Announcing the Final Examination of Ms. Deborah L. Ziel for the degree of Master of Arts in Anthropology.
Thesis title: “Which Way to the Jook Joint?: Historical Archaeology of a Polk County, Florida Turpentine Camp”
The extraction and distillation of pine sap for the naval stores industry reached peak production in the early decades of the 20th century. After emancipation, the industry employed African American labor in the long leaf pine forests of the southeastern United States under a similarly oppressive system of debt peonage. Laborers rented company housing and were paid in scrip, a monetary system that forced them to use the company commissary and pay inflated prices, resulting in an endless cycle of debt. Despite the oppressive circumstances of debt peonage labor, African Americans developed venues known as “jook joints” where laborers congregated on weekends to socialize, dance, drink, gamble, and fight.
In Polk County, Florida, the turpentine camp of Nalaka was in operation for nine years beginning in 1919. Although no structures survive, artifact scatters from the 1920s remain in situ. No known historical records exist to document the spatial arrangement of the structures at Nalaka. This study reconstructs the layout of the camp based upon artifact provenience, secondary ethnographic sources, and historical documents, to determine whether Nalaka supported a jook joint, and if so, where it was.
Outline of Studies:
Major: Anthropology
Educational Career:
B.S., 1985, Bowling Green State University
B.Arch., 1989, Kent State University
Committee in Charge:
Dr. John Walker, Chair
Dr. Rosalyn Howard
Dr. S. Stacy Barber
Approved for distribution by John Walker, Committee Chair, on October 18, 2013
The public is welcome to attend.
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