Mashantucket Pequot Plant Use from 1675-1800 AD

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Mashantucket Pequot Plant Use from 1675-1800 AD University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Open Access Dissertations 2-2013 Continuity in the Face of Change: Mashantucket Pequot Plant Use From 1675-1800 A.D. Kimberly Carol Kasper University of Massachusetts Amherst, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations Part of the Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Kasper, Kimberly Carol, "Continuity in the Face of Change: Mashantucket Pequot Plant Use From 1675-1800 A.D." (2013). Open Access Dissertations. 691. https://doi.org/10.7275/11nk-q978 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations/691 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CONTINUITY IN THE FACE OF CHANGE: MASHANTUCKET PEQUOT PLANT USE FROM 1675-1800 A.D. A Dissertation Presented by KIMBERLY C. KASPER Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY February 2013 Anthropology © Copyright by Kimberly C. Kasper 2013 All Rights Reserved CONTINUITY IN THE FACE OF CHANGE: MASHANTUCKET PEQUOT PLANT USE FROM 1675-1800 A.D. A Dissertation Presented by KIMBERLY C. KASPER Approved as to style and content by: ___________________________________________ H. Martin Wobst, Chair ___________________________________________ Elizabeth Chilton, Member ___________________________________________ David Foster, Member ___________________________________________ Kevin McBride, Member ___________________________________________ Thomas Leatherman, Department Head Department of Anthropology ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have gratitude to all those who were involved in the project. This dissertation is certainly not an effort of one person. Foremost, I must thank the Mashantucket Pequot community for funding this dissertation project via a research fellowship from 2008-2010 at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center (MPRMRC). This research was also funded by a Natural History Collection Research Scholarship through the Klinger and Bemis Endowment at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (2009 and 2007). These funds allowed me to conduct this research at the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation and to engage in an intellectual experience both professionally and personally. I am forever indebted to the research staff and other community members at the MPMRC who made this project possible – Kevin McBride, Jason Mancini, Roberta Charpentier, Kathleen Boushee, Deb Jones, Russ Handsman, Noah Feldman and Hector Gonzalez and also my committee members, H. Martin Wobst, Kevin McBride, Elizabeth Chilton and David Foster. I also would like to acknowledge my colleagues from Rhodes College, Susan Kus, and Evie Perry, and students, Jonathan Redman and Katherine Reinhart, who all have been integral in the completion of this project. My committee members provided the right amount of inspiration and motivation during their years of guidance and I truly appreciate all their efforts (especially during the summer months!) to help shape this dissertation into piece of academic work that one can be proud about. Elizabeth fostered me to explore intellectual angles that I would not have dared to traverse previously. David provided essential feedback that made me dig deep into understanding biological and cultural essence of the data. Kevin provided the fuel for the fire in many different levels of the project. His patience and guidance has been iv unconditional and much embraced during this process. I also heartfully thank my advisor, H. Martin Wobst, for all his efforts, kindness and guidance throughout the past few years. I could not have done it without him and I owe him the deepest gratitude for all his incredible mentoring and words of wisdom/reflection throughout this process. I also need to send out a little note of appreciation to all the archaeobotanical knowledge “keepers” who have eagerly passed down a wealth of information from identification criteria to theoretical models. Since my graduate career started in 2011, Ksenjia Borojevic, Glynis Jones and Lee Newsom have played an integral role in the shaping the “botanical” soul of this project. Other archaeological mentors, such as William Parkinson, Attila Gyucha, Michael Faught and Allan Gilbert have all helped shaped me into the archaeologists that I am today. I am forever indebted to all of these amazing scholars and individuals. And last, I must thank my family and friends. Their support has meant the world to me. Although I will just list his or her names each individual has played a very central role in providing an essential personal support to see this project through. I could not have done this work with the support of the following people, Chester J. Kasper Jr., Grace Kasper, Chester Jr. Kasper III, Nancy and Fred Rayman, Kathy Schermanhorn, Sam Lovejoy, Meg Morris, Pam Lozis, Liz Sullivan, and Toni Yates. You all made it easy for me to take the time I need to see this project through. And in the end, this project is unequivocally dedicated to one person, my daughter, Grace Carol (a.k.a. the Gracelberry). Although I have thanked many, any flaws in this work are my own and I take full responsibility. v ABSTRACT CONTINUITY IN THE FACE OF CHANGE: THE MASHANTUCKET PEQUOT ENVIRONMENTAL INTERACTIONS FROM 1675-1800 A.D. FEBRUARY 2013 KIMBERLY C. KASPER, B.A., FORDHAM UNIVERSITY M.SC., FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY M.SC., UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD Directed by H. Martin Wobst This investigation focuses on the decision making relative to plants by Native Americans on one of the oldest and most continuously occupied reservations in the United States, the Mashantucket Pequot Nation. Within an agency framework, I explore the directions in which decision making about plants were changing from 1675-1800 A.D. I evaluate plant macroremains, specifically progagules (seeds), recovered from ten archaeological sites and the historical record from the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation, located in southeastern Connecticut. I demonstrate how decision making about plants related to food and medicinal practices during the Colonial Period were characterized by heterarchical choices that allowed the Mashantucket Pequot to retain their sense of economic and cultural autonomy from their colonizers. This type of problem-directed agency analysis will aid in placing Indigenous individuals and communities into the contexts of colonization as more active participants in their own past, and as long-term stewards of the environment. More specifically, this dissertation shows that even as small a space as the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation is a rich testimony to the 11,000-year history, and continues to provide important information about how households and vi communities (re)conceptualize their socio-natural worlds under the most severe constraints. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ! ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iv ! ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... vi ! LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. xi ! LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... xii ! CHAPTER 1. INDIGENOUS PLANT USE AND AGENCY .............................................................. 1! Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1! An Agency Approach to Archaeological Plant Analysis ................................................ 3! Continuity and Change During Colonization ............................................................... 12 ! Structure of the Thesis .................................................................................................. 15 ! 2. A MODEL OF PLANT USE AT THE ! MASHANTUCKET PEQUOT RESERVATION ............................................................ 20 ! Introduction ................................................................................................................... 20 ! Why are the Cultural Uses of Plants an Important Variable? ...................................... 21 ! Heterarchy and Plant Use .............................................................................................. 23 ! Frameworks of Native American Plant Use within Colonial New England ................ 25 ! The Model at the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation ................................................... 31 ! Diet Composition ...................................................................................................... 32 ! Medicinal Plants ........................................................................................................ 33 ! Land Use ................................................................................................................... 33 ! Summary ....................................................................................................................... 35 ! 3. THE STUDY AREA ..................................................................................................... 36 ! Introduction
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