History Commons^™

Life At The Watervliet Shaker Village : An Archaeological And Historical Approach, Joseph John Grygas

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

To date Shaker archaeology is currently in a relatively primitive stage. Most investigation at Shaker sites has resulted from construction projects and these surveys say very little about Shaker life. It was not until David Starbuck's 2004 "Neither Plain Nor Simple: New Perspectives on the Canterbury Shakers" did a major interpretive work on the Shaker's appear. An opportunity arose to work with the Shaker Heritage Society at Watervliet to do a limited survey at a Dwelling House site. This opportunity was used to test Starbuck's conclusions at another Shaker village. The findings reveal that the Shakers were indeed not strictly …