African American Resistance, Social Control, And The Spiritual Alteration Of The Physical Environment
Author(s): Kenneth Brown; Tara Ruttley
Year: 2020
Summary
This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.
Archaeologists have unearthed artifacts associated with West African-derived spiritual belief systems in many different African American locations in the New World. What can the artifacts tell us about the social control mechanisms used within enslaved plantation quarters communities to maintain internal cohesion and collective identity? Ethnographic, historical, and archaeological data associated with African American praise houses and churches and the medicine of curers and conjurers are used in this study to interpret their roles in social control. In particular, archaeological evidence of West African-derived ritual deposits from the Jordan Plantation slave quarters and main house yard in Brazoria County, Texas will be used to examine how the Jordan Plantation enslaved community attempted to socially control their environment in the landscape on the property extending beyond only the slave quarters.
Cite this Record
African American Resistance, Social Control, And The Spiritual Alteration Of The Physical Environment. Kenneth Brown, Tara Ruttley. 2020 ( tDAR id: 457319)
This Resource is Part of the Following Collections
Keywords
General
control
•
Slavery
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Spirituality
Geographic Keywords
United States of America
Temporal Keywords
1800-1900
Spatial Coverage
min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;
Individual & Institutional Roles
Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology
Record Identifiers
PaperId(s): 441