Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Material Culture as a Reflection of Cultural Interaction

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When people move to a new area, they form new relationships that are reflected in the objects they make. These relationships may differ depending on whether one is a local or newcomer. Understanding how and why people change the way they do things is important because rapid and largescale migrations are currently occurring across the globe. Archaeology supports the study of the role of material things in local-newcomer interactions. This research will shed light on interaction by looking at material changes in migrant, local, and resultant multicultural communities. The study asks, “How do local residents and new arrivals change or maintain their practices in a new living situation?” It is worthwhile to know how different groups of people react to a move or relocation because what people do and make defines their identity and affects their opportunities for new relationships. This study specifically concerns potting communities and the relationships that form among potters following a move. When potters move with their community, they may work separately from the potters they encounter in their new residence. They may adopt certain local design styles. Or they may begin working with local potters, sharing and merging practices. This archaeological research looks at potters living and working in such a community. Researchers will identify communities of potters based on evidence of those potting practices that are most conservative, most closely tied to the learning environment, and least visible in the finished ceramic product. While potters can copy a painted design by looking at a pot, they learn face-to-face how to form a pot, mix a clay recipe, or fire a batch of vessels. Copying suggests indirect, symbolic interaction, whereas working and learning together is more intimate. Data collection methods include the study of painted decorative designs as well as petrography and X-radiography. The research will use these data to reconstruct production processes and determine whether newcomers and locals worked separately or together. This research relies on and will properly credit descendant scholarship, including published works, artists’ statements, and interviews. The co-PI will hire and train a student from an underrepresented minority group. The PIs will share the results with Tribal Historic Preservation Offices and the public. The project will culminate with a workshop geared toward community members—a productive way to disseminate results and build bridges across disciplines and with descendant communities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.