Women of New France - Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project Booklet Series, No. 1

Part of the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological project

Author(s): Western Michigan University - Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Year: 2011

Summary

The women of New France—French, Native, and métis—were active agents in a global process of colonization that led to interaction, conflict, and cooperation among peoples who participated in different cultural traditions, social institutions, and daily practices.

In the course of migration from the Old World across the Atlantic, women helped to create the social, economic, and political conditions that fostered a French presence over a vast region for nearly two centuries. Documentary and material evidence clearly indicate the roles they played in forming and sustaining communities in the settler society of New France, none of which were exact replicas of the places that nurtured them in their homeland. Native women were selective in the choices they made as they sometimes embraced, often rejected, and frequently reinterpreted all that French culture had to offer.

As the Empire expanded, women of all ethnic backgrounds and social categories took advantage of the opportunities that New France provided as they struggled, traded, formed alliances, married, and raised children in the process of making history and producing a material world that shaped the future of North America.

The outcome for both Natives and newcomers was truly a new world and a blending of cultures that demonstrated the human potential for change, persistence, and accommodation, while underscoring women’s contributions as mothers, sisters, daughters, and so much more.

Cite this Record

Women of New France - Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project Booklet Series, No. 1, 1. Western Michigan University - Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project. Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project Booklet Series ,1. Kalamazoo, MI: Department of Anthropology, Western Michigan University. 2011 ( tDAR id: 373784) ; doi:10.6067/XCV8QV3JH0

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

Keywords

Culture
British Colonial • Euroamerican • French Colonial • Historic • Historic Native American • Miami • Potawatomi

Material
Building Materials • Ceramic • Dating Sample • Fauna • Fire Cracked Rock • Glass • Ground Stone • Macrobotanical • Metal • Shell • Wood

Site Name
Fort St. Joseph

Site Type
Archaeological Feature • Domestic Structure or Architectural Complex • Domestic Structures • Hearth • Historic Structure • Hunting / Trapping • Midden • Non-Domestic Structures • Palisade • Pit • Post Hole / Post Mold • Resource Extraction / Production / Transportation Structure or Features • Rock Alignment • Settlements • Structure • Trash Midden

Investigation Types
Data Recovery / Excavation • Ethnohistoric Research • Geophysical Survey • Historic Background Research • Reconnaissance / Survey • Research Design / Data Recovery Plan • Site Evaluation / Testing

General
Cultural Interaction • Ethnogenesis • Fort St. Joseph • Fur Trade • garrison • Jesuit • mission • Public Archaeology • Trading Post • Women's roles • Women of New France

Geographic Keywords
Great Lakes • Pays d'en Haut

Temporal Keywords
Colonial Period

Temporal Coverage

Calendar Date: 1691 to 1781

Spatial Coverage

min long: -86.285; min lat: 41.794 ; max long: -86.238; max lat: 41.827 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Principal Investigator(s): Michael Nassaney

File Information

  Name Size Creation Date Date Uploaded Access
women-of-new-france-booklet.pdf 8.40mb Dec 29, 2011 2:01:01 PM Public