The Multivalent Meanings of Shoes Within Historic American Mortuary Contexts (1702 to the early 20th century)

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Aside from their practical use, shoes have powerful symbolic meanings as items necessary for the journey of death (Puckett 1926), and they are often regarded as “magically-charged items” (Davidson, 2010). This study focuses on the inclusion of shoes in mortuary contexts in the United States. My sample is constructed using a non-exhaustive list of cemeteries across time, space, race/ethnicity, gender, and age at death cohorts. Specifically, I will be looking at burial contexts spanning the 18th through 20th centuries and documenting the presence or absence of shoes (intact shoes, and/or shoe leather, heals, shoe buttons, grommets, shoe buckles) with men, women, and children, across racial/ethnic groups. I will then conduct a literature review concentrating on the economic, gendered, and cosmological significance of shoes in these contexts, with a special focus on their meanings within and between these cultural groups (e.g., black and white communities in the 19t​h​ century American South).

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SHA 2022 General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology