Class Notes 02/14/2017

Plimoth Plantation

The Fort/Meeting House

·         All men 16-60 were required to serve in the militia

·         The men who were on duty watch for enemies and fires

·         The fort was built in 1622

·         A small military building with openings to fire through

·         Helm, another name for helmet

·         Breastplate, covers chest

·         Bandolier, pocket belt for holding ammunition

·         Backsword/cutlass: with cutting edge

·         Defensive site and Meeting house for religious services and as a courthouse

·         Fire 1.5mi

·         Moat, you can see ongoing ships

Home in the Village

·         Fro, tool to split wood

·         Beetle, a heavy wooden hammer

·         Thwart saw. A saw used to cut across timber

·         The wooden halves were fashioned

·         Iron heads, was brought on Mayflower

·         Thatching, the craft of making a roof from dry vegetation from reeds

·         Interior walls were from clay

·         Tares-keep the weeds out

·         Pilgrims grew vegetables and herbs in gardens

·         Herbs were dried and kept for winter

·         Mixed sage with salt to clean their teeth

·         Women and daughters tended to the gardens and helped with cornfields

·         Eel-trap

·         Grow Indian corn, use mortar and pestle

·         8-10 people could live there

·         Carving from England, too time-intensive for Pilgrims to produce themselves

·         Beds are set on floor

·         Mattresses with straw and feather

·         Lay the board “set the table”

·         Large napkins: shoulders for men, lap for women

First Landing

·         1620

·         Barricade around rock

·         No hard evidence that somebody stepped on this rock for the first time

What is authenticity?

Authenticity can be predicated on the way in which the original materials and building techniques were utilized? I think the Darwin Martin house which was reconstructed is more authentic because it was built to the original specifications of the blueprints, using the same materials including art-glass whereas the Plimoth site was constructed with electric saws, not the original man-powered tools of the colonial settlers

·         Spectrum of authenticity

·         If the process follows the intent of the creator, it is authentic?

·         Subject to inherent bias, not an absolute, personal perspective, not absolute

·         Objection: perspectives may be lost in the recreation of the Darwin Martin House, the voices of other authorities on the project may have been lost

·         2 spectrums: the way it is constructed, the story in history

·         Documents can make the story more authentic?

·         Preservation as a field has an obvious bias which is problematic and leads to a lot of conflicts

·         Every human being on this planet has a bias

·         Screen-printing on windows is modern-technology: temporal disconnect, not fully authentic

Bias

·         We encounter bias constantly

·         It may not be intentional

·         Will always inform these processes

·         The creation of history

·         What was save from the past is biased?

·         Who saves the past, who is the past saved for is biased?

Trump’s Misconceptions

·         All blacks are in crime infested inner cities?

·         Nostalgia for a simpler time

·         Everything was great in a disconnected past?

·         Everything now sucks—we need to go back to a better time?

Historic Writing

·         We aim for authentic tales of history, look at primary sources tinged with bias

·         Fear we are silencing some person