Thanks tor everybody who replied to my request.  You've all been a great help.
rob

"BROWN MARLEY R. III ... RESEARCH" wrote:

> Marley R. Brown III
> Director of Archaeological Research
> Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
> Box 1776
> Williamsburg, Virginia 23187-1776
>
> e-mail:     [log in to unmask]
> office:    757) 220-7331
> fax:        (757) 220-7990
>
> ----------
> From:   HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY on behalf of ochiai
> Reply To:       HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY
> Sent:   Friday, March 31, 2000 9:42 AM
> To:     [log in to unmask]
> Subject:        assimilation studies in archaeology
>
> I'm looking for studies of assimilation or the Americanization process
> within the field of historical archaeology.  Can anyone recommend any
> citations?
> Rob Fitts
>
> Rob:
>
>                 An article called "What happened to the Silent Majority? Research Strategies for studying dominant group material culture in late nineteenth-century material culture," a paper I wrote with Adrian and Mary Praetzellis for the 1981 SHA meetings in New Orleans tried to explicitly address issues of "assimilationist" pressures" deriving from advertizing and marketing.  It was also intended as an early call for considering models of consumer behavior in historical archaeology, one subsequently addressed more completely by Spencer-Wood and others.
>
>                 In an interesting and somewhat perverse revisionist turn, this paper, published in Beaudry's reader on Documentary Archaeology, has been identified in the 1990s as a "pro dominant culture tract"  (hints of white supremacy even) by various scholars who should know better.  In any event, the paper is about the subject you mention in your inquiry.  Of course, much of George Miller's work falls into the same area insofar as ceramics are concerned.
>
>                 Watch out. I have learned through being told what I really meant to say twenty years ago that this is a potentially dangerous topic.