Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Economic Organization and Cultural Cohesion of Fugitive Slave Communities in 19th-Century Kenya

在阿德里亚·拉维奥莱特博士的监督下，莉迪亚·威尔逊将对19世纪肯尼亚逃亡奴隶建立的定居点进行考古调查。 该项目的目标是描述逃亡者作为奴隶制难民的地位如何塑造了他们村庄的经济，社会和文化组织。 有文化的外来者很少与逃跑的奴隶互动，因此，书面记录对他们社区的了解有限。 考古学通过分析这些难民留下的物质记录，为了解他们的生活提供了一个宝贵的窗口。 该项目将具体比较逃亡奴隶群体和收容他们的沿海内地社区的文化凝聚力和经济组织。 作为东非逃亡奴隶定居点的第一个考古研究，该项目将照亮任何领域的学者都不了解的人的生活。 该研究还将通过扩大毛里求斯，巴西，加勒比地区和美国大陆的类似研究已经培养的比较视角，促进奴隶制和奴隶抵抗的区域间分析。 逃亡奴隶社区的形成通常比在不那么危险的情况下形成的社区更快。 这种加速的发展速度使科学家能够利用逃亡奴隶群体来更好地理解群体的形成：在缺乏共同传统和习俗的情况下，是什么将新形成的社区团结在一起？ 该项目的东非重点提供了一个独特的文化背景和权力动态，在其中考虑社区的形成。 与新大陆的逃亡者相比，东非的逃亡者通常能适应更多变的社会环境。 这个项目的分析逃亡奴隶社区创建一个非常不同的权力动态比以前在美洲的研究将有助于澄清权力动态如何影响和/或破坏群体的形成。除了其学术重要性，拟议的项目提供了几个更广泛的影响。 肯尼亚国家博物馆是教科文组织奴隶之路方案的参与者，其目标之一是建立一个关于奴隶制的博物馆。 拟议的项目将隶属于NMK，承诺推进这些目标。 通过吸收NMK考古学家，该项目还将促进当地参与肯尼亚考古。 该项目同样致力于向公众传播其研究成果。 计划的外联战略包括在挖掘期间到学校现场参观图尔斯和编写教材。 实地教育旅游的发展可以进一步将当地社区纳入研究过程。 一个长期目标是建立一个网站，向专业人员和公众介绍该项目。 项目成果还将在学术会议上分享，并在专业期刊上发表。 通过参与这些更广泛的科学话语，作者将努力促进她的工作与相关利益的研究人员之间的认识。 最后，该项目将支持作者的研究生教育和专业发展。

Under the supervision of Dr. Adria LaViolette, Lydia Wilson will conduct an archaeological investigation of settlements established by fugitive slaves in 19th-century Kenya. The project's goal is to delineate how the position of fugitives as refugees from enslavement shaped the economic, social, and cultural organization of their villages. Literate outsiders interacted little with runaway slaves, and, consequently, the written record offers limited insight into their communities. Archaeology provides a valuable window onto these refugees' lives through analysis of the material record they left behind. The project will specifically compare the cultural cohesion and economic organization of fugitive slave groups and the coastal hinterland communities that neighbored them. As the first archaeological study of fugitive slave settlements in Eastern Africa, this project will illuminate the lives of people little understood by scholars in any field. The study will also promote interregional analysis of slavery and slave resistance by expanding the comparative perspective already fostered by similar research in Mauritius, Brazil, the Caribbean, and the mainland U.S. Finally and most broadly, this project will contribute to cross-disciplinary understandings of community creation. Fugitive slave communities typically formed more rapidly than communities forged under less perilous circumstances. This accelerated rate of development allows scientists to use fugitive slave groups to better understand group formation: in the absence of shared traditions and practices, what holds newly formed communities together? This project's Eastern Africa focus offers a distinct cultural context and power dynamic in which to consider community formation. Runaways in Eastern Africa typically negotiated a much more fluid social environment than did their counterparts in the New World. This project's analysis of fugitive slave community creation in a very different power dynamic than those previously studied in the Americas will help to clarify how power dynamics affect and/or disrupt group formation. Beyond its academic importance, the proposed project offers several broader impacts. The National Museums of Kenya (NMK) is a participant in the UNESCO Slave Routes Program, and one of its aims is the development of a museum on slavery. The proposed project, which will be affiliated with the NMK, promises to advance such goals. By incorporating NMK archaeologists, the project will also promote local participation in Kenyan archaeology. The project is equally committed to disseminating its research results to public audiences. Planned outreach strategies include on-site school tours during excavation and the creation of curricular materials. The development of on-site educational tourism may further integrate local communities into the research process. A longer-term goal is the creation of a website explicating the project for both professional and public audiences. Project results will also be shared at academic conferences and in publication in professional journals. Through participation in these broader scientific discourses, the author will strive to promote an awareness of her work among researchers with related interests. Finally, the project will support the graduate education and professional development of the author.