Beyond the Ethnicity Debate: Examining the Many Contexts of Colonoware

Colonoware refers to handbuilt, low-fired earthenware likely produced by both Native Americans and enslaved Africans between the mid-seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries in the United States. Traditionally, researchers have debated the ethnicity of colono producers by formulating arguments around specific vessel attributes that might be considered "Native American" or "African". While these debates provide important insights, a focus on ethnicity obscures research avenues that can address critical questions about social and economic networks. The papers in this session move beyond the ethnicity debate to interrogate colonoware, and its contexts, using attribute-based analyses and incorporating new analytical techniques, such as Geographic Information Systems and compositional analysis. The papers examine colonoware from a variety of perspectives to explore processes such as production, use, exchange and interaction, and the ware’s role in local and regional economies. The studies cover a wide geographic distribution and demonstrate that this pottery tradition—while exhibiting general similarities in material traits—is also highly variable and based on the particular social and economic contexts of its users and producers.