In Small Things Forgotten: The Archaeology of Early American LifeHistory is recorded in many ways. According to author James Deetz, the past can be seen most fully by studying the small things so often forgotten. Objects such as doorways, gravestones, musical instruments, and even shards of pottery fill in the cracks between large historical events and depict the intricacies of daily life. In his completely revised and expanded edition of In Small Things Forgotten, Deetz has added new sections that more fully acknowledge the presence of women and African Americans in Colonial America. New interpretations of archaeological finds detail how minorities influenced and were affected by the development of the Anglo-American tradition in the years following the settlers' arrival in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620. Among Deetz's observations: Subtle changes in building long before the Revolutionary War hinted at the growing independence of the American colonies and their desire to be less like the British. Records of estate auctions show that many households in Colonial America contained only one chair--underscoring the patriarchal nature of the early American family. All other members of the household sat on stools or the floor. The excavation of a tiny community of freed slaves in Massachusetts reveals evidence of the transplantation of African culture to North America. Simultaneously a study of American life and an explanation of how American life is studied, In Small Things Forgotten, through the everyday details of ordinary living, colorfully depicts a world hundreds of years in the past. |
Contents
Archaeology and the American Artifact | 2 |
The AngloAmerican Past | 28 |
All the Earthenware Plain and Flowered | 46 |
Copyright | |
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Alden American Anglo-American architectural forms artifacts banjo basic Boston builder built Cape Cod carved Cato cellar cemetery ceramics certainly chaeology chamber pots cherub design chimney chusetts common Connecticut contrast creamware death's-head decorated delftware earlier earliest early earthenware eighteenth century England Essex County evidence example excavated façade Fairbanks house feature feet focus foodways function Glassie glaze grave gravestone carvers ground plan hall hall-and-parlor hearth historical archaeology house form important individual inventories Item James Deetz jetty known late-seventeenth century later Lewis Binford Massa Massachusetts Bay Massachusetts Bay Colony material culture middle Virginia occupation pattern pearlware period pipestems plates Plymouth Colony popular pottery prehistoric probably produced reflect Rhode Island roof rural seen seventeenth century shotgun house similar socio-technic stones stoneware structure stylistic survived teenth tion town tury typical vernacular architectural wares world view