Tu sais, mon vieux Jean-Pierre: Essays on the Archaeology and History of New France and Canadian Culture in Honour of Jean-Pierre Chrestien

Tu sais, mon vieux Jean-Pierre is inspired by the work of archaeologist Jean-PierreChrestien (1949–2008), who worked hand-in-glove with a generation ofresearchers in helping to unearth unexpected and always interesting aspectsof New France.

Contributions focus first upon the door to New France in the Gulf ofSt. Lawrence, Newfoundland and Acadia. A second set of essays movefurther up the St. Lawrence and into the heartland of the continent.

Thefinal section examines aspects of Canadian culture: popular art, religion andcommunication. The essays share a curiosity for material culture, a carefulregard for detail and nuance that forms the grain of New France studies,and sensitivity to the overall context that is part and parcel of how history

proceeds on the local or regional scale.

Happily we can now dispense with old-fashioned and facile generalizationsabout the allegedly absent bourgeoisie, the purportedly deficient commercialethic of the habitants and the so-called underlying military character of thecolony and get down the business of understanding real people and theirpossessions in context.