Identifier

etd-01242005-151053

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Geography and Anthropology

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

The thesis project developed from preliminary archaeological testing in 1999 at site 16WBR45, the original location of the Aillet House. The results of the testing were informative as they suggested the placement of the house and attested to casual activity on the porch. However, the results certainly did not answer the need for a more discerning interpretation of the historic house museum known as the Aillet House, currently on display at the West Baton Rouge Parish Museum. I collaborated with the museum in 2004 to bring to their current interpretive program anthropological insights gained from archaeological remains, an architectural survey of the structure, a social analysis of the house, and a social history of the lives of the two families. The identity of the house was explored in three stages related to the construction and development of the house. The Acadian Cottage was constructed during the Landry period, circa 1830, and their tenancy illustrates the social and political life of an Acadian small planter before the Civil War. The material identities detected within the home illustrate a contest between the presentation of ethnic allegiances and cultural stability. During the Aillet period at the turn of the century, the house was modernized with the addition of a kitchen and dining room. It was determined that some materials lost their power to convey meaning in face of the increased valuation of mass-produced goods. Despite the changes of material identities, certain Acadian continuities were detected in the use of the attic space as a sleeping chamber and the use of the gallery as an outside room. The house is now presented at the Parish museum as a monument to the French-Creole life in antebellum South Louisiana. An opportunity exists for community involvement in the necessary reconstruction of social memory. An exhibit illustrating the lives of the Landry and Aillet families as well as notable changes through time in room use and in material identity will contribute to the museum’s interpretive program.

Date

2005

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Paul Farnsworth

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.2835

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