Another's Country
302 pages, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Paperback
Release Date:24 Dec 2001
ISBN:9780817311292
Another's Country
Archaeological and Historical Perspectives on Cultural Interactions in the Southern Colonies
University of Alabama Press
An engaging look at the rise and fall of cultural diversity in the colonial South and its role in shaping a distinct southern identity
The 18th-century South was a true melting pot, bringing together colonists from England, France, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, and other locations, in addition to African slaves—all of whom shared in the experiences of adapting to a new environment and interacting with American Indians. The shared process of immigration, adaptation, and creolization resulted in a rich and diverse historic mosaic of cultures.
The cultural encounters of these groups of settlers would ultimately define the meaning of life in the nineteenth-century South. The much-studied plantation society of that era and the Confederacy that sprang from it have become the enduring identities of the South. A full understanding of southern history is not possible, however, without first understanding the intermingling and interactions of the region’s eighteenth-century settlers. In the essays collected here, some of the South’s leading historical archaeologists examine various aspects of the colonial experience, attempting to understand how cultural identity was expressed, why cultural diversity was eventually replaced by a common identity, and how the various cultures intermeshed.
Written in accessible language, this book will be valuable to archaeologists and non-archaeologists alike. Cultural, architectural, and military historians, cultural anthropologists, geographers, genealogists, and others interested in the cultural legacy of the South will find much of value in this book.
The 18th-century South was a true melting pot, bringing together colonists from England, France, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, and other locations, in addition to African slaves—all of whom shared in the experiences of adapting to a new environment and interacting with American Indians. The shared process of immigration, adaptation, and creolization resulted in a rich and diverse historic mosaic of cultures.
The cultural encounters of these groups of settlers would ultimately define the meaning of life in the nineteenth-century South. The much-studied plantation society of that era and the Confederacy that sprang from it have become the enduring identities of the South. A full understanding of southern history is not possible, however, without first understanding the intermingling and interactions of the region’s eighteenth-century settlers. In the essays collected here, some of the South’s leading historical archaeologists examine various aspects of the colonial experience, attempting to understand how cultural identity was expressed, why cultural diversity was eventually replaced by a common identity, and how the various cultures intermeshed.
Written in accessible language, this book will be valuable to archaeologists and non-archaeologists alike. Cultural, architectural, and military historians, cultural anthropologists, geographers, genealogists, and others interested in the cultural legacy of the South will find much of value in this book.
In the Southeast, where the written record goes back five hundred years, historical archaeology is a subdivision of history as well as anthropology, for the complete historical archaeologist mines all sources. The contributors to this volume on the colonial Carolinas and Georgia ask historical questions, provide ample historical contexts, and present their findings in the common language of scholarship.’
—Journal of Southern History
‘Another's Country offers thoughtful, innovative perspectives on the cultural and ethnic diversity of life in the southern British colonies. This is top-notch, finely written historical archaeology presented by a group of leading scholars in the field.’
—Gregory Waselkov, University of South Alabama
These 14 essays draw on historical and archaeological evidence to underscore new levels of ethnic diversity, complexity, and syncretism in the southern colonies.’
—CHOICE
J.W. Joseph is President and Principal Archaeologist of New South Associates, Inc., an Atlanta-based cultural resource management firm.
Martha Zierden is Curator of Historical Archaeology at The Charleston Museum in Charleston, South Carolina.
Martha Zierden is Curator of Historical Archaeology at The Charleston Museum in Charleston, South Carolina.
