Practice Molds Place: Communities of Pottery Production and Situated Identities at Location 3 (AgHk-54)
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Date
2017-01-06
Authors
Suko, Amanda
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Waterloo
Abstract
The archaeological study of Late Woodland communities in southern Ontario has identified two
spatially and culturally distinct manifestations known as the Western Basin and Ontario
Iroquoian Traditions. Recently, the emergence of sites along an interstice between these two
manifestations has invited study of the potential for socio-material syncretization within such a
‘borderland’ context. Given such circumstances in the contemporary present, multiple
descendant groups in the province may wish to exercise stewardship over such sites and the
materials contained therein. As discussed in Chapter One, I interviewed select members of the
Bkejwanong and Six Nations communities in order to generate Indigenous insights and comment
on the appropriate ethical standards and a framework for the Indigenous stewardship of
archaeological resources. Furthermore, in Chapter Two, this study adopts the coupling of
materiality theory and the communities of practice approach, along with an attribute-based
analysis of pottery form and decoration in discussing communities of practice and notions of
identity at Location 3, a thirteenth century ‘borderland’ site near Arkona, Ontario. I suggest this
site was inhabited by newly configured, mobile potting communities who perceived vessel
production as a field of co-participation and learning. This, in turn, resulted in the emergence of
situated social identities and notions of place, along with the materialization of a short-lived,
localized design repertoire composed of combined elements from neighbouring potters.
Description
Keywords
Ontario archaeology, borderland studies, materiality, archaeology, communities of practice