“all the friends of America’s Brittish intrest”: A queer approach to kinship within an 18th-century British-allied bioarchaeological multiple-interment site

Abstract

Within bioarchaeology, the physical study of human skeletal remains to interpret past human experience, kinship has primarily been studied as a biogenetic system in which genealogy dictates how we conceptualize and identify our kin from non-kin or relatives from non-relatives. However, biogenetic relatedness does not always equate to kinship, and instead, the queer theory concept of kin-making which involves purposeful acts of care, shared experiences, commensality, and ritual, should be used to explore how kin are created and maintained over time. This interdisciplinary research project explores kinship and kin-making among archaeological human skeletal remains buried in a multiple-interment site within the cellar of the Ste. Marie house property at the Fortress of Louisbourg, an 18th-century colonial site in Cape Breton, Canada. Specifically, this dissertation examines four lines of evidence; stable isotope values extracted from the human skeletal remains, mortuary patterns recorded upon excavation, personal adornments buried with the archaeological individuals, and the abundant historical archive providing contextual information. These sources are used to interpret how kin were created and maintained between and among the dead who were buried in the cellar and the living who interred them.