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Date: | Tue, 18 Nov 1997 16:54:03 -0600 |
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I was glad to see Heather Grigg's professional response offering an
exchange of information to Stewart-Abernathy's attack on the NEw Orleans
Irish paper. I know the author and their work and, although there are
some legitimate questions to be raised, I was a little taken aback by
Stewart-Abernathy's venom.
The paper (and another on gender-related medicine consumption) was based
on data collected over 10 years ago in the most extensive archaeological
project ever undertaken in poor, neglected New Orleans. The data on over
34 properties in a 56 city block project area was collected and reported in
such a through and professional manner, that the project continues to
supply the single most important baseline on 19th-century immigrant
New Orleans.
I believe the author based their findings on a comparison of dozens of
identifiable Irish, German, Italian, and American households, so the
conclusions were not without local context. That still leaves the question
of whether the patent medicine was being consumed for medicinal or
alcoholic purposes. I suppose one could equally argue the Irish were a
bunch of hypochondriacs compared to their neighbors.
Questions of ethnicity are bound to raise hackles when old stereotypes appear
to be reinforced. The real question should be why or how Heather and the
author came up with similar results in the data but totally different
conclusions. Is archaeology telling us anything here or can the data be
manipulated either to reinforce or to refute ethnic stereotypes according to
the persuasiveness of the author? When data do seem to reinforce stereo-
types, do we suppress this information because it might be mis-used, or
is it useless because it is only reiterating "common knowledge"?
Thoughtful responses in a spirit of inquiry are welcome. Vituperative
attacks on potential competitors are not.
-- Shannon Lee Dawdy (BTW, of "poor drunken Irish" extraction)
Greater New Orleans Archaeology Program
University of New Orleans
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