Artifacts of ambition : how the 17th-century middle class at Port Royal, Jamaica, foreshadowed the consumer revolution /
On June 7[th], 1692, a devastating earthquake struck the English colonial trading city of Port Royal Jamaica, causing two-thirds of the city to sink beneath Kingston Harbor. This study utilizes artifacts recovered by the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University during more than...
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| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
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[Place of publication not identified] :
[publisher not identified] ;
2004.
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| Online Access: | http://proxy.library.tamu.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=765928431&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=2945&RQT=309&VName=PQD |
| Summary: | On June 7[th], 1692, a devastating earthquake struck the English colonial trading city of Port Royal Jamaica, causing two-thirds of the city to sink beneath Kingston Harbor. This study utilizes artifacts recovered by the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University during more than a decade of underwater excavations at Port Royal, combined with a study of probate inventories and other primary documents. It is argued that the people of Port Royal were utilizing conspicuous display of luxury items as a strategy for social and economic advancement, and that the degree of luxury consumption evident at Port Royal was not matched among comparable wealth groups in England or the Chesapeake for another twenty to forty years. This study asserts that particular social contexts and unique historical circumstances at Port Royal facilitated the early adoption of consumerist behaviors, and that the identification of these factors provides important insight into the circumstances surrounding the later adoption of these behaviors throughout the English-colonial world, in the seminal cultural shift scholars have termed the consumer revolution. |
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| Item Description: | Vita. "Major Subject: Anthropology". |
| Physical Description: | ix, 193 leaves : illustrations, maps ; 28 cm. Issued also on microfiche from University Microfilm Inc. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (leaves 182-192). |