Conspicuous consumption in a pre-Georgian society: An analysis of Feature 2 Site 18CH354, Charles County, Maryland

Colonial Chesapeake Society, in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, saw a series of changes in the standards of living, including social, political and economic transformations. This thesis addresses the advent of a "conspicuous consumption" at an early-to-mid eighteenth century domestic site in Southern Maryland. Using Deetz's (1977) model of Georginization, Carson's (1994) interpretation of the consumer revolution, and Gibb's (1996) model of consumer behavior, this thesis attempts to identify changing consuming patterns in the material culture associated with foodways (faunal remains and ceramics), to understand some of these early transformations in colonial society. In order to identify the advent of a consumer revolution, in this thesis I analyze the faunal remains and ceramics recovered from a sealed context trash-filled cellar hole to look for changes in artifact consumption patterning; it is believed that as worldviews changed from folk to courtly, so too did the tastes and preferences for various recipes and cuisines, as well as the need for more specialized wares.