Gendering Consumer Choice

DOCUMENT Citation Only W. Stephen McBride. Kim A. McBride.

Following the tragic expulsion of four hundred African-American women and children from Camp Nelson, KY in November 1864, of which 102 died, these refugees were allowed to return and the ‘Home for Colored Refugees’ was constructed.  This expulsion also led to the emancipation of these refugees by the Congressional Act of March 3, 1865.  By the summer of 1865 this ‘Home’ housed over 3000 former slaves who lived in a variety of housing, including duplex cottages, tents, dormitories, and home-made...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Maggie L. Yancey.

During the Civil War, alcohol use and abuse took on a new life. Soldiers went on drunken rampages, civilians took "sprees" sometimes ending in death, the Union imposed a whiskey tax, and the Confederacy experimented with prohibition. But what did it really mean? From a general’s beloved brandy flask, and a southern lady’s wineglasses, to a disheartened soldier’s identifying himself as an empty cup, gendered attachments to the material culture of alcohol show how Civil War era Americans...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mélissa Burns.

In the last few decades, most gender studies have focused on women, creating a gap in the understanding of male-only societies. This paper will discuss the question of masculinity in archaeology through the case study of the migratory fishing room, Champs Paya. For almost 400 years, French fishermen left Brittany every spring to spend their summer fishing in northern Newfoundland. Once the salted-dried cod fishing season was over they returned to France to sell their cargo. During these four...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jennifer M. Trunzo.

Some historians and archaeologists argue that women were influencing their husbands’ spending habits by the middle 18th century. Using the archaeological remains from a farming community in southeastern Connecticut, this paper attempts to read gender into the archaeological record to elucidate household shopping patterns before, during, and after the Revolutionary War.  Were rural women’s consumer preferences influenced by emerging 18th century ideas regarding gentility? Would this genteel...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lydia Wilson Marshall.

In the Americas, fugitive slave settlements have often been interpreted as predominantly male spaces.  In Kenya, oral and written histories suggest that runaway slave villages were similarly male-heavy.  These histories make clear, however, that formerly enslaved women were also present.  This paper uses archaeological data and a consumer choice model to tease out female voices.  Runaways continued to suffer disenfranchisement in freedom.  Yet, archaeological data suggest they were also...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Diana Wall.

 After the Revolutionary War, the former British American colonies began the long process of cultural separation from the metropole in England.   This process affected many aspects of life, including the redefinition of gender relations.  Here, I use the changes in the acquisition, appropriation, and consumption of dishes, their contexts of use, and the styles of the dishes themselves to look at this post-colonial process.