"Irishness" and Tea Consumption: The Materiality of Ethnicity

Summary

Excavations at the McHugh Site (47WP294), a mid-to-late Nineteenth Century homestead in Wisconsin, resulted in the recovery of a large material culture assemblage. Historical documents reveal the site’s occupants to have been pre-famine Irish emigrants who settled in Ohio before moving to Wisconsin in 1850. However, analyses of the material culture have thus far failed to uncover evidence of an Irish identity distinct from an American identity. This paper presents results of an analysis of the teaware component of the McHugh ceramic assemblage that attempted to identify potential markers of traditional pre-immigration behaviors. Since tea is consumed by cultures across the world, the presence of teaware alone is not enough to indicate "Irishness." Thus, this study explores the correlates of the material manifestation of tea consumption within the McHugh household and offers a comparison with selected contemporary sites as well as modern Irish and Irish American households. The aim of this study is to discover if there is an inherently Irish style of tea consumption and to determine whether or not the associated behaviors can inform our understanding of the McHugh assemblage.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22628