Edgefield face vessels in historic and modern contexts: The re-contextualization of material culture

In order to examine the changing roles of material culture in identity production, I am exploring hypotheses related both to 19th century face vessels and modern vessels made in the southern United States. First, if 19th century face vessels did not represent a variation in decorative style of non-face vessels, then measured attributes such as height, maximum circumference, and basal circumference will differ significantly between face vessels and non-face vessels. If differences exist in size, face vessels might still represent a decorative variation found only on vessels of a certain size, and I would expect in that case to see a similar percentage of face vessels and non-face vessels of that size. These hypotheses aim at clarifying the relationship of applied clay faces to function of the vessel. The second aspect of my research problem is more open-ended: why do modern potters make face vessels, and how do modern face vessels fit within the context of what is considered traditional, utilitarian pottery? Why did modern face vessels become a collectors' item for sale when most likely the enslaved people making them in Edgefield made them as personal items? The methodology for testing the first hypothesis involves conducting a limited statistical analysis of the measurements for a sample of non-face vessels and face vessels. The sample was chosen using a judgmental sampling strategy. The statistical analysis includes a non-paired t-test to determine the statistical significance of differences between samples. Analysis of interviews with potters is based on a grounded theory approach in which themes are compared across interviews, and differing opinions are closely analyzed. The data for 19th century vessels comes from previous research conducted by staff at the McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina in the 1980s. All measurements of historic face vessels and non-face vessels come from the survey conducted by McKissick staff. Data regarding modern vessels comes from interviews conducted by Charles Mack of the University of South Carolina in 1981 as well as interviews conducted by myself in 2008. I argue that face vessels were made in Edgefield by black potters for personal expression, but today are made by mostly white potters for both financial gain and the expression of Southern identity.