2.4 Jamestown and the Myth of the Sovereign Family
What is the “traditional American family?” Popular images from the colonial and pioneer past suggest an isolated and self-sufficient nuclear family as the center of American identity and the source of American strength. But the idea of early American self-sufficiency is a myth. Caro Pirri tells the story of the precarious Jamestown settlement and how its residents depended on each other and on Indigenous Americans for survival. Early American history can help us imagine new kinds of interdependent and multi-generational family structures as an antidote to the modern crisis of loneliness and alienation.
Episode released Nov 22, 2023.
Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Caro Pirri, Assistant Professor of English, University of Pittsburgh
Art Direction and Animation: Dimitrios Salonikios
Featured Scholars: Jean Feerick, Professor of English, John Carroll University
Steven Mentz, Professor of English, St. John’s University
Special thanks to: Molly Warsh
Resources
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The transcript for Episode 2.4 is available here.
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This episode's Teaching Aid is available here.
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Brooks, David. “The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake.” The Atlantic. February 10, 2020.
Blackstock, Cindy (Gitxsan First Nation). “The Emergency of the Breath of Life Theory.” Journal of Social Work and Ethics 8.1: Spring 2011.
Coons, John E. “In Defense of the Sovereign Family.” First Things. December 1, 2008.
Joyce, Kathryn. Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement. Boston: Beacon Press, 2010.
Morris, M. Michelle Jarrett. Under Household Government: Sex and Family in Puritan Massachusetts. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013.
Ravilochan, Teju. “Could the Blackfoot Wisdom That Inspired Maslow Guide Us Now?” Medium (blog). July 13, 2022.
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Valley, Jackie. “32 States and Counting: Why Parents Bills of Rights Are Sweeping US.” Christian Science Monitor. Accessed November 6, 2023.
Wilbur, Matika (Swinomish and Tulalip) and Adrienne Keene (Cherokee Nation). All My Relations (podcast). Accessed November 6, 2023.
