Reproducing the National Family: Postcolonial Reunion Rituals, Landmarks and Objects

Summary

The United States’ history of multi-national European colonial conquest, independence, and imperialism has created a complex, contested cultural memory. Swedish colonialism presents an especially important case because it lasted literally only 17 years. For diverse reasons, memory events and landmarks have continued to reproduce New Sweden for more than a century. This paper explores the institution of the ‘national family’ in the U.S. through the lens of the 375th Swedish anniversary ‘reunion’ in 2013. These reunions, held every quarter-century, contribute to reproducing the national family for each generation. These ritualized enactments of inheritance celebrate ancestry and national descent. Infused with patriarchy and paternalism, the reunions’ success hinges on the Swedish King and Queen’s visit to the colony. The royal family participates in a whirlwind of events staged at a progression of landmarks. In doing so, they renew ideologies of patronage and American descendants’ status as Swedish subjects. They also re-enact and re-enforce mythologized historical alliances with the colony’s native inhabitants, the Lenape, and promote expanding commercial alliances with the colony’s descendant nation, the United States.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Colonial Institutions and Their Enduring Material Aftermaths   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-12,01