Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Stitching Women’s Lives: Interpreting the Artifacts of Sewing and Needlework

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Interpreting the Early Modern World

Part of the book series: Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology ((CGHA))

Abstract

In our introduction to this book, James Symonds and I characterized interpretive historical archaeology as a multifaceted congeries of contextual, politically and socially engaged approaches to the study of human lives and experiences. American historical archaeologists have employed variants of interpretive archaeology in their work since, at the very least, the 1970s (see, e.g., Ascher and Fairbanks, 1971; Deetz, 1977; Leone, 1977), although, apart from the noteworthy exceptions by Ascher and Fairbanks, Deetz, and Leone cited above, interpretive historical archaeologies failed to gain prominence in the field until after postprocessual archaeology (Hodder, 1991) and postcolonial theory (Trigger, 2005:444–478; Wilkie, 2009:337) gained firm traction as alternatives to the long-entrenched canon of processualism (Beaudry, 1996, 2007).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Ascher, R., and Fairbanks, C., 1971, Excavation of a Slave Cabin: Georgia, U.S.A. Historical Archaeology 5:3–17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beaudry, M. C., editor, 1988, Documentary Archaeology in the New World. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beaudry, M. C., 1995, Introduction: Ethnography in Retrospect. In The Written and the Wrought: Complementary Sources in Historical Archaeology, edited by M. E. D’Agostino, M. Winer, E. Prine, and E. Casella, pp. 1–15. Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers 79. Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beaudry, M. C., 1996, Reinventing Historical Archaeology. In Historical Archaeology and the Study of American Culture, edited by L. A. De Cunzo and B. L. Herman, pp. 473–497. Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Winterthur, DE.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beaudry, M. C., 2000, Review of American Material Culture: The Shape of the Field, edited by Ann Smart Martin and Ritchie Garrison (Winterthur Museum, 1997). Historical Archaeology 34(2):116–119.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beaudry, M. C., 2006, Findings: The Material Culture of Needlework and Sewing. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beaudry, M. C., 2007, Preface: Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please. In The ABC of CHAT: Contemporary Historical Archaeology in Theory, edited by A. Piccini, L. McAtackney, and M. M. Palus, pp. 1–3. British Archaeological Reports (Contemporary and Historical Archaeology Series), Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beaudry, M. C., 2008, “Above Vulgar Economy”: The Intersection of Historical Archaeology and Microhistory in Writing Archaeological Biographies of Two New England Merchants. In Small Worlds: Twelve Studies in Microhistory, edited by J. Brooks, C. R. N. DeCorse, and J. Walton, pp. 173–198. School of Advanced Research Press, Santa Fe, NM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beaudry, M. C., 2009, Bodkin Biographies. In The Materiality of Individuality, edited by C. L. White, pp. 95–108. Springer, New York, NY.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Beaudry, M. C., 2010, Privy to the Feast: Eighty to Supper Tonight. In Table Settings: The Material Culture and Social Context of Dining in the Old and New Worlds AD1700–1900, edited by J. Symonds, pp. 62–79. Oxbow Books, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beaudry, M. C., Cook, L. J., and Mrozowski, S. A., 1991, Artifacts and Active Voices: Material Culture as Social Discourse. In The Archaeology of Inequality, edited by R. McGuire and R. Paynter, pp. 150–191. Basil Blackwell, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beaudry, M. C., n.d., Introduction. Atlantic Lives: Microhistorical Approaches to Writing Archaeological Biographies. In New York Stories, edited by M. Janowitz and D. Dallal. Springer, New York, NY (forthcoming).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bond, K. H., 1989, The Medicine, Alcohol, and Soda Vessels from the Boott Mills Boardinghouses. In Interdisciplinary Investigations of the Boott Mills, Lowell, Massachusetts. Volume 3: The Boardinghouse System as a Way of Life, edited by M. C. Beaudry and S. A. Mrozowski, pp. 121–140. Cultural Resources Management Study 21. National Park Service, North Atlantic Regional Office, Boston, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braidotti, R., 1994, Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory. Columbia University Press, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brighton, S. A., 2008, Degrees of Alienation: The Material Evidence of the Irish and Irish-American Experience, 1850–1910. Historical Archaeology 42(4):132–153.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J., 1999, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cochran, M. D., and Beaudry, M. C., 2006, Material Culture Studies and Historical Archaeology. In The Cambridge Companion to Historical Archaeology, pp. 191–204. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Colonial Laws of Massachusetts, 1887. Reprinted from the edition of 1672 with the supplements through 1686, under the supervision of W. H. Whitmore, Records Commissioner. Published by order of the City Council, Boston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Darnton, R., 1984, The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History. Basic Books, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Darnton, R., 2004, It Happened One Night. New York Review of Books, June 24:60–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, N. Z., 1984, The Return of Martin Guerre. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dawdy, S. L., 2006, Microhistories and Madames in Old New Orleans. Paper presented at the annual meetings of the Society for Historical Archaeology, Sacramento, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeCorse, C. R. N., 2008, Varied Pasts: History, Oral Tradition, and Archaeology on the Mina Coast. In Small Worlds: Twelve Studies in Microhistory, edited by J. Brooks, C. R. N. DeCorse, and J. Walton, pp. 77–93. School of Advanced Research Press, Santa Fe, NM.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Cunzo, L. A., 1995, Reform, Respite, Ritual: An Archaeology of Institutions, The Magdalen Society of Philadelphia, 1800–1850. Historical Archaeology 29(3) [thematic issue].

    Google Scholar 

  • De Cunzo, L. A., 2004, A Historical Archaeology of Delaware: People, Contexts, and the Cultures of Agriculture. University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, TN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deetz, J., 1977, In Small Things Forgotten: An Archaeology of Early American Life. 1st Edn. Anchor Books, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Douglas, M., 1982, Passive Voice Theories in Religious Sociology. In In the Active Voice, edited by M. Douglas, pp. 1–15. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Douglas, M., and Isherwood, B., 1979, The World of Goods: Toward an Anthropology of Consumption. Norton, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • During, S., 2003, The Cultural Studies Reader. 2nd Edn. Routledge, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edgar, A., and Sedgwick, P., 2005, Cultural Theory: The Key Concepts. 2nd Edn. Routledge, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galle, J. E., and Young, A. L., editors, 2004, Engendering African-American Archaeology: A Southern Perspective. University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, TN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geertz, C., 1973, The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geertz, C., 1983, Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretative Anthropology. Basic Books, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilchrist, R., 1999, Gender and Archaeology: Contesting the Past. Routledge, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glassie, H., 2000, Vernacular Architecture. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hicks, D., and Beaudry, M. C., 2006, Introduction: The Place of Historical Archaeology. In The Cambridge Companion to Historical Archaeology, pp. 1–9. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hicks, D., and Beaudry, M. C., 2010, Introduction: Material Culture Studies: A Reactionary View. In The Oxford Handbook of Material Culture Studies, edited by D. Hicks and M. C. Beaudry, pp. 1–21. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hodder, I., 1991, Interpretive Archaeology and Its Role. American Antiquity 56(1):7–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hunt, L., editor, 1989, The New Cultural History. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Isaac, R., 1980, Ethnographic Method in History: An Action Approach. Historical Methods 13(1):43–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirch, P. V., and Sahlins, M., 1992, Anahulu: The Anthropology of History in the Kingdom of Hawaii. 2 Vols. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Larsen, E. L., 1994, A Boardinghouse Madonna—Beyond the Aesthetics of a Portrait Created Through Medicine Bottles. Historical Archaeology 28(4):68–79.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leone, M. P., 1977, The New Mormon Temple in Washington, DC. In Historical Archaeology and the Importance of Material Things, edited by L. Ferguson, pp. 43–61. Special Publication 2. Society for Historical Archaeology, Rockville, MD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, J., 2008, Cultural Studies. 2nd Edn. Sage, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lightfoot, K. G., 2008, Oral Traditions and Material Things: Constructing Histories of Native People in Colonial Settings. In Small Worlds: Twelve Studies in Microhistory, edited by J. Brooks, C. DeCorse, and J. Walton, pp. 265–288. School of Advanced Research Press, Santa Fe, NM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maddox, R., 2008, Lived Hegemonies and Biographical Fragments: Microsteps toward a Counterhistory of the Spanish Transition from Dictatorship to Democracy. In Small Worlds: Twelve Studies in Microhistory, edited by J. Brooks, C. R. N. DeCorse, and J. Walton, pp. 15–35. School of Advanced Research Press, Santa Fe, NM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, A. S., and Garrison, J. R., editors, 1997, American Material Culture: The Shape of the Field. Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Winterthur, DE.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mays, D. A., 2004, Sumptuary Laws. In Women in Early America: Struggle, Survival, and Freedom in a New World, edited by D. A. Mays, pp. 383–385. ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meskell, L., editor, 2005, Archaeologies of Materiality. Blackwell, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, D., 1998, Why Some Things Matter. In Material Cultures: Why Some Things Matter, edited by D. Miller, pp. 3–21. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, D., editor, 2005, Materiality. Duke University Press, Durham, NC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mullins, P. R., 1999, Race and Affluence: An Archaeology of African America and Consumer Culture. Kluwer Academic/Plenum, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Novak, S. A., 2008, House of Mourning: A Biocultural History of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, UT.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ortner, S. B., editor, 1999, The Fate of “Culture”: Geertz and Beyond. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ortner, S. B., 2006a, Anthropology and Social Theory: Culture, Power, and the Acting Subject. Duke University Press, Durham, NC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ortner, S. B., 2006b, Introduction: Updating Practice Theory. In Anthropology and Social Theory: Culture, Power, and the Acting Subject, pp. 1–18. Duke University Press, Durham, NC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parker, R., 1984, The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine. Women’s Press, London. (Reprinted 1989 by Routledge, New York.)

    Google Scholar 

  • Sahlins, M., 1981, Historical Metaphors and Mythical Realities: Structure in the Early History of the Sandwich Islands Kingdom. Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania Special Publications 1. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sahlins, M., 1985 Islands of History. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sardar, Z., 2005, Introducing Cultural Studies. 3rd Edn. Totem Books, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schuyler, R. L., editor, 1978, Historical Archaeology: A Guide to Substantive and Theoretical Contributions. Baywood Publications, Farmingdale, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, E., editor, 1994, Those of Little Note: Gender, Race, and Class in Historical Archaeology. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seifert, D. J., editor, 1991, Gender in Historical Archaeology. Historical Archaeology 25(4) [thematic issue].

    Google Scholar 

  • South, S., 1977, Method and Theory in Historical Archaeology. Academic Press, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • St. George, R. B., 1998, Conversing by Signs: Poetics of Implication in Colonial New England Culture. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swan, S. B., 1995, Plain and Fancy: American Women and Their Needlework, 1650–1850. 2nd Edn. Curious Works Press, Austin, TX.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trigger, B. G., 1989, History and Contemporary American Archaeology: A Critical Analysis. In Archaeological Thought in America, edited by C. C. Lamberg-Karlofsky, pp. 19–34. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Trigger, B. G., 2005, A History of Archaeological Thought. 2nd Edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ulrich, L. T., 2001, The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth. Knopf, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ulrich, L. T., 2007, Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History. Vintage Books, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Upton, D., and Vlach, J. M., editors, 1986, Common Places: Readings in American Vernacular Architecture. University of Georgia Press, Athens.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wall, D. DiZ., 1994, The Archaeology of Gender: Separating the Spheres in Urban America. Plenum, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walton, J., Brooks, J., and DeCorse, C. R. N., 2008, Introduction. In Small Worlds: Twelve Studies in Microhistory, edited by J. Brooks, C. R. N. DeCorse, and J. Walton, pp. 1–12. School of Advanced Research Press, Santa Fe, NM.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, C. L., and Beaudry, M. C., 2009, Artifacts and Personal Identity. In The International Handbook of Historical Archaeology, edited by T. Majewski and D. Gaimster, pp. 209–225. Springer, New York, NY.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Whiting, G., 1928, Old-Time Tools & Toys of Needlework. 1971 reprint Edn. Dover, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkie, L. A., 2003, The Archaeology of Mothering: An African-American Midwife’s Tale. Routledge, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkie, L. A., 2006, Documentary Archaeology. In The Cambridge Companion to Historical Archaeology, edited by D. Hicks and M. C. Beaudry, pp. 13–33. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkie, L. A., 2009, Interpretive Historical Archaeologies. In The International Handbook of Historical Archaeology, edited by T. Majewski and D. Gaimster, pp. 333–345. Springer, New York, NY.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Wylie, A., 1999, Why Should Historical Archaeologists Study Capitalism? The Logic of Question and Answer and the Challenge of Systemic Analysis. In Historical Archaeologies of Capitalism, edited by M. P. Leone and P. B. Potter, Jr., pp. 23–50. Kluwer/Plenum, New York, NY.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Yentsch, A. E., and Beaudry, M. C., 2001, American Material Culture in Mind, Thought, and Deed. In Archaeological Theory Today, edited by I. Hodder, pp. 214–240 Polity Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Archaeology, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA

    Mary C. Beaudry

Authors
  1. Mary C. Beaudry
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mary C. Beaudry .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Archaeology, Department of Archaeology, Boston University, Commonwealth Ave. 675, Boston, 02215, Massachusetts, USA

    Mary C. Beaudry

  2. , Department of Archaeology, University of York, York, Y01 7EP, United Kingdom

    James Symonds

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Beaudry, M.C. (2011). Stitching Women’s Lives: Interpreting the Artifacts of Sewing and Needlework. In: Beaudry, M., Symonds, J. (eds) Interpreting the Early Modern World. Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-70759-4_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation