Cottage Clusters and Community Engagement: Collaborative Investigations of Multiscalar Social Relations in 19th Century Clachans, Co. Mayo, Ireland

Summary

Human experiences are inscribed in the landscape. Indeed, the built environment has been so strongly modified by human agency that the resulting landscape is a synthesis of natural and cultural elements. Cottage clusters, known as clachans, were critical components of the landscape in the west of Ireland prior to the Great Famine. Yet this site type has been almost completely ignored in historical, archaeological, and architectural studies of the region. As a Fulbright US Scholar, I am engaged in historical and archaeological investigations of clachans in rural Co. Mayo in partnership with students and faculty at the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology in Castlebar. Community involvement has also been a critical aspect of the archival research, oral history, folklore collection, and ground-truthing of these sites. Through this poster, I share how my engagement with descent communities has elucidated both collective memory and collective identity of nineteenth century rural life.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Poster Submission 2016   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 41