Paying Homage to the Past: Identity, Memory and Place in the American South

Summary

Recent archaeological approaches to identity emphasize landscapes as dynamic arenas in which identities are communicated, generated, and negotiated. Focusing on several Cherokee heritage sites in Georgia and North Carolina, this paper examines the role of historical memory within place-based identity construction. Spatial expressions of identity within the landscape at each of these sites are examined throughout multiple periods of occupation. I trace distinctions in the ways in which Cherokees and local white communities engage with these past landscapes, and illuminate a persistent conflict between Cherokee peoples and white preservation groups over place, heritage, and identity. Paradoxically, for Native and non-Native visitors, these places evoke parallel visions of emplaced heritage. Cherokee heritage sites serve as emblems of the Cherokee Nation’s ancestral claims to their homelands in the American South, and of Anglo-America’s own deep connections to place in Georgia.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22253