Abstract
This paper looks at socioeconomic stratification as reflected in the distribution of material goods in a small, inland, antebellum community. Based on both archaeological and documentary resources, this sort of research represents one of the major strengths of historical archaeology in that it fosters comparison and integration of different types of data, allowing for a more complete picture of socioeconomic scaling and material wealth. The major goals of the paper are twofold: the first is methodological, comparing the results of artifactual and documentary approaches to the assessment of material culture consumption; and the second is more substantive, involving a general consideration of socioeconomic stratification, its nature in antebellum southern society, and relationships between social structure and material culture and its consumption.
Much of the data for this study was collected by Michigan State University under contract with the National Park Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and their support is gratefully acknowledged.
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McBride, W.S., McBride, K.A. (1987). Socioeconomic Variation in a Late Antebellum Southern Town. In: Spencer-Wood, S.M. (eds) Consumer Choice in Historical Archaeology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9817-3_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9817-3_7
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