Understanding cultural change through the vernacular: Creolization in Louisiana

A diachronic examination of the emic meanings of “creole” in Louisiana reveals a dynamic and complex social identity that is not easily dissected into the etic (or Anglo-American emic) categories of race, class, or ethnicity. In fact, outsider misconceptions about Louisiana creoles have been incorporated into recent anthropological definitions of creolization. This study explores the vernacular understandings of creole through three generational shifts in Louisiana spanning the early-18th through mid-19th centuries. A comparison of these vernacular definitions with the results of archaeological excavations at two creole sites in New Orleans helps define three types of creolization: transplantation, ethnic acculturation, and hybridization. These are transitions that occurred in the self-fashioning of Louisianans as expressed through their houses, gardens, clothes, food, and household goods. Adopting a native perspective exposes the roles that worldview and individual agency play in shaping processes of cultural change.