Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: A Zooarchaeological Investigation at Creve Coeur

University South Carolina Research Foundation, Columbia SC

Investigators

Abstract

Under the direction of Dr. Kenneth Kelly, Diane Wallman will collect and analyze data for her doctoral dissertation. Her project integrates archaeologically recovered faunal remains and historical data from 18th and 19th century slave and post-emancipation Afro-Caribbean households on the plantation site of Habitation Crève Coeur to examine how the enslaved laborers, and later free Afro-Caribbeans, negotiated the social and physical constraints of the plantation and island landscape through daily subsistence strategies. Many societies exhibit social stratification of which slavery is the most extreme form. Through archaeological examination of such cases it is possible to gain insight into how, over the long term, different social classes interact and how power relationships are negotiated among them. Crève Coeur is situated in the commune of St. Anne on the French island of Martinique in the Lesser Antilles chain of the Caribbean Sea. The plantation relied on the labor of enslaved African and African-descended peoples and operated from the mid 18th through the late 19th century, primarily for the production of sugar and its byproducts for export to the métropole and French colonies. The objective of ongoing archaeological investigations at the site is to reconstruct the lifeways of the enslaved laborers at the plantation. Ms. Wallman's analysis relies on zooarchaeology combined with historical data. Zooarchaeologists identify, analyze and quantify animal remains recovered from archaeological contexts to investigate the system of food procurement, processing/preparation, distribution, preservation, consumption, and discard. Through revealing the daily practices of slave laborers, Ms. Wallman's research explores historical processes and social change, situated in a context of severe assymetrical power relations. Her project contributes to anthropological discussions of colonialism and comparative slavery, as it begins to deconstruct individual and community negotiations of the oppressive power structure of plantation slavery. The examination of slave subsistence strategies supports anthropological inquiry emphasizing that everyday practices are the processes of history that produce change, providing material evidence of the local consequences of and responses to the structures of power and domination constructed with the rise and spread of European Colonialism. Through the continuing collaboration with local heritage and cultural agencies in Martinique, this research will engage community interest in Martinique with regard to local history and culture. Collaboration will continue with the completion of this project, as the local community has taken interest in the ongoing archaeological investigations (http://pagesperso-orange.fr/mac2/patrimoine3.html), through the organization of multiple public talks and open tours of the site (Portes Ouvertes). These meetings provide a platform for the local descendant communities on the island to discuss their concerns and interest in the research of their largely undocumented history and past. Crève Coeur represents a locus of growing local awareness of the contribution archaeology can provide to the history of slavery and Afro-Caribbean identity. The project will provide Ms. Wallman with further training in the methods of analysis noted above, and foster internationally cooperative research.