Sandy ground: Historical archaeology of class and ethnicity in a nineteenth-century community on Staten Island.
Item
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Title
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Sandy ground: Historical archaeology of class and ethnicity in a nineteenth-century community on Staten Island.
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Identifier
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AAI8821062
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identifier
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8821062
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Creator
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Askins, William Victor.
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Contributor
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Adviser: James Moore
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Date
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1988
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Anthropology, Archaeology | History, United States | American Studies
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Abstract
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In capitalist societies, the definition of social identities is an arena of cultural production and conflict where the right to resources and social power are contested. The dominant class ascribes identities based on racial, national, or other distinctions in order to segment the labor force and divide working class interests by rewarding some and excluding others. Those who experience the loss of power call upon social identities to resist this domination, or to accommodate themselves to the new order, or to compete for access to work segments or other social resources.;This dissertation investigates the responses of the multi-ethnic oystering and agricultural community of Sandy Ground, Staten Island, to the penetration of their work world by capitalist relations and the rise of racist ideology at the end of the nineteenth century. I look at how social identities were transformed, mobilized and maintained through community activities and material cultural markers.;Sandy Ground was established as a free Afro-American and white ethnic community before the Civil War. During Reconstruction Afro-Americans achieved relative equality in oystering and in the community, an equality threatened by the capitalization of oystering, the collapse of the agricultural rural economy and the rise of Jim Crow.;The analysis of the facades of vernacular domestic architecture indicates that a movement away from the material expression of ethnic identity occurred in the community towards the end of the century. The new significant style referant was occupation or class status. Archaeological materials, dating between the 1870s and 1930s, indicate differences in ethnic behaviours in foodways and medical practices continued through this period. Ceramic analysis reveals that the presentation of social identity within household retained ethnic differences longer than architecture, but by the 1910s household decorative styles were emphasizing similarity between households.;Instead of calling upon ethnic differences as a strategy for competing in the new labor market, Sandy Grounders responded to the collapse of the basis of their social equality by mobilizing upon their community identity in order to mediate the transformations in their world.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
