Alsatian (Other Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Heather L Seltzer.

The Jacob Biry House in Castroville, Texas was a multi-generational household occupied by Alsatian immigrants and their descendant community. The faunal remains from one feature, a lime slaking pit, were analyzed to determine the subsistence practices and foodways of Alsatian descendants who occupied the house in the 1920s. The specimens were analyzed and compared to Binghamton University’s comparative collection and published zooarchaeological texts to identify species and elements. Techniques...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alex D Velez.

Emigrating from Alsace, a contested border region, to the contested frontier of Texas, many Alsatians had to adjust to life in the American West. This included maintaining their identities as Alsatians in the face of a changing landscape, which manifested through different ways in quotidian life, including choices in food. Through Number of Identified Specimen counts, researchers use faunal assemblages associated with habitation sites to identify patterns of the frequency with which various...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Maxwell Forton.

Excavations at the Biry house of Castroville, Texas yielded a large assemblage of buttons, which may be studied to yield a better understanding of the lives of Alsatian immigrants within the community. Buttons represent a class of material objects that are simultaneously intimate and utilitarian in nature. While buttons are used on a daily basis, we remain largely aloof to these small, discrete fasteners in our lives. This paper represents an exercise in discerning the information that buttons...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Maxwell Forton.

Excavations of the Biry House of Castroville, Texas have produced a diverse assemblage of clothing buttons dating from the 1840s through the 1930s. This paper explores how these buttons are being used to create a more holistic understanding of the lives of these Alsatian immigrants and their descendants. Such buttons are a common occurrence among domestic assemblages of the 19th and 20th century, but these humble artifacts may actively shape the narratives of individual lives and the communities...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Erin P. Riggs.

In archaeology, we commonly view pride in cultural heritage as either beneficial or dangerous. When we see it as dangerous—ethnocentric or nationalistic—we challenge it by producing material evidence of cultural hybridity and heterogeneity. When we view it as beneficial—emancipatory and unifying—we bolster it by providing communities with material symbols of past accomplishments and cultural continuity. This paper considers how we might de-polarize archaeological perspectives on cultural pride...