From motherland to fatherland in Canada: The archaeology of the Patriot inthe 18th century

The purpose here is to trace the first forms taken on by the French Canadia n 'Patriot', from the Seven Years' War to the end of the eighteenth century . By studying discursive reinvestments in concepts such as 'patrie' ('fathe rland'), 'matrie' ('motherland') and 'fratrie' (roughly 'sibling system', w ith connotations of 'brotherhood'), it is possible to follow the developmen t of a feeling of collective belonging among Canadiens after the Conquest. The corpus includes private and public archives as well as the first Canadi an printed documents and the constitutional texts of the period. This archa eology of the Patriot deals with both male and female Canadiens and Canadie nnes, and also with a felling that might be defined as 'proto-national' amo ng the British and Americans, during a period in which our southern neighbo urs went through a war of independence and the overall fate of North Americ a was decided.