Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Religion and Social Relations: A case study of Quaker Ideology and the Practice of Caribbean Slavery

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Under the direction of Dr. Laurie Wilkie, Mr. John Chenoweth will collect data for his doctoral dissertation thesis. Religion is a cultural phenomenon through which other aspects of social identity can be articulated, are negotiated, contested, and made explicit.If daily life has an effect on cultural change and ethnogenesis, as most archaeologists would argue, then the degree to which religious ideology affected daily life is an important variable. This project will evaluate the strength of religion as a structuring principle in social relations through the study of an 18th century Caribbean plantation which was home to the white landowning family, members of the Quaker religious group, and at least 7 enslaved Africans. The study site is a now uninhabited, 155 acre island near Tortola, in the British Virgin Island, ten acres of which have been identified as containing heavy 18th century habitation with excellent preservation. The study hypothesizes that religious ideology of Quakerism will alter social relations, producing observable material differences from sites where that ideology is absent, even at the expense of economic rationality. Because of the contradictions between Quaker ideology and the practice of slavery, it is predicted that religion will be most clearly identifiable archaeologically in the relationship between the Quaker owners and the enslaved Africans they held. The project will employ surface survey and focused excavations of the homes of the enslaved and the owners in order to address this question.The research will serve as an integral part of Mr. Chenoweth's academic training and to the development of his expertise as a researcher.