Grounding Creolization: Ecology and Economy in Colonial New Orleans

克里奥尔化的基础：新奥尔良殖民地的生态与经济

• 批准号: 0917736
• 负责人: Shannon Dawdy
• 金额: $ 8.96万
• 依托单位: University of Chicago
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-01 至 2011-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0917736&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Grounding; Creolization; Ecology; Economy; Colonial

With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Shannon Lee Dawdy will lead a team of graduate students and local volunteers in excavations to take place within New Orleans's central historic complex surrounding St. Louis Cathedral on Jackson Square. The garden site behind the Cathedral has been a flexible green space used by city residents for temporary shelter, gardening, marketing, and recreation over the last 300 years. By examining the material remains of these activities and applying high-resolution laboratory analyses, the study aims to improve our understanding of how African, Native American, and European residents were exchanging ideas about gardening, medicine, food, and domestic technologies. A broader goal is to develop an archaeological understanding of creolization, or the creation of a new culture out of a diverse colonial population.Excavations in 2008 at the site (called St. Anthony's Garden) exposed remarkably well-preserved deposits associated with two early French period structures, one of which predates the street grid and may represent an early hut established by a pioneer during the land-clearing phase. The site is also characterized by rich deposits of artifacts and identifiable features dating from the early 1700s. The artifactual remains suggest that Native Americans played a much more prominent role in the early founding years than has been previously appreciated. Expanded excavations and detailed artifact analysis will clarify the nature of these deposits. The study's intellectual merits are both theoretical and substantive. Why and how did creolization take place in early New Orleans such that by the 1740s locals were identified as uniquely 'creole,' rather than French, Indian, or African? Intermarriage was no more common in Louisiana than in other French and Spanish colonies and missionary efforts were not intense. While Louisiana is often held up as an ethnographic example of creole culture, theoretical explanations for why creolization occurs in some settings and not others are lacking. This project seeks to test the hypothesis that creolization arises under conditions that foster the exchange of material knowledge and technique through collaborative labor, which seems to have been a distinctive characteristic of early Louisiana's economic system based on subsistence agriculture, smuggling, and the deer skin trade. This project is a key component of the city's first comprehensive archaeological research program. It will establish comparative baselines of ceramic, archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data for French colonial New Orleans. In addition, this will be the first time that analysis of phytoliths (akin to fossilized plant cells) will be applied to any type of site in the region. The broader impacts of the project include a significant public outreach effort, consisting of on-site interpretation and tours of this heavily-visited landmark, public lectures, and preparation for a permanent museum exhibit. Results will be disseminated through a web site, technical reports, and scholarly conference presentations and publications. Students from Chicago and New Orleans will receive archaeological training and local volunteers are invited to participate in this community project.

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，香农·李·道迪博士将带领一个由研究生和当地志愿者组成的团队，在杰克逊广场圣路易斯大教堂周围的新奥尔良中央历史建筑群内进行挖掘。在过去的300年里，大教堂后面的花园一直是城市居民用于临时住所、园艺、营销和娱乐的灵活的绿色空间。 通过研究这些活动的物质遗迹并应用高分辨率的实验室分析，该研究旨在提高我们对非洲人，美洲原住民和欧洲居民如何交流有关园艺，医学，食品和国内技术的想法的理解。2008年在圣安东尼花园（St. Anthony's Garden）进行的考古发掘，发现了保存完好的沉积物，这些沉积物与两个早期法国时期的建筑物有关，其中一个建筑物的历史要早于街道网格，可能代表了一位拓荒者在土地清理阶段建造的早期小屋。该遗址的特点还包括丰富的文物沉积和可追溯到18世纪初的可识别特征。这些人造遗骸表明，美洲原住民在建国初期发挥的作用比以前所认识到的要突出得多。扩大挖掘和详细的文物分析将澄清这些存款的性质。该研究报告的学术价值既有理论价值，也有实质性价值。为什么以及如何克理奥尔化发生在早期新奥尔良，以至于到18世纪40年代当地人被认为是独特的“克理奥尔”，而不是法国人，印度人或非洲人？ 异族通婚在路易斯安那州并不比其他法国和西班牙殖民地更常见，传教士的努力也不激烈。 虽然路易斯安那州经常被认为是克理奥尔文化的民族志例子，但为什么克理奥尔化发生在某些环境中而不是其他环境中的理论解释仍然缺乏。这个项目旨在测试的假设，克理奥尔化的条件下，促进物质知识和技术的交流，通过合作劳动，这似乎是一个显着的特点，早期路易斯安那州的经济体系的基础上，自给农业，走私和鹿皮贸易。该项目是该市第一个综合考古研究计划的关键组成部分。它将为法国殖民地新奥尔良建立陶瓷，考古植物学和动物考古学数据的比较基线。此外，这将是首次将植硅体（类似于植物细胞）分析应用于该地区任何类型的地点。该项目更广泛的影响包括一个重要的公共宣传工作，包括现场口译和图尔斯参观这个参观人数众多的地标，公共讲座，并为一个永久性的博物馆展览做准备。研究结果将通过网站、技术报告、学术会议报告和出版物传播。来自芝加哥和新奥尔良的学生将接受考古培训，当地志愿者也被邀请参与这一社区项目。