodder, pp. 214-240. Polity Press, Cambridge, England. XXX
Robb, John E.
1998 The Archaeology of Symbols. Annual Review of Anthropology 27:329-346. XXX
Gosden, Chris and Yvonne Marshall
1999 The Cultural Biography of Objects. World Archaeology 31(2):169-178.
Binford, Lewis R.
1962 Archaeology as Anthropology. American Antiquity 28(2):217-225.
Deetz, James and Richard L. Bushman
1974 A Cognitive Historical Model for American Material Culture: 1620-1835. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. Supplementary Studies, No.20, Reconstructing Complex Societies: An Archaeological Colloquium:21-27.
Week 3 (Sept 7): Making Sense of Material Culture: Typologies and Issues of Classification
Stone, Lyle M.
1970 Formal classification and the analysis of historic artifacts. Historical Archaeology 4(1):90-102.
Spaulding, Albert C.
1953 Statistical Techniques for the Discovery of Artifact Types. American Antiquity 18:305-13.
Krieger, Alex D.
1944 The Typological Concept. American Antiquity 9(3):271-288.
Ford, James A. and Julian H. Steward
1954 On the Concept of Types. American Anthropologist 56(1):42-57.
Gifford, James C.
1960 The Type Variety Method of Ceramic Classification as an Indicator of Cultural Phenomena. American Antiquity 25(3):341-347.
Whittaker, John C., Douglas Caulkins, and Kathryn A. Kamp
1998 Evaluating Consistency in Typology and Classification. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 5(2):129-164.
Orser, Charles E. Jr.
1988 The Material Basis of the Postbellum Tenant Plantation: Historical Archaeology in the South Carolina Piedmont. The University of Georgia Press, Athens.
(Chapter 7)
Week 4 (Sept 14): Chronology and Its Application
Ford, J. A.
1938 A Chronological Method Applicable to the Southeast. American Antiquity 3(3):260-264.
Krieger, Alex D.
1947 The Eastward Extension of Puebloan Datings toward Cultures of the Mississippi Valley. American Antiquity 12(3):141-148.
Adams, William Hampton
2003 Dating Historical Sites: The Importance of Understanding Time Lag in the Acquisition, Curation, Use, and Disposal of Artifacts. Historical Archaeology 37(2):38-64. XXX
Mallios, Seth
2005 Back to the Bowl: Using English Tobacco Pipebowls to Calculate Mean Site-Occupation Dates. Historical Archaeology 39(2):89-104.
South, Stanley
1978 Pattern Recognition in Historical Archaeology. American Antiquity 43(2):223-230. XXX
Turnbaugh, William and Sarah Peabody Turnbaugh
1977 Alternative Applications of the Mean Ceramic Date Concept for Interpreting Human Behavior. Historical Archaeology 11(1):90-104.
Week 5 (Sept 21): Assemblages and Patterning
South, Stanley
1979 Historic Site Content, Structure, and Function. American Antiquity 44(2):213-237.
South, Stanley
1988 Whither Pattern? Historical Archaeology 22(1):25-28.
Cabak, Melanie, Mark D. Groover, and Scott J. Wagers
1995 Health Care and the Wayman A.M.E. Church. Historical Archaeology 29(2):55-76. XXX
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. XXX
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.
Week 6 (Sept 28): Economies and Economics
Miller, George L.
1980 Classification and Economic Scaling of 19th Century Ceramics. Historical Archaeology 14:1-40.
Miller, George L.
1991 A Revised Set of CC Index Values for Classification and Economic Scaling of English Ceramics from 1787 to 1880. Historical Archaeology 25(1):1-25.
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. XXX
Wall, Diane Dizerega
1999 Examining Gender, Class, and Ethnicity in Nineteenth-Century New York City. Historical Archaeology 33(1):102-117.
Cook, Lauren J., Rebecca Yamin, and John P. McCarthy
1996 Shopping as Meaningful Action: Toward a Redefinition of Consumption in Historical Archaeology. Historical Archaeology 30(4):50-65. XXX
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 7 (Oct 5) Visible Artifacts, Invisible People
Bullen, Adelaide K. And Ripley P. Bullen
1945 Black Lucy’s Garden. Bulletin of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society 6(2):17-28.
Fairbanks, Charles
1974 The Kingsley Slave Cabins in Duval County, Florida, 1968. Conference on Historic Sites Archaeology Papers 7:62-93.
Praetzellis, Adrian and Mary Praetzellis
1998 A Connecticut Merchant in Chinadom: A Play in One Act. Historical Archaeology 32(1):86-93. XXX
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.
Seifert, Donna
1991 Within Site of the White House: The Archaeology of Working Women. Historical Archaeology 25(4):83-108. XXX
Starzmann, Maria Theresia
2015 The Materiality of Forced Labor: An Archaeological Exploration of Punishment in Nazi Germany. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 19:647-663.
Casella, Eleanor Conlin
2001 To Watch or Restrain: Female Convict Prisons in 19th-Century Tasmania. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 5(1):45-72. XXX
Week 8: (Oct 12) The Strengths and Weakness of Single Artifact Narratives:
Davidson, James M.
2012 Encountering the Ex-Slave Reparations Movement from the Grave: The National Industrial Council and National Liberty Party, 1901-1907. The Journal of African American History 97(1-2):13-38.
Warner, Mark S. and Robert A. Genheimer
2008 “Cats Here, Cats There, Cats and Kittens Everywhere”: An Urban Extermination of Cats in Nineteenth-Century Cincinnati. Historical Archaeology 42(1):11-25. XXX
Sudderth, W. E. and Linda J. Darnell Hulvershorn
2000 The Rare Bone China Gorgets of Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site, Williston, North Dakota. Historical Archaeology 34(4):102-117.
Torbenson, Michael, Robert H. Kelly, Jonathon Erlen, Lorna Cropcho, Michael Moraca, Bonnie Beiler, K. N. Rao, and Mohanmed Virji
2000 Lash’s: A Bitter Medicine: Biochemical Analysis of an Historical Proprietary Medicine. Historical Archaeology 34(2):102-117
Schablitsky, Julie
2006 Genetic Archaeology: The Recovery and Interpretation of Nuclear DNA from a Nineteenth-Century Hypodermic Syringe. Historical Archaeology 40(3):8-19. XXX
Week 9 (Oct 19): Multivalent Artifacts
Stine, Linda France, Melanie A. Cabak, and Mark D. Groover
1996 Blue Beads as African-American Cultural Symbols. Historical Archaeology 30(3):49-75.
Davidson, James M., and Karen E. McIlvoy
2012 New Perspectives from Old Collections: Potential Artifacts of African Spirituality at Couper Plantation, Georgia. The Journal of African Diaspora Archaeology and Heritage 1(2):107-166.
Russell, Aaron E.
1997 Material Culture and African-American Spirituality at the Hermitage. Historical Archaeology 31(2):63-80.
Marshall, Yvonne and Alexandra Maas
1997 Dashing Dishes. World Archaeology 28(3):275-290. XXX
Gazin-Schwartz, Amy
2001 Archaeology and Folklore of Material Culture, Ritual, and Everyday Life. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 5(4):263-280. XXX
Adams, William Hampton
2002 Recycling Bottles as Building Materials in the Pacific Islands. Historical Archaeology 36(2):50-57.
Cabak, Melanie and Stephen Loring
2000 “A Set of Very Fair Cups and Saucers”: Stamped Ceramics as an Example of Inuit Incorporation. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 4(1):1-34.
Burley, David V.
1989 Function, Meaning and Context: Ambiguities in Ceramic Use by the Hivernant Metis of the Northwestern Plains. Historical Archaeology 23(1):97-106.
Week 10 (Oct 26): Artifact Workshop Historic Bottles
Firebaugh, Gail S.
1983 An Archaeologist’s Guide to The Historical Evolution of Glass Bottle Technology. Southwestern Lore (The Colorado Archaeological Society) 49(2):9-29.
Week 11 (March 19): Artifact Workshop Historic Ceramics
Kwas, Mary L.
1999 A Guide to The Identification of Historic Refined Earthenwares. Arkansas Archeological Survey, Fayetteville.
Week 12 (Nov 2) Artifact Workshop: Small Finds — Buttons, Buckles, Safety Pins
Week 13 (Nov 9): 19th/early 20th Century Material Culture of Death
Bell, Edward L.
1990 The historical archaeology of mortuary behavior: Coffin hardware from Uxbridge, Massachusetts. Historical Archaeology 24(3):54-78. XXX
Cannon, Aubrey
1989 The Historic Dimension in Mortuary Expressions of Status and Sentiment. Current Anthropology 30(4):437-458. XXX
Little, Barbara J., Kim M. Lamphear, and Douglas W. Owsley
1992 Mortuary display and status in a nineteenth-century Anglo-American cemetery in Manassas, Virginia. American Antiquity 57(3):397-418.
Davidson, James M.
2004 Material Culture, Chronology, and Socioeconomics. In Two Historic Cemeteries in Crawford County, Arkansas, edited by Robert C. Mainfort, Jr. and James M. Davidson, pp. 73-194. Final Report, submitted to Burns and McDonnell. AAS Project 02-02. Arkansas Archeological Survey: Fayetteville, AR.\
Week 14 (Nov 16): 19th/early 20th Century Material Culture of Death Part 2
Workshop on Coffins, Caskets, and etc.
Week 15 (Nov 23): Thanksgiving No Class
Week 16 (Nov 30): Presentations/Discussions of Individual Projects and Papers
Semester Ends: Wednesday — December 6, 2017)