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The Recovery of Meaning
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31 December 2003

Originally published by Smithsonian Institution Press in 1988, this collection uses the historical archaeology of the eastern United States to explore social life, religion, and ideology. A new prologue by Mark Leone defines the elements of culture and identifies those parts of the concept that are important to historical archaeologists. Leone considers public displays of heritage and the role of archaeology in their creation.
HISTORY / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies), SOCIAL SCIENCE / Archaeology, History of the Americas, Archaeology
'[A] significant book . . . . [T]his work offers much of interest to interpreters of the American past.' (Marley Brownin, Museum News)
'This work admirably demonstrates the value of structural and symbolic analysis for the recovery of meaning. For that reason it is a valuable addition to [the] anthropological literature.' (Elizabeth J. Reitzin, Georgia Historical Quarterly)
'This collection . . . tackles connections between actor and object within the context of the historical archaeology of European expansion and development in North America.' (Leslie Stewart-Abernathyin, American Antiquity)
'[A] landmark demonstration of the progress that has been made in interpretation. . . . [T]he book is itself a small gem of material culture.' (Ezra Zubrowin, Science)
Mark P. Leone, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland
Parker B. Potter, Jr., Franklin Pierce Law Center, Concord, New Hampshire
Prologue to the Percheron Press Edition: Where Is Culture to be Found by Historical Archaeologists? Mark P. Leone
Introduction: Issues in Historical Archaeology, Mark P. Leone and Parker B. Potter Jr.
I. Sixteenth-Century Spanish Settlement in the Southeast
Santa Elena: Threshold of Conquest, Stanley South
Saints and Soldiers at Santa Catalina: Hispanic Designs for Colonial America, David Hurst Thomas
II. Native Americans and Europeans in Seventeenth-Century Southern New England
Sociopolitical Implications of Mortuary Ritual Remains in Seventeenth-Century Native Southern New England, Elise M. Brenner
From Myth to History, or Why King Philip’s Ghost Walks Abroad, Constance A. Crosby
III. The Archaeology of the Georgian Worldview and the Eighteenth-Century Beginnings of Modernity
Material Culture and Worldview in Colonial Anglo-America, James F. Deetz
The Georgian Order as the Order of Merchant Capitalism in Annapolis, Maryland, Mark P. Leone
Craft and Culture Change in the Eighteenth-Century Chesapeake, Barbara J. Little
Asymmetry and Recursive Meanings in the Eighteenth Century: The Morris Pound House, Ann M. Palkovich
IV. Nineteenth-Century Plantation Slavery and Its Aftermaths
Toward a Theory of Power for Historical Archaeology: Plantations and Space, Charles E. Orser, Jr.
An Archaeological Framework for Slavery and Emancipation, 1740–1880, Theresa A. Singleton
V. The Archaeology of Industrial Capitalism and Modern America
Meaning and the Built Environment: A Symbolic Analysis of a Nineteenth-Century Urban Site, Texas B. Anderson and Robert G. Moore
Steps to an Archaeology of Capitalism: Material Change and Class Analysis, Robert Paynter
Dialogues with the Dead: Ideology and the Cemetery, Randall H. McGuire