Buying Pottery, Leasing Land, And Marketing A Nation: Investigating Euroamerican Ceramic Use In The Catawba Nation Before And After Land-Leasing

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Before, After, and In Between: Archaeological Approaches to Places (through/in) Time" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

From the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth centuries the Catawba, members of a South Carolina Piedmont Native American nation, were well-known in the Carolina backcountry as manufacturers of well-made, inexpensive ceramics. However, at precisely the moment that Catawba ceramic production peaked, consumption of Euroamerican wares also increased dramatically. This shift coincides with the development of a formal system under which Euro-American settlers could lease Nation land. Analyzing the non-Catawba-made ceramic assemblages of three sites – Old Town, Ayers Town, and New Town – straddling the 1785 formalization of Catawba land-leasing, I argue that increased Catawba utilization of Euroamerican pottery should be understood as conspicuous consumption intended to underscore the Catawbas’ status as landholders in terms their tenants could readily understand. By adopting one aspect of the “material vocabulary” of Euro-American householders, Catawba landlords asserted their authority over Nation land in the face of mounting infringements on Catawba land rights.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020   •
• Before, After, and In Between: Archaeological Approaches to Places (through/in) Time

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 843