This original book examines seventeenth-century English North American attitudes toward the acquisition and use of wealth. James G. Gibb uses a consumer behavior model - based on recent developments in contextual theory and analysis of period literature - to interpret the acquisition patterns among several households in the Chesapeake Bay region.

His new, critical approach recognizes and addresses the role of conscious individual action in history and the importance of material culture in the construction of identities. Gibb analyzes data from domestic archaeological sites in Maryland and Virginia to interpret patterns in the construction of household identities and to place them within the social and cultural context of the region.

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The Archaeology of Wealth applies a variety of analytical methods to data drawn from legal history, geography, period literature, political tracts, first-hand accounts of life in the colonies, forensics, and archaeology. This interdisciplinary study provides a novel theory and method for examining seventeenth-century colonial life in North America that describes the period in terms of the actual beliefs and actions of the settlers.

Its findings will be valuable to archaeologists and historians in both the academic and private sectors.