Susan Buck Sutton
Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis

The Ruins of Engagement: Rural Landscapes and Greek-American Immigration

The ruins of 19^th and early 20^th century rural Greece tell a story that undercuts common assumptions concerning Greek-American immigration. By exploring such abandoned kalivia, hamlets, and villages, archaeologists enter into some of the most critical debates on American ethnic history and identity.

This paper presents what the Keos, Southern Argolid, and Nemea Valley archaeological surveys have found concerning settlement abandonment and creation during the modern period. What emerges is not the straightforward story of rural depopulation that is the foundation myth for American ethnicity. The abandoned structures encountered by these surveys tell a complex tale of entrepreneurship, engagement in international markets, and considerable rural mobility preceding the great migration to the U.S. This reverses the unexamined belief that Greek peasants had been deeply rooted before their abrupt migration to the U.S., a condition presumed to have shaped their adaptation in powerful ways.

These surveys reveal, instead, that rural settlement abandonment was matched by countervailing processes of new settlement foundation in the modern period. They also reveal that many small settlements were fleeting in duration, failed entrants in a complex contest of settlement development in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. Those residents who left for the U.S. had strong skills of familial entrepreneurship, community building, and more than a passing understanding of Western markets and practices. This understanding recasts their adaptation in the U.S. and opens new ways for archaeologists, Greek-Americans, and those who now inhabit rural Greece to understand the common world that has shaped them all.