عنوان

Consuming or Consumed at the Fred Graves Site, 31AM448:

TLpq2399847663

انگلیسی

Consuming or Consumed at the Fred Graves Site, 31AM448:

[Thesis]

King, Joel David

Economic Strategies and Consumption Behaviors on a 19th Century Farmstead and Community Hub

Wesp, Julie;Millhauser, John;McGill, Dru

North Carolina State University

2020

208

M.A.

North Carolina State University

2020

How we have interpreted the past has affected our understanding of the present. The current consumer culture is increasingly profit driven. Marketing methods attempt to convince consumers of what products they need to be successful and happy. How and when did this culture begin in rural communities in the southeastern United States? This historical archaeology project sought to rescue from obscurity, the lives of the forgotten ordinary. Using archaeological data, combined with historical documents and oral histories from the descendant community, I unraveled the story of three rural, non-plantation based southern farmstead households. I examined the changing consumption patterns at a multi-generational site in southwestern Alamance County, North Carolina. My research design was to investigate consumption behavior changes at this farmstead founded in the Carolina backcountry. I located and excavated three middens uncovering the material culture of these households. These households occupied the site during circa 1820-1846, 1846-1895, and circa 1910-1928, respectively. Their refuse, in the form of ceramics, container and window glass, and nails, revealed households who intensified their participation in the rising consumer culture of mass-production. This project helped further the creation of a regional synthesis of rural farmsteads to compare to global trends. Such comparisons assisted in revealing the disparate effects consumer culture has had on past populations. These effects have continued, and populations still lack equal access to avenues for economic success. We form our identities in part based on how we judge those who came before If we fail to investigate the everyday folks of the past, we fail to see how we create the "us" of today.

Physical anthropology

King, Joel David

Wesp, Julie

McGill, Dru

Millhauser, John

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y