| This dissertation explores the multifaceted social identities that may have been created in the diverse mission communities of Spanish California. Pluralism existed among the colonizing and indigenous groups living together at various institutions in Alta California during the Mission Period, 1769--1834. Faced with this cultural entanglement, I explore how people formed communities of daily practice, out of which cultural and social identities may have emerged. Specifically, I examine the patterned ways variable groups of people shared techniques concerning the construction of ceramic Plainwares.;I describe the patterned ways communities produced pottery in some of the northernmost Spanish colonial institutions in California. Using material science techniques, I reconstruct six steps of the ceramic manufacturing sequence. Petrographic analysis was used to describe clay and temper choices. Experimental archaeology and attribute analysis helped to determine methods of construction. When possible, vessel forms were reconstructed from rim sherds. Finishing and decoration techniques were interpreted based on observation of diagnostic attributes. Finally, firing methods were reconstructed based on multiple lines of evidence including porosity, hardness, and refire experiments.;The results suggest that potters within mission communities shared a technological style with regard to the construction of ceramic vessels. Social identities structured around each institution may have emerged out of these communities of ceramic practice. The technological style of ceramic production at each mission uniquely blended ceramic traditions of diverse colonial peoples and, sometimes, local indigenous container industries. Further, I argue that the shared participation in communities of practice within missions suggests that indigenous peoples reinterpreted this object of colonialism through their own eyes. Just as in precolonial times, native peoples may have constructed social identities tied to place; in this historical moment, however, that place was a mission rather than a village or tribe. Variability in some steps of the production sequence did occur within mission communities. For example, ones gender, social status or age may have influenced how one formed or finished their pot. This study of Plainware technological style demonstrates that identity is constantly translated from an indigenous sensibility and often reformed in syncretic ways under unique culture contact situations. |
