The Archaeology of Clothing and Bodily Adornment in Colonial America: American Experience in Archaeological Perspectives (Paperback)

No one who reads this book will ever look at a button, a buckle, or a bead in quite the same way again. Diana Loren adroitly demonstrates how small finds associated with everyday dress and bodily adornment truly mattered in colonial discourses between Europeans and Native Americans over identity, social positioning, and power. Mary C. Beaudry, Boston University Highly readable but also innovative in its approach to a broad array of material from diverse colonial contexts. Carolyn White, University of Nevada, Reno Brings together a sampling of the extensive literature on the archaeology of clothing and adornment to argue that artifacts of the body acquire their meaning through cultural practice. Loren shows how dress serves as social discourse and a tool of identity negotiation. In this she is squarely situated in mainstream theoretical approaches in American historical archaeology, including practice theory, critical theory, and archaeology of the social body. The use of clothing and adornment is a powerful way to underscore these concepts. Kathleen Deagan, Florida Museum of Natural HistoryDiana Loren challenges us to see beyond the essential identity ascribed to an object at the time of its production based upon its intended function and to envision the symbolic meanings and values that artifacts acquire through use."