Abstract
This thesis looks at the expression of ethnicity in the archaeological record, through an analysis of domestic architecture in South Otago, an area settled predominantly by Scottish immigrants. At one level this study is concerned with broad anthropological questions about the nature of ethnicity and the extent to which it can be recognized through the archaeological record. At another it is concerned with details of the history of a specific region of New Zealand, as part of the increasing interest in material evidence for European colonization.
Based on a sample of 269 dwellings and 43 other buildings collected from historical sources and field surveys throughout South Otago, it compares the differences between Scottish and non-Scottish dwellings. It shows that over the period from 1840 to the end of the 1920s immigrants built and lived in the same types of dwellings, and used the same construction materials, despite their nationality. If immigrants carried mental constructs about how a house should be built, they were not able to translate it into the physical product. Local factors were a stronger selection pressure than cultural background, as ethnicity was suppressed in the domestic architecture of South Otago. Nevertheless a strong Scottish local flavour developed in most other areas of daily life, through their relationship to the land, religion, education, literature, music and recreation. The pattern of domestic architecture in South Otago instead mirrored development throughout the colony, to form part of the vernacular architecture of New Zealand.