Anthropology Commons^™

A Journey To A Black Woman’S (Read Black Girl’S) Joy And Her Story Of Coming Home, Brittany Lauren Brock

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This is an auto/ethnography about the self-actualizing journey of reclaiming storytelling as my native tongue and my journey to joy. Throughout, using my story and the stories of so many others, I not only lay out the wounds (the pain, the loss, then the hope that comes) within the academy and outside in the world but I also use storytelling as a tool of healing—my tool of healing—to show how I wrote myself free.

When Black women (read Black girls) go through The Reckoning (the moment we realize something isn’t right with how we are perceived by others) …

“Provisioned, Produced, Procured,” And Purchased?: A Macrobotanical Study Of Enslaved Individuals’ Economic Engagement In The Shenandoah Valley, Linda A. Seminario

Graduate Masters Theses

This research investigates enslaved peoples’ economic engagement in the Shenandoah Valley during the first half of the 19th century. In 2017, archaeologists excavated two features at the Belle Grove enslaved quarters in Middletown, Virginia— a root cellar and subfloor pit that were filled in when a log cabin burned down. The preservation of the macrobotanicals has allowed for an in-depth analysis of the plants with which enslaved individuals engaged and the relationship between plant acquisition and enslaved people’s regional formal economic involvement at a 19th-century plantation in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. These data sets have also allowed for an …

More Than Just A School: Medicinal Practices At The Abiel Smith School, Dania D. Jordan

Graduate Masters Theses

The Abiel Smith School, located on the North Slope of Beacon Hill in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the oldest Black schools in the United States in one of the oldest free Black communities. The Abiel Smith School was constructed between 1834 and 1835 as a means to resist racial discrimination in the public school system. The Smith School is central to Beacon Hill’s Black history because it helped Black Bostonians advance in society and mitigate against the effects of racism through education. However, the Smith School may have served a dual role in the Black community. Medicinal bottles excavated …

The Making And Silencing Of “Axé-Ocracy” In Brazil: Black Women Writers’ Spiritual, Political And Literary Movement In São Paulo, Sarah S. Ohmer

Publications and Research

In this article, I will focus on two influential writers from the south of Brazil, Cristiane Sobral who currently lives in Brasília, from Rio de Janeiro, and Conceição Evaristo who currently lives in Rio de Janeiro state, from Minas Gerais. I got to know them in São Paulo in 2015 at a public event: the “Afroétnica Flink! Sampa Festival of Black Thought, Literature and Culture.” I will include references to some of their younger contemporaries such as Raquel Almeida, Jenyffer Nascimento, and Elizandra Souza, all of whom reside in São Paulo, in order to illustrate the Black Brazilian women writers’ …

The Paul Barker Ethnographic Research In Haiti, 1950s-1960s: Assessing The Usm Vodoucollection, Hannah Marcel

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

The Collection was obtained by Paul Barker, a faculty member of the Gorham State Teachers College, during the period of 1950-1960s (see Figures 1-4, 7). It is compiled of religious artifacts mostly relating to Haitian Vodou, with a few objects from Africa and the Dominican Republic. Haitian Vodouis heavily influenced by aspects of African religions that traveled to the Americas on the slave trade. It shares some characteristics with Louisiana Voodoo, Santeria, and other Afro-Caribbean religions who were also influenced by religions being introduced to the Americas by means of the slave trade. Each religion developed distinct characteristics shaped by …

Final Rest At The Hilltop Sanctuary: The Community Of Mount Gilead Ame Church, Meagan M. Ratini

Graduate Masters Theses

The Mount Gilead AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church, perched on a mountain in Buckingham, Pennsylvania, has been a focal point of African American heritage in the area for over a hundred and seventy-five years. Though the second church building, dated to 1852, is still standing with its cemetery beside it, very little about its history has been thoroughly explored. Oral histories link the church with the Underground Railroad, a highly clandestine operation--yet the church itself was built of stone and advertised its location during the height of the movement of self-emancipated people out of the South. While it is said …

Review Of In The Shadow Of Slavery: Africa's Botanical Legacy In The Atlantic World By Judith A. Carney And Richard N. Rosomoff (2009) University Of California Press, Megan E. Springate

Megan E. Springate

No abstract provided.

Coffin Handles From The African Burial Ground New York City: Notes On Their Source And Context, Megan E. Springate

Megan E. Springate

Coffin hardware refers to both functional and decorative elements, generally metallic, used on coffins and caskets in historic mortuary contexts. Examples of coffin hardware include handles, hinges, caplifters, thumbscrews, name plates, and decorative elements. Although the British industry was well-established in the eighteenth century, the mass-produced coffin hardware industry did not take hold in North America until the middle of the nineteenth century. Coffin hardware use in North America pre-dating the establishment of a domestic industry is not unknown; it is, however, uncommon, and generally has been associated with the burials of high social status or wealthy individuals. That said, …

The Power Of Choice: Reflections On Economic Ability, Status, And Ethnicity Of A Free Black Family In Northwestern New Jersey, Megan E. Springate, Amy K. Raes

Megan E. Springate

Foodways reflect, among other things, ethnicity, status, and consumer choice. Results of excavations conducted within a free black household in an historically white town in northwestern New Jersey explore these issues. Four generations of the Mann family owned and occupied a small house in Sussex Borough from 1862-1909. Analysis of the archaeological resources indicates a dramatic shift in the family’s social status in the late nineteenth century. Faunal remains, tablewares, and vessels associated with food preparation are compared with other contemporary free black house sites in the Mid-Atlantic. This assemblage is found to vary from models generally proposed for free …

The Sexton's House Has A Ritual Concealment: Late Nineteenth-Century Negotiations Of Double Consciousness At A Black Family Home In Sussex County, New Jersey, Megan E. Springate

Megan E. Springate

No abstract provided.