Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Entertaining, Dining, And Novel Drinking: Rural Gentility And The Reverend John Hancock's Household, Lexington, Massachusetts, 1700-1750, Katie Lynn Kosack

Graduate Masters Theses

The rise of refined behavior paralleled the expansion of colonial markets and consumer choice. Objects related to the refined consumption of food and drink took center stage in the transformation of colonial entertaining. The availability of new foodstuffs and the associated equipage transformed sociability and the meaning of eating and drinking. These changes coupled with the high level of social mobility in eighteenth century Massachusetts, meant that performances with novel objects became dynamic symbols of one's social status. Utilizing Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital, this work explores how Rev. John Hancock, minister of Lexington, Massachusetts, expressed his social status through …