Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Ceramics in the 18th-century Spanish-Atlantic World: An Archaeological Investigation of Culture and Social Display

Trustees Of Boston University, Boston

Investigators

Abstract

Under the guidance of Dr. Mary C. Beaudry, Kathryn Ness will study daily life and expressions of social ambition in the 17th-19th-century Spanish Atlantic. Early modern Spaniards confronted numerous changes as a result of new wealth from Spain's American territories, dynastic transitions, and an influx of Enlightenment ideals. Many middle- and lower-class individuals during this time had access to new sources of wealth and could afford luxury items traditionally reserved for the upper classes and nobility. As a result, these nouveau-riche individuals faced pressures to imitate their social superiors by owning and using similar luxury goods. Ms. Ness will examine documentary sources as well as archaeological household sites in southern Andalusia, Spain to determine how individuals expressed these social aspirations and how changes in demonstrations of status impacted the material culture of the early modern Spanish Atlantic. The importance of material culture as an indicator of social status is widely accepted and studied across a variety of fields, including archaeology, anthropology, history, art history, and material culture studies. While archaeologists working in the Spanish Americas have studied related topics for nearly sixty years, their research has been largely restricted to sites in the Americas. Because these interpretations of Spanish-American life are based largely on conjectural ideas of contemporary Spanish lifeways rather than models established from empirical research, more data is needed from Spain. To help address this problem, Ms. Ness will combine three lines of evidence: documentary sources, museum collections from an 18th-century house in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, and archaeological fieldwork at a 17th-19th-century farmhouse in Rota, Spain. This three-pronged approach will allow her to obtain a holistic view of daily life in early modern Andalusia. She will then situate her work within the broader context of the Spanish Atlantic by comparing her findings from Spain with data from Spanish America. This comparison will indicate specific ways in which Spanish Americans modified or preserved their cultural heritage to fit their new surroundings in the Americas. While this project provides new ways to interpret Spanish-American data, it will also facilitate future archaeological research by serving as a potential model for examining the social connections between a nation and its overseas territories well after the initial conquest. This research will seek to have a broader impact beyond the research topics presented. The trans-Atlantic approach of this project will foster international collaboration between American and Spanish archaeologists and museum staff. The project will also assist in graduate student training, both for Ms. Ness and her graduate research assistant, who will participate in the project's archaeological fieldwork. Ms. Ness will disseminate the results from her research in professional presentations and peer-reviewed publications, while the raw data will be made publicly available through The Digital Archaeological Repository (tDAR.org). In doing so, she plans to enhance public understanding of early modern Spanish archaeology as well as facilitate future interdisciplinary research between archaeology, history, Hispanic studies, material culture studies, and anthropology.