The Gibbs farmstead: An archaeological study of rural economy and material life in southern Appalachia, 1790-1920.

摘要

Three interrelated interpretive themes are explored in this dissertation through reference to the Gibbs farmstead (40KN124), a domestic site in north Knox County, Tennessee. The topics of rural economy, material life, and temporal process guide inquiry in this study. World systems theory is used to examine how aspects of the emerging global system influenced daily life among a rural family in Southern Appalachia. Historical information indicates the Gibbs family participated within the commercial economy. Based on the practice of partible inheritance, it appears the Gibbs family subscribed to the concept of rural patrimony. This ideology emphasized long-term maintenance of the lineal family, the homeplace, and transmission of the means of production to successive generations. The idea of material life developed by social historians in the Annales School is used to explore how economic strategies influenced the standard of living. Focusing upon the domestic landscape, architecture, and household items, consideration of material life reveals the presence of a folk orientation among the Gibbs family that was substantially influenced by trends within national-level popular culture. Folk elements are indicated by log architecture and a pork and redware foodways complex. Concerning the topic of popular culture, in the area of domestic architecture, the expansion and renovation episodes of the dwelling appear to mirror the functional compartmentalization of domestic space that occurred among most middle class farm residences in North America. Likewise, the Gibbs family acquired expensive consumer items, such as pewter and transfer printed tableware. In contrast, the use of expensive tableware was balanced by reliance upon redware, an inexpensive utilitarian ceramic, and modestly priced painted tableware for everyday use. Regarding the topic of temporal process, this study introduces a new method to historical archaeology called time sequence analysis. This method allows fine-grained reconstruction of the diachronic consumption dynamics associated with households in the past. In this study, specific artifact categories are quantitatively linked to successive household cycles associated with the Gibbs family through correlation analysis. Results indicate household cycles significantly influenced material consumption in the areas of faunal resources, redware, tableware, and clothing items.