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Title: In Small Things Forgotten: An Archaeology of Early American Life
ISBN: 0385483996
Author:
James Deetz
Publicate Date: 1996-08-01
Publish: 1996-08-01
List Price: $14.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $7.85
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $5.45
Amazon Merchant Price: $10.17
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Little things mean a lot
I enjoyed Deetz' newly updated introduction to Historical Archaeology in America. He makes clear that much can be gleaned from the seemingly insignificant material things that are left behind in the process of living. I greatly enjoyed his putting the pieces of the puzzles together. Sometimes the result was an interesting surprise. For instance, I didn't know that porches, which became so popular in America, were not a feature of European houses and were introduced by Africans. "Shotgun houses" also have African roots. Another surprising story is told by the changing styles of Colonial gravestones. They change subtly as the religious climate changes. The oldest being very stiff and stern and later ones becoming more decorative, replacing deaths heads with angels.
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2: Non Fiction
This text looks at the recovery of everyday items from the past in the United States of America. Things like plates, cup, bowls, what stuff was thrown in the rubbish bun, all that sort of thing, as opposed to recovering things that are of highly significant historical, political or scientific importance. So, trying to piece together personal life.
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3: Remember Small Things
The main thrust of Deetz's argument in this book points to the incomplete nature of the traditional historian's approach to understanding past societies. By focusing only on written documentation, traditional historians necessarily confine the groups they can examine to literate societies, thereby excluding most people in the history of human existence. Furthermore, written documents contain the bias of the author, and so cannot always be trusted. Deetz argues that historical archaeology and the study of material culture opens the door to understanding a far wider band of human societies, and can further help us relate to the literate cultures we study, by providing corroborating evidence, in some cases, and filling in the gaps overlooked in traditional written documents in other cases. This work focuses mainly on early New England societies, but the research methods Deetz puts forth readily adapt to studies in other areas. The fact that this book still stands as required reading on university course lists 25 years after its first publication testifies to its usefulness...
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4: copied directly from Scientific American Nov. 96
History is pretty much junk, one might conclude after finishing this breezy introduction to historical archaeology. Poring over estate listings, pottery shards, gravestones and excavated foundations, James Deetz reconstructs the changing face of American life during the colonial era, as immigrant traditions and aesthetics adapted to the New World. The book makes a powerful argument for an empirical kind of history far removed from the anonymous assertions of high school textbooks
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