Schuyler/Church Under the direction of Dr. Robert Schuyler, Ms. Minette Church will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. She will excavate two abandoned farmsteads located in southeastern Colorado which were occupied in the 19th century. She will also examine the documentation associated with them. The occupants of each farm are known: one was Anglo-American, the other Hispanic. Archaeological investigation will entail four weeks of excavation at each site as well as examination of the artifacts that prior survey crews have systematically collected from the surface. The two homesteads will be mapped in detail with special attention paid to placement, orientation, spatial layout and construction of buildings and outbuildings and location of debris. To help determine land use, flotation samples and pollen cores will be collected. The results of the excavation of the homesteads, when combined with collections of oral histories, journals and other primary documentary sources will supply key information on the material culture and life at the household level. This research has two underlying goals. The first is to examine the role of ethnicity in adaptation. Groups from different cultural backgrounds moved to this rural region of Colorado to farm and herd livestock. Anthropologists and historians have speculated on similarities and differences in adaptation which occurred and related these both to different forms of social organization and distance travelled from point of origin. Some have argued that the single set of environmental conditions led to cultural convergence while others have postulated that distinct subcultures were maintained. MS Church will attempt to determine which view is correct. The second goal is a methodological one. Because written documentation exists for both sites, a good deal of a priori control is possible. Ms. Church wishes to examine the material remains which she collects and determine the extent to which they reflect ethnicit y. The methodology she develops and conclusions she draws will be uqeful in a number of archaeological situations. This work is important for several reasons. It will increase our understanding of a dynamic period in American history. It will shed new light on cultural adaptation and will assist in the training of a promising young scientist.
