Michael Nassaney - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Michael Nassaney

Historical Archaeology, Dec 1, 2007

This chapter reveals the architectural remains recovered at Fort St. Joseph. Unlike other colonia... more This chapter reveals the architectural remains recovered at Fort St. Joseph. Unlike other colonial settlements, no detailed maps, drawings, or descriptions have come to light to illuminate the physical appearance of the fort. Here, we trace the origins of French colonial architectural styles and how they were adapted to the New World. We then employ archaeological and documentary sources to ascertain the types of buildings that may have existed at Fort St. Joseph, their functions, and what they may have looked like. This information will help in our interpretations of the function, construction techniques, and materials used to construct buildings as revealed through the architectural remains and associated structural materials found at Fort St. Joseph. This examination of eighteenth-century buildings in New France provides a better appreciation and understanding of colonial architecture and the conservative nature of French building practices.

Society for Historical Archaeology, 2017

Geophysical and archaeological surveys were conducted in a segment of Lake Bluff Park immediately... more Geophysical and archaeological surveys were conducted in a segment of Lake Bluff Park immediately west of Lake Boulevard in St. Joseph, Michigan during Fall 2005. The surveys were conducted because background research had indicated the potential for archaeological remains in the project area, particularly the construction of Fort Miami in the vicinity in 1679 and encounters with human burials along the bluff edge in the nineteenth century. The City of St. Joseph requested the survey to avoid disturbing potentially significant subsurface remains during excavations to replace utility lines beneath Lake Boulevard. Sixteen geophysical blocks were surveyed, comprising approximately 35% of the project area. Magnetometry and ground penetrating radar detected a range of subsurface anomalies including utility lines, near surface ferrous objects, and geological disconformities. A total of 52 shovel test pits, six 1-x-1 m excavation units, and one 1-x-1.5 m trench were located to ground truth ...

An intensive archaeological survey was conducted at the Shepard site (20CA104) in Battle Cr�ek, M... more An intensive archaeological survey was conducted at the Shepard site (20CA104) in Battle Cr�ek, Michigan from April 29 through July 12, 1996. Historical background research had indicated that the site was the location of Native American activity until the 1830s when it was settled by the town's first school teacher, Warren B. Shepard. In the early 1850s, Shepard constructed a large, brick Greek Revival house on the site that stands to this day. The house and its associated landscape have been the focus of our investigations. Documentary evidence suggested the presence of various outbuildings and other landscape features that were typical components of a mid-19th century farmstead. The purpose of the survey was to identify and evaluate material traces of buildings and activity areas in the vicinity of the house and interpret their changes in a political economic framework. Toward this end, a team of archaeologists and geophysicists from Western Michigan University conducted a wal...

stratigraphic data (e.g., field notes, maps, photographs) are currently curated at the Department... more stratigraphic data (e.g., field notes, maps, photographs) are currently curated at the Department of Anthropology, Western Michigan University. SITE DESCRIPTION The James and Ellen G. White house site (20CA118) is currently owned by the Historic Adventist Village. The site is located in the SE 1/4 of the NW 1/4 of the SW 1/4 of the NW 1/4 of section 1, Range 8W, Township 25 of Battle Creek township in Calhoun County (Figure 1-2). The original house site corresponds with Lots 64 (57 and 63-65 N. Wood Street) and 65 (71 N. Wood Street) of Manchester's 3rd addition (Figure 1-3). For the purposes of this study, we focused on Lot 64 where the house was originally built and border areas of the adjacent lots (2 and 3) to the south (Figure 1-4). The landscape slopes gently toward the south where the Kalamazoo River lies less than 1000' away from the site. The house is a wood frame, Greek Revival-style structure with two symmetrical wings and a rear addition. It was built for the Whites soon after they moved to Battle Creek from Rochester, New York, in 1854. Lot 3, located immediately. to the south, was occupied by another Sabbath-keeper or Adventist, Jonah Lewis. The house and associated landscape have undergone significant modifications over the past 143 years. These changes are important clues to the social identities and values of the occupants since 1856. In 1981 a group of laymen, church administrators, and educators established Adventist Historic Properties, Inc., to preserve the dwindling number of historic Seventh-day Adventist buildings in Battle Creek (Adventist Historic Properties 1990). Preservation of sites such as the James and Ellen G. White house is seen as a visible link between the present and the Adventist pioneers by helping to "recall their sense of prophetic mission when they founded the denomination" (Adventist Historic Properties 1990). For nearly two decades, the house has been been maintained as a pilgrimage site and is one of several important Seventh-day Adventist historical landmarks that attract visitors to Battle Creek (Davis and Stoltz 1996). The current appearance of the site and the history of landscape modifications are discussed in more detail in Chapters 3 and 4. ORGANIZATION OF TiilS REPORT Chapter 2 of this report presents the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of the study by discussing the research design and the methods used to guide our geophysical and archaeological investigations. An historical overview of Battle Creek beginning in the early 19th century and a brief history 4 1000

Foreword by Alice B. Kehoe Preface Ancient People, Ancient Landscapes Exploration, Colonization, ... more Foreword by Alice B. Kehoe Preface Ancient People, Ancient Landscapes Exploration, Colonization, and Settling-In: The Bull Brook Phase, Antecedents, and Descendants by Mary Lou Curran A Light but Lasting Footprint: Human Influences on the Holocene Landscape by George P. Nicholas Paleoenvironmental Context for the Middle Archaic Occupation of Cape Cod, Massachusetts by Frederick J. Dunford Rethinking Typology and Technology "By Any Other Name...": A Reconsideration of Middle Archaic Lithic Technology and Typology in the Northeast by John R. Cross A Southeastern Perspective on Soapstone Vessel Technology in the Northeast by Kenneth E. Sassaman Ceramic Research in New England: Breaking the Typological Mold by Elizabeth S. Chilton Critical Perspectives on Entrenched Assumptions Myth Busting and Prehistoric Land Use in the Green Mountains of Vermont by David M. Lacy Critical Theory in the Backwater of New England: Retelling the Third Millennium by Elena Filios Fishing, Farming, and Finding the Village Sites: Centering Late Woodland New England Algonquians by Robert J. Hasenstab Community and Confederation: A Political Geography of Contact-Period Southern New England by Eric S. Johnson Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Northeastern Prehistory History of Zooarchaeology in New England by Catherine C. Carlson Native Copper in the Northeast: An Overview of Potential Sources Available to Indigenous Peoples by Mary Ann Levine Radiocarbon Dating of Shell on the Southern Coast of New England by Elizabeth A. Little Contributions from Cultural Resource Management The Significance of the Turners Falls Locality in Connecticut River Valley Archaeology by Michael S. Nassaney An Interdisciplinary Study of the John Alden Houses, 1627 and 1653, Duxbury, Massachusetts: Archaeology and Architecture by Mitchell T. Mulholland Index

Archeological Papers of The American Anthropological Association, Jun 28, 2008

The emergence of elites in the prehistoric American Southeast takes place within the context of c... more The emergence of elites in the prehistoric American Southeast takes place within the context of communal societies. Incipient elites exacerbate contradictions that appear under conditions of population growth, subsistence intensification, decreased mobility, and technological reorganization within the communal mode of production to undermine egalitarianism and consolidate their positions of status. Archaeological data from the Plum Bayou culture of central Arkansas suggest that the elite had not completely transformed communal life despite attempts at accumulation and monopolization. Their strategies of aggrandizement were effectively resisted by non-elites and communalism was ultimately restored in the region. The dynamic that pushes egalitarian, kinbased societies towards inequality in the Southeast appears to be cyclical rather than linear.

International Journal of Historical Archaeology, Aug 31, 2008

Identity formation is a central issue in colonial and post-colonial studies. The ways in which pe... more Identity formation is a central issue in colonial and post-colonial studies. The ways in which people defined and expressed their identities along multiple dimensions have material implications that are archaeologically accessible. For social archaeologists, material variation is actively constituted and the archaeological record is the residue of a system of signs that individuals used in the construction of class, status, gender, race, and ethnic relations. In the context of French and Native interactions, social identities were fluid, situational, and malleable. The interactions engendered by the fur trade and colonialism in New France had material consequences for identity formation that are being investigated at Fort St. Joseph, an 18th-century frontier outpost in the western Great Lakes.

Dialectical Anthropology, Dec 1, 1993

Journal of Social Archaeology, Oct 1, 2004

Scholars have long recognized that European contact had a profound impact on native peoples throu... more Scholars have long recognized that European contact had a profound impact on native peoples throughout the Americas. However, subaltern men and women are no longer seen as passive victims in their interactions with the dominant culture but rather as active agents who made their own histories, even as they confronted colonialism on a daily basis. In southeastern New England, population decline and increased commodity exchange created new social opportunities for native men and women by the mid-seventeenth century. These demographic, economic and social conditions contributed to ongoing transformations in gender roles and responsibilities, though they were not experienced uniformly throughout the region. Building on limited and ambiguous documentary and oral accounts, I use archaeological evidence of pipes, pestles, pots, and peage (wampum) to examine gender politics in native New England after European contact.

The study of craft production in the context of Native American–European interactions during the ... more The study of craft production in the context of Native American–European interactions during the eighteenth century in the western Great Lakes region has emerged as a topic of scholarly interest. An analysis of tinkling cone production both demonstrates how European raw materials were being transformed into new forms and reveals how labor was organized. By examining the technological histories of tinkling cones, this chapter illustrates that their production was conducted in independent workshops as an opportunistic activity that fit the demands of life on the colonial frontier at Fort St. Joseph.

This religious medallion recovered in 2016 depicts the Virgin Mary (left) and Jesus Christ (right... more This religious medallion recovered in 2016 depicts the Virgin Mary (left) and Jesus Christ (right). The Latin inscription reads "MATER DEI" (Mother of God). Photo by Austin George.

A retrospective examination of the changing interpretations of Fort St. Joseph suggest that the h... more A retrospective examination of the changing interpretations of Fort St. Joseph suggest that the history and archaeology of the Fort have supported various narratives that have served different audiences and political agendas. This concluding chapter emphasizes that the social and political conditions and the subject position of researches influence how Fort St. Joseph has been presented in popular and scholarly discourse. It summarizes what has been learned from nearly two decades of collaborative archaeology at Fort St. Joseph and underscores the importance of the past for charting a better vision for the future.

Historical Archaeology, Jan 28, 2019

chercheurs pour comprendre des formes de matérialité plus pragmatiques, dont les agents se servai... more chercheurs pour comprendre des formes de matérialité plus pragmatiques, dont les agents se servaient pour assurer la persistance des identités culturelles à l'époque du colonialisme.

Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, 2012

Abstract Recent archaeologies of colonialism have challenged and significantly revised contempora... more Abstract Recent archaeologies of colonialism have challenged and significantly revised contemporary imaginings of Indigenous peoples' engagement with Europeans and the impacts of these entanglements on material and social realities. Changes in socio-political climate beginning in the 1970s instigated reconceptualizations that accompanied increasingly audible sounds of Native voices and concerns. Political action outside the discipline has heightened archaeologists' self-reflexivity and engendered new theoretical frameworks such as the shift from acculturation to agency models and the trend away from essentialized categories towards hybridized forms. In this paper, I suggest first that the growing adoption of decolonized archaeological theory is grounded in socio-political experiences and contestation. Second, I challenge a recent reactionary critique of aboriginalism in an effort to enter the ongoing debate on the side of Indigenous archaeology to highlight some of the relationships between materiality, colonialism/ decolonialism, and archaeological theory. Finally, I show how postcolonial theoretical perspectives have influenced the archaeological interpretations of an eighteenth-century, multi-ethnic community in southwest Michigan. New ways of envisioning the past are developed through changing the relationships archaeologists establish with a broader community of stakeholders that influence the interpretations of the data that they recover.

Fort St. Joseph Revealed, 2019

Archaeological studies conducted under the auspices of the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project... more Archaeological studies conducted under the auspices of the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project have focused on material remains in the St. Joseph River valley in Niles, Michigan. Material remains indicate that human groups exploited resources and established settlements throughout the area, and that, in the context of local and regional political economic relations, those settlements shifted in response to changes in resources availability and alliance formation. This chapter examines the spatial distribution of Euro-American and Native American sites in the lower St. Joseph River Valley during the periods ranging from immediately prior, to during, and to after the occupation of Fort St. Joseph. Through the use of geographic information systems (GIS), the authors monitored changes in settlement patterns as they related to the establishment and abandonment of this French colonial outpost.