Consumer Behavior in Colonial Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1630-1760

This paper examines consumer behavior of the Massachusetts Bay seaport of Charlestown from 1630 to 1760. Probate inventories and archaeological excavation of residential sites provide the data. The material lives of consumers were structured by shifting cultural values which included an emphasis on the family as primary social unit as well as a value placed on the emerging new role of the individual. Consumer strategies including patina, innovation, and emulation both reflected and influenced the direction of culture change.