Date of Submission

Fall 2023

Academic Program

Anthropology

Project Advisor 1

Christoph Lindner

Abstract/Artist's Statement

Abstract: In “A (Re)theorization of the Archaeology of Fauna at the Germantown Parsonage” I aim to explore how archaeological methodology and theory can be applied and thought about differently to create more anthropologically useful archaeological knowledge and analysis. To do so, I explore theoretical approaches, such as pragmatism, and apply them to analysis of faunal finds from the Germantown Maple Avenue Parsonage site. While the faunal records have been analyzed and written about prior, one example being by Marie-Lorraine Pipes, PhD, RPA, I aim to look at the material through the lens of new theoretical approaches and hope to exhibit how doing so can create new discussion of the faunal finds, reveal new conclusions concerning the finds, and perhaps create new archaeological knowledge about these faunal remains.

In order to do so, I will first analyze how faunal finds at the Parsonage have been analyzed in the past, interrogating the reports and comparing them to reports from similar sites, that is, sites reporting similar faunal finds and sites with similar African American histories. I will take note of the methodology and theory that was used to analyze the finds and draw conclusions from them, briefly investigate these methodological and theoretical techniques in a more general context, and analyze and scrutinize how these techniques were used to analyze faunal finds. Secondly, I will explore recent archaeological theory and methodology, such as Anna Agbe-Davies and Oliver J.T. Harris and Craig N. Cipolla, and analyze how their approaches differ from theory of the past. Lastly, I will revisit the faunal finds from the Parsonage, as well as new additions that have been found in recent digging seasons, and reanalyze them with fresh eyes, with mind to analysis of the past and our new toolbox of theory and methodology. By using the Parsonage faunal finds, I hope to analyze the merit of these new techniques and approaches as well as produce new and different conclusions and knowledge about these faunal finds.

Open Access Agreement

Open Access

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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