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Entombed Voices ENTOMBED VOICES: THE CONSTRUCTION OF ESTABLISHED HISTORIES AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF COUNTER-NARRATIVES WITHIN PUBLIC HISTORY by Francis Mahon A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree in Anthropology with Distinction Spring 2018 © 2018 Francis Mahon All Rights Reserved ENTOMBED VOICES: THE CONSTRUCTION OF ESTABLISHED HISTORIES AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF COUNTER-NARRATIVES WITHIN PUBLIC HISTORY by Francis Mahon Approved: __________________________________________________________ Carla Guerrón Montero, Ph.D. Professor in charge of thesis on behalf of the Advisory Committee Approved: __________________________________________________________ Monica Domínguez Torres, Ph.D. Committee member from the Department of Art History Approved: __________________________________________________________ Daniel Stevens, Ph. D. Committee member from the Board of Senior Thesis Readers Approved: __________________________________________________________ Michael Chajes, Ph.D. Chair of the University Committee on Student and Faculty Honors ACKNOWLEDGMENTS As mentioned in this undergraduate thesis, history is messy, and this thesis could have been very messy if it was not for some very helpful, patient, and caring friends, colleagues, and loved ones. Thank you first and foremost to my thesis committee, my third reader Dr. Daniel Stevens, my second reader Dr. Monica Domínguez-Torres, and finally my first reader Dr. Carla Guerrón-Montero. So much of the support, edits, and constructive criticism I received throughout this project came from Dr. Guerrón-Montero, an amazing Anthropologist who thankfully believed in my project, and was not angry when my drafts became increasingly longer, no matter how busy she was. Dr. Guerrón-Montero, thank you so much, I truly could not have completed this thesis without you! I would also like to acknowledge my family members and friends who never tired of hearing about monuments, alternative histories, and museums. Thank you to my father, Fran, my mother, Bitsy, and my sisters, and brothers-in-law, Beth, Chase, Kathleen, Mary, and Graham, and also congratulations to Beth and Chase on having their first daughter, Betsy! And thank you to my friends who listened, commented, and talked for hours with me about public history in restaurants, libraries, and bars, you’re unending support has been amazing! I would like to specifically thank my friends Nadia, Kira, Olivia, Deanna, Sam, Emaline, Rickey, Enrico, and Eric, thank you so, so much! My last acknowledgments must go to David Plastino for his generous grant and Victoria Sunnergren from the Undergraduate Thesis Department, because without iii either of them this thesis would not be what it is today. Through Mr. Plastino’s grant I traveled down to Savannah, GA and engaged in ethnographic fieldwork, which lead to the creation of one of my case studies. And with Ms. Sunnergren’s help I formatted, edited, and completed this thesis to the guidelines required by the University of Delaware for undergraduate thesis. Finally, I would like to thank you, the reader for picking up this volume of research and willingly thumbing through its pages, I have never written anything so large or in-depth before so I truly appreciate you taking the time to read and hopefully reflect on what is said here. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................... vii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ viii 1 CHAPTER 1: THE POWERS AND NARRATIVES OF PUBLIC HISTORY ........................................................................................................... 1 The Bloody Monarch .............................................................................. 1 Bourdieu’s Sandbox: Practice Theory and its Variables ........................ 5 A Remedy for Hegemony: Dissonant Spaces and Counter-Narratives 17 For Those Short on Time: A Summary of Theory and Action ............. 23 Charting Chats: The Methodology of Undergraduate Ethnography .... 27 The Lay of the Land: A Brief Outline of What is to Come .................. 31 2 CHAPTER 2: OBELISKS AND OPPRESSION: STRUCTURES OF POWER WITHIN THE CEMETARY CITY OF THE SOUTH, SAVANNAH, GA ............................................................................................ 33 The Most Haunted City in America ..................................................... 33 A Selective and Condensed History of Savannah and its Monuments 34 City of Graves: Witchcraft and Field-work in Savannah, GA ............. 40 A Desecrating Erection: Symbolic Violence within Wright Square .... 44 Megaliths and Pillars: Wright Square as a Theoretical Field ............... 48 Of Spirits and Roses: Capital within Wright Square ............................ 49 The Benign Boulder: The Failure of Tomochichi’s Monument as a Counter-Narrative ................................................................................. 51 The Historian and The Student: Fieldwork within the Georgia Historical Society ................................................................................. 53 The Square in Savannah: Final Thoughts About Wright Square ......... 55 3 CHAPTER 3: SHIPWRECKS AND SAILORS: STRUCTURES OF POWER WITHIN THE FIRST TOWN IN THE FIRST STATE, LEWES, DE. .................................................................................................................... 58 A Selective and Condensed History of Lewes, Delaware .................... 60 The Life of a King’s Ship: The Sinking of the H.M.S. De Braak ........ 69 The Zwaanendael Museum, or Dutch Colonization Immortalized ...... 70 v An Anglophile in Delaware: Field Work within the Zwaanendael Museum ................................................................................................ 71 The Museum as the Field: An Analysis Utilizing Practice Theory ...... 75 An Ode to Neptune: An Experiment in Creating a Counter-Narrative 77 Of Rocks and Paper: Tomochichi’s Monument and the Zwaanendael Brochure ............................................................................................... 79 The Museum in Lewes: Final Thoughts on the Zwaanendel Museum 80 4 CHAPTER 4: THE OPENING AT THE CLOSE: A CONCLUSION AND CALL TO ARMS FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF COUNTER- NARRATIVES ................................................................................................. 82 A Tapestry of History: Weaving Together What Has Been Stated Thus Far ................................................................................................ 82 A Soldier within the Field: My Role and Position within Bourdieu’s Field ...................................................................................................... 84 The Consequences of Non-Confrontation ............................................ 86 A View of Things to Come: The Future of Counter-Narratives .......... 88 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................ 90 A FIGURES ......................................................................................................... 95 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Craig McCausland, Human Brain Isolated on White Engraved Illustration, ca, 1880, engraving, PDF. Fine Art America. < https://fineartamerica.com/featured/human-brain-isolated-on-white- engraved-illustration-circa-1880-craig-mccausland.html> (edits are those Francis Mahon) .............................................................................. 95 Figure 2 PRN Solutions, Map of Savannah, Georgia Historic District and Surrounding Areas, 2005, digital, PDF. Savannah Getaways, <http://www.savannahgetaways.net/Rental_Listings/Savannah/Histori c_District/POI> (red edits are those of Francis Mahon) ......................... 96 Figure 3 Henry Van Brunt and Frank M. Howe, William Washington Gordon Monument. 1883, granite and limestone. Reproduced by Francis Mahon, July, 2017. .................................................................................. 97 Figure 4 Nellie Kinzie Gordon, Georgia Society of Colonial Dames, and Stone Mountain Company, Tomochichi Monument. 1899, granite. Reproduced by Francis Mahon, July 2017. ............................................. 98 Figure 5 Francis Mahon, Wright Square Map. 2018, JPEG. .................................... 99 Figure 6 E. William Martin, Zwaanendael Museum, 1931. Reproduced by State of Delaware, https://history.delaware.gov/museums/zm/zm_history.shtml (accessed May 18, 2018). ...................................................................................... 100 Figure 7 Francis Mahon, Zwaanendael Brochure, PDF, 2018. .............................. 101 vii ABSTRACT The American history that students and tourists are exposed to today is a whitewashed and nationalistic history that has been normalized for centuries by a dominant habitus that creates public monuments and historical structures. The normative American historical narrative is one that focuses more on the struggles, accomplishments, and histories of white heterosexual cis-gender males of European descent instead of women, people of color, or non cis-gender people. The goal of this thesis is to explore the realm of public history through the anthropological framework of Pierre Bourdieu’s Practice Theory and seeks to understand the structures of power involved in producing a dominant historical narrative.
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