Une archéologie sociale des Iroquoiens de Saint-Anicet, la question identitaire / A Social Archaeology of the Saint-Anicet Iroquoians: A Question of Identity

The Saint-Anicet region has received continuous archaeological attention between 1992 and 2017, resulting in a large dataset on three village sites. The McDonald, Droulers, and Mailhot-Curran sites represent a local sequence covering the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries. The material culture, specifically remains of longhouses, corn cultivation, and a rich ceramic assemblage, clearly indicates an Iroquoian identity. While the main goal of fieldwork was to build a social archaeology based on the extensive excavation of longhouses, fieldwork was guided by the conviction that Saint-Anicet Iroquoians were members of a distinct group, identified as St. Lawrence Iroquoians by archaeologists. This study will review the data and arguments supporting this specific cultural identity while problems linked to this identity building will be acknowledged.