Looking East: Muslim Identity in the Archaeological Record of American Enslavement

Kacie Allen

Date of Award

2009

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Baram, Uzi

Keywords

Archaeology, Slavery, Islam

Area of Concentration

Anthropology

Abstract

A significant number of those Africans enslaved in the Americas were Muslim. Archaeological investigation has yet to be made concerning their story. This thesis explores the archaeology of Islam to provide a foundation for understanding the materiality of Muslim identity as it appears in the context of American enslavement, and the historical circumstances which resulted in significant numbers of African Muslims becoming enslaved in the Americas. Drawing on the documentary record, it relates a selection of the life stories of enslaved African American Muslims. In pursuit of a critical, explanatory, and emancipatory archaeology, an examination of artifacts recovered from contexts of African and African American enslavement in North America is made. A model of Diaspora analysis is applied to a case in Long Island, New York which weighs Islam as a potential cultural interpretation for a particular set of artifacts. It is evident that distinctly Muslim expressions are visible in the archaeological record at sites of African enslavement in the Americas. Moreover, future African Diaspora studies should consider the influence of the tradition of Islam as they attempt to recover meaning from the archaeological record.

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