Mark,
I am not sure if I am late to this conversation, but thought I would add my two cents and hopefully help in your discussion.
Mirrors can have a number of meanings within a captive landscape. For example, I believe (although dated) work by Robert Farris Thompson - Flash of the Spirit - talks about the material aspects of reflective pieces.
Although, most folks engaging with African Diaspora materiality/archaeology would refer to places such as Brazil and Cuba (where the color blue is also associated with the Yoruba/Lucumi deity named Yemonja or Yemoja - or the Catholic saint Our Lady of Regla, who lives in the Ocean - also important in terms of the Transatlantic Slave Trade). There are not as many sites that can point directly to material related to Yoruba or Candomble' practice, there has been similar material found within the borders of the United States. Refer to Maria Franklin's work at Rich Neck Plantation on spoons as reflective pieces worn around the neck to ward off evil spirits and bad energy.
As Thompson and others have noted the reflective properties of a mirror are sometimes associated with water and the color blue. Also, refer to the significance within African Cosmology and the symbolism of water as a boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead. So, mirrors (which are still used today for the same reasons) are reflexive and protective to all who wear or hang them on a wall or door.
Thanks for reading and apologies for the length.
"Today more than ever, scholars must produce scholarship for the public."
- W. E. B. Du Bois
Whitney Battle-Baptiste, Ph.D.
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Director, W. E. B. Du Bois Center @ UMass Amherst
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology
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________________________________
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 27, 2017 10:11 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: mirrors etc. recovered from slave contexts
Mirrors play an important part in Afro-American religious symbolism in Brazil. I believe that they are4 associated with Amanda, the goddess of the sea and love.
Bob Hoover
-----Original Message-----
From: Lynsey Bates <[log in to unmask]>
To: HISTARCH <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tue, Jun 27, 2017 4:41 am
Subject: Re: mirrors etc. recovered from slave contexts
Hi Mark - At daacs.org, we have data on over 80 sites of slavery from 18th and 19th century contexts in North America and the Caribbean. To find information on mirror fragments, we suggest running 'Artifact Query 3' which you can access here: http://daacsrc.org/homepage/aq_three?daacs=y In DAACS, mirror fragments fall under the 'All Other Artifacts' category and in this section you can select 'Mirror' as the form to search on. This search returns the mirror glass records and any additional attributes you select, such as count, weight, and manufacturing technique. You can aggregate the search results by context, site, or chronological phase. You can also narrow down the search by selecting which sites or regions you want to query. Information about each site is available in the 'Archaeological Sites' portion of the website (https://www.daacs.org/archaeological-sites-map/). You can then download the query results into excel or data analysis software. Thanks for posting!
Best,
Lynsey
Lynsey Bates, Ph.D.
Senior Archaeological Analyst
The Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery
Monticello, Charlottesville, VA
www.daacs.org<http://www.daacs.org>
www.daacsrc.org<http://www.daacsrc.org>
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