Anarchy in the New-Found-Land: Winter Houses and Decentralized Power in the Rural North Atlantic

Summary

Up until recently, historical archaeologists working on the island of Newfoundland have focused primarily on studying the rich archaeological remains of the summer cod fishery and the plantations left behind by the island’s mercantile aristocracy. However, this work overlooks the social realities of the island that primarily consisted of small coastal communities inhabited primarily by working class fishing families living far away from any obvious authority figures. This paper seeks to understand the social relations in these remote locations through the application of anarchist theory. In particular, the Euro-Newfoundlander non-pastoral transhumant tradition is presented as a fruitful case study of how rural working-class Europeans abandoned their fishing villages, self-organized themselves across the landscape, developed their own forms of employment and amusement, and engaged in DIY crafting activities away from the auspices of the merchants, priests, naval captains, and other authority figures.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2017   •
• Anarchism and Historical Archaeology

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

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PaperId(s): 228