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Beneath the Rising Sun: “Frenchness” and the Archaeology of Desire

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Abstract

This article takes the case of “rouge pot” fragments found in an archaeological context in New Orleans’ French Quarter associated with the circa 1822 Rising Sun Hotel and investigates the discourses and desires that shape our interpretations of artifacts. We argue that archaeological, historiographic, and public desires overlap and inform one another in a complex web of relations. In New Orleans, the particular web into which the archaeology of cosmetic jars and hotel sites can fall is spun by the ways in which the former French colonial capital is sexualized in both textbooks and folk songs.

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Acknowledgements

Shannon would like to thank several people who helped with the archaeological component of this project: Zach and Annie Chase, Phoebe France, Rebecca Graff, Ryan Gray, Priscilla Lawrence, Michelle Lelievre, Daniel McNaughton, Bettie Pendley, Melissa Rosenzweig, Jill-Karen Yakubik, and all the staff and volunteers affiliated with the Historic New Orleans Collection, Earth Search, and the University of New Orleans who assisted. The project would not have been undertaken without the logistical and financial support of the Historic New Orleans Collection. Shannon would also like to thank Jennifer Cole for the timely gift of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, though this was probably not the use intended. We would both like to thank Greg Waselkov and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments. And special gratitude goes to Beth Scott for her kind invitation and patience, which we tested.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA

    Shannon Lee Dawdy

  2. Department of History, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA

    Richard Weyhing

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  1. Shannon Lee Dawdy
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  2. Richard Weyhing
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Correspondence to Shannon Lee Dawdy.

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Dawdy, S.L., Weyhing, R. Beneath the Rising Sun: “Frenchness” and the Archaeology of Desire. Int J Histor Archaeol 12, 370–387 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-008-0073-7

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