Type of Document	Master's Thesis
Author	Cohen, Jessie Chaiya
Author's Email Address	jesscohen818@comcast.net
URN	etd-06272008-152925
Title	Africanisms and Cultural Modifications: A Study at Southall Quarter, Williamsburg, Virginia
Degree	Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department	Geography & Anthropology
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title Rob Mann Committee Co-Chair Steve Namikas Committee Co-Chair Miles Richardson Committee Member Paul Farnsworth Committee Member
Keywords	diasporic studies historical archaeology enslaved African-American archaeology
Date of Defense	2008-06-13
Availability	unrestricted
Abstract Archaeological studies at sites of enslaved Africans and African-Americans have been intensely undertaken in recent years. In particular, the search for Africanisms and cultural processes has become a common trend within these studies. I analyzed previously recorded investigations of Southall Quarter (44JC969), an eighteenth-century enslaved African and African-American site in James City County, Virginia. Dominating anthropological themes of slave resistance, owner-imposed hegemony, and agentic actions guided my search for Africanisms at Southall Quarter. I hoped to prove that the distance of the quarters from Southall’s residence and therefore the lax owner supervision provided the enslaved inhabitants with opportunities to express their West African culture. The appearance and material fill of subfloor pits and the architectural layout and composition were surveyed in order to assess West Africanisms (or lack thereof). My analyses of subfloor pits and architecture determined that even with the distance from the owner’s residence the enslaved inhabitants of Southall Quarter did not materially express an abundance of West Africanism. While one subfloor pit did demonstrate similarities to West African ancestor shrines, the remaining findings were demonstrative of an ongoing African-American creolization process. Agentic actions allowed by the lax owner supervision seems to have been more dominant than outright resistance of hegemonizing forces.
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