Nan A. Rothschild

Archaeological ethnographies Social dynamics of outdoor space

The way people organize living spaces defines and is defined by all aspects of their lives - social, political, economic and ritual. People meaningfully produce, use and experience living spaces. This calls for social and historical analyses of space as actually lived. By exploring notions of lived or living spaces we attempt to take up the idea of socializing spatial archaeology called for by Ashmore in her distinguished lecture. As a vehicle for exploring a holistic notion of lived space we, like many landscape archaeologists, advocate a greater incorporation of analyses of outdoor spaces in archaeological thought and research design, because it is important to consider the loci of all human activities (e.g. indoor/outdoor, built/unbuilt), and because outdoor spaces, significant to many aspects of life, have been traditionally overlooked by site- or structure-centric archaeologies.

The meaning of change in urban faunal deposits

Much of what appears as variation between faunal deposits may be the result of a number of different factors, each with their own effects. This article attempts to delineate some of these factors and their effects, so that distinctions among them may ultimately be made. The data used come from three sites in lower Manhattan. A method of assessing food costs in certain deposits is also proposed, and a method suggested by Binford, Grayson, Lyman, and Thomas to identify taphonomic processes is evaluated.

City tavern, country tavern: An analysis of four colonial sites

In this comparative study of colonial tavern sites, it is suggested that these sites fulfilled a variety of functions, conditioned in part by the degree of urbanization of their settings. Four sites, two in urban areas and two in rural areas, are compared by means of a Brainerd-Robinson Coefficient of Agreement, showing a clear urban-rural difference. The urban tavern artifact assemblages seem to indicate activities related to drinking and “socializing,” while the rural assemblages suggest food consumption, a probable correlate of the overnight accomodation function of some taverns.

Seneca Village and Little Africa: Two African American Communities in Antebellum New York City

African Americans in antebellum New York City followed several different residence strategies in the face of ongoing discrimination. Most lived in enclaves, dispersed throughout poorer neighborhoods that were by no means primarily black. One such enclave was Little Africa. Some lived separately in places like Seneca Village, an African American community just outside of town. This study compares the residents of these two neighborhoods and suggests that the members of these groups were quite different from each other in a number of ways. Aggregation of these differences suggests that the groups represent different socioeconomic classes. This finding runs counter to the views of many commentators and scholars (including archaeologists) who talk about the “African American community,” implying that the African American population formed (and forms) a homogeneous whole.

1 – Method in Urban Archaeology: The Stadt Huys Block1

Publisher Summary Cities are the most complex form of environment yet developed by humans, and this complexity has many ramifications for archaeologists conducting projects in urban areas. This chapter discusses several attributes characterizing urban entities as archaeological sites and describes the impact of these attributes on various aspects of an urban archaeological project carried out in New York City. The chapter discusses four characteristics of urban areas and some of their effects on archaeological projects in urban areas. Four characteristics of urban areas are particularly relevant to archaeologists: (1) demographic features, (2) political and administrative features, (3) economic features, and (4) social heterogeneity. The Stadt Huys Block Archaeological Project is used as an illustrative example. The Stadt Huys Block is in the Wall Street district of New York City, one of the most heavily urbanized areas in the world. The project discussed in the chapter was conducted under the auspices of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission prior to the construction of a skyscraper on the site.

Women in Spanish Colonial Contexts

In all colonial contexts, gender roles were a crucial, heavily negotiated component of interaction. In the Spanish Americas, these negotiations were particularly contentious for women because perspectives on the importance of women were so different. In the American Southwest, for example, Pueblo women were powerful, significant figures in their matrilineal families and in cultural/social life. However, in the eyes of Spanish men, these individuals were doubly inferior as they were both indigenous and female. When we try to understand what expectations and brokered arrangements were reached in Spanish colonial contexts, we are faced with difficult issues, among them the anticipation that roles will be stable, not mutable. Other forms of complexity derive from locality, the period of contact, and the number of ethnic and racial groups involved. We may observe a wide range of situations—from Columbus’ first encounter with indigenous women to later settings before and after the Bourbon reforms—and diverse locales. Finally, understanding how women were perceived and perceived themselves is mediated by our information sources. I consider these as archives. Some are documents that ascribe status to women, some instantiate gender roles by referring explicitly to women’s belongings and dress. Other archives include performance, often not recorded in writing but preserved in culture’s memory, and material archives recovered from archaeological sites. Each archive represents a specific perspective on a particular target for reasons of that moment. This chapter will depict a number of snapshots from particular times and settings (e.g., eighteenth-century Mexico and Colombia, and eighteenth to nineteenth century in the American Southwest), in which a finite number of groups are interacting, and which have been recorded in one of these archives. Rather than expecting a uniform outcome I anticipate that this chapter will produce images of an unstable colonial world, manipulated by many parties and recorded in ephemeral forms.

Maria and Alida: Two Dutch Women in the English Hudson Valley

Dutch women in seventeenth century New Amsterdam/New York were often expected to participate in important economic affairs. This paper considers two such women: Alida Schuyler van Rensselaer Livingston and Maria van Cortlandt van Rensselaer. Each had a significant role as a trader and manager of property. However, they were quite different in that Maria lived most of her adult life as a widow, whereas Alida lived hers as a wife. We are able to examine these different gender roles as these were enacted and embodied through a corpus of wonderful letters written by each woman to a number of family members. I suggest that the expressions of gender (seen mostly in clothing and house furnishings) were quite different for these two women, and that the ability to present a “feminine” aspect depended on the presence of a man.

Archaeological Research and the Academic Process

This chapter considers the experiences of the authors as regards the relevance of archaeological research in an academic setting. Comparing their careers, the authors discuss both the opportunities and constraints that they have experienced in academia (including the relationship of academia to industry), consider their primary considerations – and motivations – as they develop their programs of research, and discuss what is expected from their research in their respective academic positions. The authors explore in particular the pressures that they have faced within universities with respect to research, fieldwork schedules, grant income and publications, and thus the extent that such pressures have influenced how each has crafted or presented their research over time.