“Bones and Ashie Remaines”: Early Modern Critical Antiquarianisms

Abstract

This essay considers the methodology involved in John Weever’s type of seventeenth-century English antiquarianism, which includes observation and speculation that use literary texts and historical information to understand the past. This work is a distantly related example of what might be called “critical antiquarianism.” This methodology, often used by those interested in premodern critical race studies, capaciously collects archival records and material, including literary texts and historical artifacts, in hopes of recording a longer history of people of color. Surprisingly, Weever’s resolute act of capacious antiquarianism also assists current and future scholars in their own quests to understand England’s multiracial past through his notes, and materials, that occasionally intersect with research questions about race.