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NORTHEAST ANTHROPOLOGY
Abstracts: Issue 67
Number 67 Spring 2004
The editorial comment for issue number 67 can be found at
the end of this page.
ARTICLES
Pages
1-22 Picturing Pachgatgoch: An Eighteenth-Century American
Indian Community in Western Connecticut
Corinna Dally-Starna and William A. Starna
Of the eighteenth-century native communities in western Connecticut,
only one has an extensive and detailed documentary record
of its existence. It is Pachgatgoch. Working almost exclusively
from the diaries and correspondence left by Moravian missionaries
who spent nearly three decades in service to the Indians there,
this essay describes the community's multi-locus settlement
pattern, forms of land use, native dwellings, and the design
of the Moravian mission. Also presented is a discussion of
mortuary practices against the backdrop of a previously unpublished
drawing of "God's Acre," the Indian cemetery. Shifts
evident in elements of the native cultural system are traceable,
in part, to colonial encroachment and the presence of the
Moravians.
Parmi les communautés amérindiennes du XVIIIe
siècle dans l'ouest du Connecticut, celle de Pachgatgoch
est la seule dont on détient des archives documentaires
considérables et détaillées. En utilisant
presque exclusivement la correspondance et les journaux personnels
des missionnaires moraves qui y habitèrent pendant
près de trois décennies, cet article décrit
le schème d' établissement à emplacements
multiples de cette communauté, les differentes utilisations
du territoire les lieux d'habitation et le plan de la mission
morave. Nous présentons également une discussion
des pratiques funéraires à la lumière
d'un dessin inédit de "God's Acre ", le cimetière
amérindien. Des changements évidents de certains
aspects du système culturel autochtone sont en partie
reliés à l' empiètement colonial et la
présence morave.
23-60 Seneca Iroquois Settlement Pattern, Community Structure,
And Housing, 1677-1779
Kurt A. Jordan
This paper presents and analyzes archaeological and documentary
evidence on homeland Seneca Iroquois settlements during the
A.D. 1677-1779 era using synchronic depictions of Seneca settlement
pattern, community structure, and housing in 1687, 1700, 1720,
1750, and 1779. Major changes in settlement pattern and community
organization occurred during 1710-1720, when the first dispersed
communities were constructed, and during 1740-1750 when the
Genesee Valley was reoccupied. A model emphasizing supra-regional
political-economic factors as establishing constraints and
opportunities for local action provides a better framework
for explaining the observed changes than normative linear
developmental schemes.
Cet article présente une analyse des témoins
archéologiques et documentaires concernant les établissements
Senecas sur leur territoire au cours de la période
entre les années 1677 et 1779. Des descriptions du
schème d'établissement, de la structure communautaire
et de l'habitation, datant de 1677, de 1700, de 1720, de 1750
et de 1779 sont mises à contribution. Des changements
majeurs dans Ie scheme d'etablissement et l'organisation communautaire
ont eu cours durant l'episode de 1710 a 1720, quand les premières
communautes dispersees se sont amalgamees, et durant l'épisode
de 1740 à 1750, quand la vallée de la rivière
Genesee Jut réoccupée. Un modèle qui,
à une échelle supra régionale, met l'accent
sur des facteurs politico-économiques qui déterminent
des contraintes et des occasions d'actions locales offre un
cadre plus adéquat que des modèles normatifs
de développement linéaires pour expliquer les
changements observés.
61-88 Marbletown and Nachte Jan: Two Multi-Component Rockshelters
in the Esopus Drainage, Ulster County, NY
Joseph E. Diamond
Two rockshelters in the Esopus drainage excavated by amateur
archaeologists are discussed. The occupations at the Marbletown
Rockshelter and Nachte Jan's Rockshelter span the periods
from the Vosburg and Vergennes Phases, respectively, to contact
with the Dutch in the seventeenth-century. Numerically, the
bulk of the materials are from the Terminal Late Woodland
and Contact Period, with the two rockshelters yielding a total
of 66 distinct ceramic vessels, of which 48 are Chance or
post-Chance Phase in date. Explanations for such large quantities
of Terminal Late Woodland and Contact Period ceramic vessels
(and European trade items) include caching of ceramics, and
increased use of the rockshelters during the first and second
Esopus Wars, as well as increasing use of the rockshelters
by smaller social units (and individuals) spread across the
landscape in an effort to be less visible.
Discussion de deux abris en pierre fouilles par des archéologues
non-professionnels. L 'occupation des abris de Marbletown
et de Nachte Jan s' 'etend des périodes Vosburg et
Vergennes, respectivement, au contact avec les Hollandais
au dix-septième siècle. En nombre, la plupart
du matériel date de la période de la Fin de
la Région Boisée et de celle du Contact. Ces
deux abris ont rendu un total de 66 récipients en céramique
distinctes, parmi lesquels 48 datent de la phase Chance ou
post-Chance. Une telle quantité de récipients
en céramique (et objets d'échange.de provenance
europeenne) de ces périodes peut s 'expliquer par la
cachette, l'usage plus fréquent de ces abris pendant
les première et deuxième guerres de l'Esopus
airisi que l'usage plus fréquent des abris de pierre
par de plus petits groupes (et individus) qui, dans Ie but
de passer inaperçus, se sont dispersés sur Ie
terrain.
BOOK REVIEWS
89-90 People, Places, and Material Things: Historical Archaeology
of Albany New York (Charles L. Fisher, editor)
Kelly M Britt
90-91 Northeast Subsistence-Settlement Change AD 700-1300
(John P. Hart and Christina B. Rieth, editors)
Sarah W. Neusius
EDITORIAL COMMENT
You'll notice that this commentary is signed by the editor
of years past. Sean Rafferty and I decided that delaying the
move back to Albany for a year (now effective 2005) would
make for a smoother transition. At this time, the fall issue
has sufficient material for an entire volume, so now is the
time to forward manuscripts to my successor, at the following
address:
Dr. Sean Rafferty
Department of Anthropology
University of Albany, SUNY
1400 Washington Avenue
Albany, NY 12222
rafferty@albany.edu
This issue is (unintentionally) thematically bound by virtue
of its focus on Native American and EuroAmerican interactions
prior to the Revolutionary War. Together these articles highlight
the multiplicity and flexibility of Native American responses
to encroachments from the sixteenth century onwards. Corinna
Dally-Starna and William Starna's work in the Moravian Archives
in Pennsylvania should make us feel optimistic about the possibilities
of undiscovered or untranslated documents that may still be
out there, and the new perspectives they provide. For those
of you who stuck with Latin through college, perhaps some
time spent with the unabridged Jesuit Relations would prove
a boon for Northeastern ethnohistory? Likewise, Kurt Jordan's
and Joseph Diamond's research, respectively, on earlier archaeological
collections reminds us that there are still new insights that
await the diligent scholar who is willing to revisit assemblages
that have just been waiting for another look. This volume
emphasizes that written documents and the archaeological record
still have new revelations to offer on Northeastern ethnohistory,
no matter how deeply we may think the data have been mined.
Charles R. Cobb
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