Anthropology

investigates how patterns of consumption reflect internal patterns of social hierarchy among the enslaved plantation community and what were the degrees of resistance and accommodation of those enslaved and their structure in relation to white plantation owners. Family, community, customs and practices, religion, and settlement patterns are the factors used to interpret the African American presence at Charles Pinckney's Snee Farm in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina and to perform a regional comparison with similar plantations of the period. This study utilizes ethnological, archaeological, historical, and physical resources to determine status differences within this slave community. Its strength is the use of a holistic and interdisciplinary approach along with the integration of anthropological and archaeological theories of agency and consumption. To determine how enslaved Africans defined their community and daily lives utilizing a comprehensive, multidisciplinary method is necessary. Analysis of consumption patterns through archaeological evidence reveals interactions between slaves and other peoples defining the ranges and boundaries of the enslaved community and its elements of resistance. Agency and consumer theories provide an explanation of how individuals possess the ownership of choice and the ability of anthropologists to characterize populations in terms of their own community through the factors deemed most important by the members' own standards in the face of outside pressures. This research provides the ability to compare this community with others in the United States aiding in the development of a theory of modern African American ethnicity formation. Ultimately, this study will contribute to African Diaspora research as more investigations are undertaken with Atlantic populations and large cultural patterns of the African Diaspora are described.

Kowal's dissertation, entitled The Affinities and Disparities within: Community and Status of the African American Slave Population at Charles Pinckney National Historic Site, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina (Department of Anthropology, Florida State University) investigates how patterns of consumption reflect internal patterns of social hierarchy among the enslaved plantation community and what were the degrees of resistance and accommodation of those enslaved and their structure in relation to white plantation owners. Family, community, customs and practices, religion, and settlement patterns are the factors used to interpret the African American presence at Charles Pinckney's Snee Farm in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina and to perform a regional comparison with similar plantations of the period. This study utilizes ethnological, archaeological, historical, and physical resources to determine status differences within this slave community. Its strength is the use of a holistic...

This report details maritime archaeological fieldwork conducted in coastal Ghana between October and December 2009. Part of the ongoing Central Region Project aimed at investigating cultural contact and change in Ghana, the research continued the search for submerged cultural resources from the period of the Atlantic trade in coastal Elmina (Cook and Spiers 2004; DeCorse et al. 2009). It was framed by hypotheses concerning historical and physical site formation processes (Horlings 2011; Muckelroy 1977; Schiffer 1983). Fieldwork combined remote sensing survey techniques and diver investigations to search for and examine maritime archaeological sites; it also made extensive use of a micro-sampling technique developed in 2007 to investigate details of submerged sites and formation processes (Horlings 2009, 2011). The project was completed by a team including the principal investigator (Horlings) and three volunteers from Canada, Denmark, and the United States, as well as with the assistance of a number of local fishermen. Fieldwork was supported primarily by the Waitt Foundation/National Geographic Society, 1 and was conducted with the permission of the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board.

Integrating theoretical and methodological approaches to formation processes across scales, from artifact to region and historical to environmental processes, this work explores the archaeology of the event related to submerged archaeological sites in the Elmina seascape of Ghana. Survey in 2009 identified three sites related to maritime trade, more than doubling the number of known sites. Drawing on remote sensing, diver investigation, and micro-sampling, the historic and physical environment is used to interpret unique events surrounding a shipwreck and to relate formation processes across the region. This study provides insights into trade events and practices, destruction and preservation of submerged sites, and forms a foundation for holistic maritime studies regionally and globally.

ABSTRACT This article studies archaeological and local versions of the past at Xaltocan, Mexico. At Xaltocan, the
past provides a vehicle for statements of ethnic, national, and community identity. Community organizations seek to
glorify the town as the descendant of an ancient kingdom that, had a different constellation of historical processes
transpired, could have become both the center of an empire and a nation. This process raises questions regarding
archaeology’s utility and points of convergence and divergence between archaeological and local versions of the past.
Rather than disregard the local appropriation of archaeological knowledge, this article attempts both to recognize
the relationship between the past and identity politics and to assess local claims by examining archaeological and
historical data. This article also considers the problems of this project, particularly the unintended consequences of
archaeological research connected to identity politics. [identity, heritage, empire, Mexico, Aztec empire]

RESUMEN Este art´ıculo estudia las versiones arqueolo´ gicas y locales del pasado en Xaltocan, Me´ xico. En Xaltocan,
el pasado proporciona un veh´ıculo para la manifestacio´ n de la identidad e´ tnica, nacional y comunitaria. Las organizaciones
de la comunidad tratan de glorificar a la ciudad como descendientes de un antiguo reino que, habiendose
dado una constelacio´ n diferente de procesos histo´ ricos, podr´ıa haberse convertido en el centro de un imperio y una
nacio´ n. Este proceso plantea dudas sobre la utilidad de la arqueolog´ıa y los puntos de convergencia y divergencia
entre las versiones arqueolo´ gicas y locales del pasado. Este art´ıculo intenta reconocer la relacio´ n entre el pasado y
las pol´ıticas de identidad y evaluar los reclamos locales mediante el examen de los datos arqueolo´ gicos e histo´ ricos.
Tambie´ n, este art´ıculo considera los problemas de este proyecto, en particular, las consecuencias impremeditadas
de la investigacio´ n arqueolo´ gica ligadas a la pol´ıtica de identidad.

Employing Mauss's notion of the fourth obligation, giving to the gods, this article develops a formulation of ritual exchange to examine the interactive nature of ritual practice. As a modality of interaction, ritual exchange is contingent upon enduring normative beliefs, such as perceived obligations to spiritual entities, and the social positions of ritual practitioners. Consequently, ritual exchange evinces not only the material and immaterial nature of sacred beliefs but also the potential flexibility and fungibility of social interaction. By considering a relatively under-utilized form of data to study past ritual, archaeobotanical remains, we employ this perspective to explore the ancient Maya practice of offering foods in several caves in western Belize. These data exhibit complex configurations of commonality and variability, suggesting the potential flexibility and latent fungibility of ritual exchange.Employing Mauss's notion of the fourth obligation, giving to the gods, this article develops a formulation of ritual exchange to examine the interactive nature of ritual practice. As a modality of interaction, ritual exchange is contingent upon enduring normative beliefs, such as perceived obligations to spiritual entities, and the social positions of ritual practitioners. Consequently, ritual exchange evinces not only the material and immaterial nature of sacred beliefs but also the potential flexibility and fungibility of social interaction. By considering a relatively under-utilized form of data to study past ritual, archaeobotanical remains, we employ this perspective to explore the ancient Maya practice of offering foods in several caves in western Belize. These data exhibit complex configurations of commonality and variability, suggesting the potential flexibility and latent fungibility of ritual exchange.RésuméEn recourant à la quatrième obligation selon Mauss (l'offrande aux dieux), l'auteur élabore une formulation des échanges rituels afin d'examiner la nature interactive de la pratique rituelle. En tant que modalité d'interaction, l'échange rituel dépend de la pérennité de croyances normatives, telles que les obligations perçues envers les entités du monde des esprits et le statut social des officiants. En conséquence, l'échange rituel évince non seulement la nature matérielle et immatérielle des croyances sacrées, mais aussi la flexibilité et la fonctionnalité potentielles des interactions sociales. En examinant les vestiges archéobotaniques, données relativement mal utilisées pour étudier les rituels passés, nous appliquons ce point de vue à l'étude des pratiques des anciens Mayas qui déposaient des offrandes de nourriture dans des grottes de l'Ouest du Belize. Ces données font apparaître des configurations complexes de points communs et de variabilité, qui suggèrent une flexibilité potentielle et une fonctionnalité latente des échanges rituels.En recourant à la quatrième obligation selon Mauss (l'offrande aux dieux), l'auteur élabore une formulation des échanges rituels afin d'examiner la nature interactive de la pratique rituelle. En tant que modalité d'interaction, l'échange rituel dépend de la pérennité de croyances normatives, telles que les obligations perçues envers les entités du monde des esprits et le statut social des officiants. En conséquence, l'échange rituel évince non seulement la nature matérielle et immatérielle des croyances sacrées, mais aussi la flexibilité et la fonctionnalité potentielles des interactions sociales. En examinant les vestiges archéobotaniques, données relativement mal utilisées pour étudier les rituels passés, nous appliquons ce point de vue à l'étude des pratiques des anciens Mayas qui déposaient des offrandes de nourriture dans des grottes de l'Ouest du Belize. Ces données font apparaître des configurations complexes de points communs et de variabilité, qui suggèrent une flexibilité potentielle et une fonctionnalité latente des échanges rituels.