Abstract

How did the early modern consumer economy transmit consumption-based social identities of status and gender and standards of gentility, refinement, and propriety? How and why did new fashions become common necessities? With these issues in mind, three households are considered in two archaeological studies of colonial Newport: the Pratts, Tates, and Browns. Archaeologists use artifacts and organic remains alongside visual, oral, and written records to reveal life and experience in these households. In the following articles we will address, archaeologically, daily experiences of status, identity, and community in Newport, an early modern commercial town. The sources we as archaeologists use may be the same as those used by other disciplines, but a focus on things distinctly shapes both the questions we ask and the answers we find.

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