A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF DECORATIVE CERAMICS AND CHOICE AT THE GREGORY LINCOLN/HSPVA SITE AND THE LEVI JORDAN PLANTATION SITE

Summary

The purpose of this research was to investigate questions of aesthetic preference or choice and other driving factors that influenced the ceramic selection by people who resided at two sites: the Gregory Lincoln/HSPVA Site in Houston, TX and the Levi Jordan Plantation Site in Brazoria County, TX as well as to compare the assemblages from these two African American sites from differing environments. These ceramics assemblages, with the exception of one context, had been previously analyzed, but a re-classification of some of the assemblages was conducted. Through a set of hypotheses, the capacity of the archaeological record to reflect the driving forces behind the consumption patterns of segments of the population at these two sites was tested. Personal preference is rarely examined in archaeological literature where the assemblages from "lower status" groups, including African Americans, are often reduced to explanations of emulation or restricted access to resources. Aesthetic preference was reflected as a consumption factor in one of the four contexts examined, and was not ruled out in the other cases. One of the significant contributions of this thesis is its suggestion that aesthetic preference and choice are indeed viable avenues of inquiry for historic archaeological sites of all populations.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage