 | Christopher C. FennellPublication Abstracts | |
| | Christopher C. FennellPublication Abstracts | |
 "Crossroads and Cosmologies: Diasporas and Ethnogenesis in the New World," University Press of Florida (2007).This book utilizes theories concerning modes of symbolic expression, formation and maintenance of social group identities, and the role of individual creativity and innovation, to analyze the past creation and use of material expressions of core symbols within the diasporas of European and African cultures, such as the BaKongo, Yoruba, Fon, and Palatine German, among others. This book explores the divergent ways these creative processes played out at sites in North America, the Caribbean, and South America. I also examine beliefs and practices among European Americans in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, principally from archaeology sites in the United States, and the ways that forms of instrumental symbolism reflected in artifacts from those sites were shaped by dynamics similar to those seen in African diasporas. These independently developed beliefs and practices from Europe and Africa came to meet at "crossroads" of the New World. |
| "BaKongo Identity and Symbolic Expression in the Americas," an invited chapter in The Archaeology of Atlantic Africa and the African Diaspora, edited by Toyin Falola and Akin Ogundiran, Indiana University Press (2007). This article analyzes the past creation and use of material expressions of core symbols within the diaspora of BaKongo religious beliefs in regions affected by the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Utilizing theories concerning modes of symbolic expression, formation and maintenance of social group identities, and the role of individual creativity and innovation, this analysis examines an apparent divergence in the way these creative processes played out at sites in North America, the Caribbean and South America. The use of private, instrumental symbolism is prevalent in artifacts reflecting BaKongo religious beliefs uncovered at African-American sites in North America. This contrasted significantly with the material culture and symbolism of African-American groups in Caribbean and South American locations, such as Haiti and Brazil. In those locations outside the United States, new, highly embellished symbolism was developed out of the blending of diverse African religions, including the BaKongo, Yoruba and Dahomean belief systems. These embellished symbols were often displayed publicly and in ways likely intended to signal new social networks and group identities. |
| "Molded Malevolence: Instrumental Symbolism Rendered in Clay," an invited article in Ceramics in America, Vol. 3, pp. 270-273, University Press of New England and the Chipstone Foundation (2003). This article examines an example of the material culture of folk religion beliefs and practices in nineteenth century Virginia. Such archaeological interpretations of past meaning systems should be based on the closest fit possible with available evidence of the attributes of such material culture and the context in which it was most likely created and used. Applying such an interpretative framework, this article analyzes an example of instrumental symbolism uncovered at a northern Virginia archaeology site. This material culture is initially evocative of an interpretation that it was created in accordance with particular African-American beliefs and practices, but is most persuasively interpreted as a past expression of German-American folk religion beliefs. |
| "Group Identity, Individual Creativity and Symbolic Generation in a BaKongo Diaspora," International Journal of Historical Archaeology, Vol. 7, Issue 1, pp. 1-31, Kluwer Academic & Plenum Publishers (2003). This article applies theories of group dynamics and individual agency to past material expressions of core symbols within particular African-American religious beliefs. The past creation and use of such artifacts is analyzed using theories concerning modes of symbolic expression, the interplay of dominant and non-dominant religions, formation and maintenance of social group identities, and the role of individual creativity and innovation within those processes. This analysis demonstrates that changes in the form and use of BaKongo religious symbols in the material culture of African Americans resulted from the interplay of individual innovations and the creation of new social relationships. |
| "Conjuring Boundaries: Inferring Past Identities from Religious Artifacts," International Journal of Historical Archaeology, Vol. 4, Issue 4, pp. 281-313, Kluwer Academic & Plenum Publishers (2000). This article provides a detailed examination of commonalities between folk religion beliefs and practices of African-American and European-American ethnic groups. Interpretations concerning the ethnic group association of religious artifacts uncovered at eighteenth- and nineteenth-century archaeological sites in the mid-Atlantic region must be based on a clearer articulation of the interplay of three issues: the general dynamics of ethnic group boundedness; how material culture communicates such ethnic identities; and how religious practices support or subvert ethnic group boundaries. A variety of protective and malevolent folk religion practices likely functioned in different ways in intergroup and intragroup settings. |
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