Irish-Catholic Immigrant Life In South Bend, Indiana: Refined Earthenwares and the 19th-Century Social Worlds of the Midwest

Understanding the significance of migrants’ material culture

“…Recent migrations demonstrate that there is no straight line by which migrants are or are not integrated into the communities they join (Azuma, 2005;Brighton, 2009;Rabikowska and Burell, 2009;Stearns, 2006). Instead, there are series of complex negotiations as migrants maintain elements of their former lives and adopt practices and material objects from their new host communities (Greenwood and Slawson, 2008;Kivisto, 2004;Rotman, 2012). Furthermore, as Rotman (2010Rotman ( , 2012 and Ross (2012) found, objects can have very different meaning depending on their context-an object or practice within a household carries different weight and significance than actions and objects used outside.…”

“…Instead, there are series of complex negotiations as migrants maintain elements of their former lives and adopt practices and material objects from their new host communities (Greenwood and Slawson, 2008;Kivisto, 2004;Rotman, 2012). Furthermore, as Rotman (2010Rotman ( , 2012 and Ross (2012) found, objects can have very different meaning depending on their context-an object or practice within a household carries different weight and significance than actions and objects used outside. The objects that migrants use in public also may be part of a conscious strategy to appear as if they are assimilating into a dominant culture (Orser, 1996: 201) and archaeologists need to be cautious in assuming that the dominant society's norms and values were accepted alongside their material culture in migrant communities (Camp, 2011).…”