ABOUT THIS PROJECT (Home)

CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THE PAST
Many pasts? The words we use

DIFFERENT "VOICES"
Archaeology
History
Ethnography
Community
Media
YOU! (Archaeology and the Internet)
see also:
FEEDBACK FORM
QUESTIONNAIRE (Adults)
QUESTIONNAIRE (Kids)
PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
(Descendants, archaeologists and others)
PEOPLE FROM THE PAST
(names, genealogies, etc.)
The LJP Historical Society
(about community collaboration)
KIDS!

OTHER USEFUL STUFF
PHOTO GALLERY
MAPS
Bibliography
Definitions
Links to other sites
Search (names, places, etc.)
Table of Contents
(lists all site links)

Levi Jordan Plantation

Conversations about the Past

by Carol McDavid

For more on some problems with the words we use in these conversations, go to Words.

Whose pasts? Many pasts...

This plantation has many histories. This is not to say that "historical facts" don't exist, but it IS to say that the meanings of those facts are perceived differently by different people who have different points of view. Archaeologists see the same "facts" differently than people with different sorts of training, just as different descendants will see certain "facts" differently from each other. And you may have another point of view altogether! We hope this web site will allow all of these different voices to "speak".

How to participate in the conversation...

• Go to the Feedback form, or the questionnaires to begin or continue a conversation (with us or each other).

• Or see our content pages to learn about the archaeologies, histories, oral histories, genealogies and ethnographies of the people who lived on the Levi Jordan Plantation. You can decide to enter into the conversation from those pages too (see the links at the side and bottom of each page).

The Big Picture

The organization overseeing this project, the Levi Jordan Plantation Historical Society, has addressed some of this in its Mission Statement and Statement of Belief. Have a look if you want more of the Big Picture of what we're up to. Or, go to Archaeology and the Internet, or to a report about this project, for more behind-the-scenes information. Also attached is a short essay entitled "Truth Claims, Conversations and Borderlands: Archaeology and the Internet", written during the early stages of this research.

From time to time we will also post information about how all this is working. The first such posting (which will be on this page) will probably be in mid-1999.