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Signs of identity, signs of memory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2008

Craig N. Cipolla
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Abstract

This essay explores everyday practices as sites of memory-making, arguing that such practices have the potential to serve as markers and makers of cultural identity. I use frameworks of social memory to interpret 19th-century butchery practices on the Eastern Pequot reservation in North Stonington, Connecticut. Colonialism meant change for Pequot peoples, including shifts in family structures and the adoption of mass produced material culture. I argue that, within these abrupt changes, social memory and memory-making practices played a central role in maintaining and congealing indigenous identity. I examine evidence of changing butchery practices on the reservation as they related to the adoption of metal tools. Archaeological investigations demonstrate that even though the Eastern Pequot increasingly used metal tools for butchery, they also continued to use chipped tools made of either stone or glass. I suggest that this pattern is significant because of the ‘mnemonic’ qualities that chipped-tool usage might have carried on reservation grounds. These mnemonic practices served as binding ties for the reservation community.

Keywords

memoryidentitypracticepragmaticscolonialism
Type
Notes
Information
Archaeological Dialogues , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , December 2008 , pp. 196 - 215
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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