Rubbish, Relatives, and Residence: The Family Use of Middens

Beck, Margaret; Hill, Matthew E.

doi:10.1023/b:jarm.0000047316.02424.7c

Cited by 55 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…A few activities, such as winnowing rice in a basket to remove the chaff, produce so much debris that they may be conducted over a midden. Most middens receive trash from more than one household (Beck and Hill, 2004).…”

Section: Natural Habitation and Midden Contexts In Dalupamentioning

confidence: 99%

Midden formation and intrasite chemical patterning in Kalinga, Philippines

Beck

2007

Geoarchaeology

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Middens are surprisingly fluid entities in occupied communities, as shown by ethnoarchaeological research in Dalupa, Kalinga Province, northern Luzon, the Philippines. This study combines ethnoarchaeological observations of midden formation and disturbance in Dalupa with data from soils and sediments in natural, habitation, and midden contexts, including elemental data for 80 samples collected using inductively coupled plasma‐atomic emission spectroscopy. Most surface samples from habitation areas cluster with midden samples, although samples from the lower parts of theses profiles resemble samples from natural contexts around Dalupa. One explanation is a changing spatial distribution of active middens due to changes in house placement and occupation in Dalupa's history. Some habitation areas that chemically resemble middens may once have held middens, as suggested by the periodic changes in midden location from the cleaning and management of extramural space. Surface scatters of human and animal refuse throughout the habitation area may also contribute to this pattern. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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Section: Natural Habitation and Midden Contexts In Dalupamentioning

confidence: 99%

Midden formation and intrasite chemical patterning in Kalinga, Philippines

Beck

2007

Geoarchaeology

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“…This location has been used as an area of refuse disposal by domestic groups that inhabit that section of the village (houses 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5) for the past 10 years at least. Among the Asurini, the middens' use and localization are frequently related to the distribution of domestic groups within the village, an aspect that has already been observed in other contexts (Beck 2006;Beck and Hill 2004). Regarding the pits, it can be perceived that they are not regularly used in the village and, frequently, they are used by the domestic groups, as a rule, to deposit inorganic vestiges that do not deteriorate easily (e.g., cans, glass, plastic).…”

Section: Relationship Between Discard and The Spatial And Relational mentioning

confidence: 67%

Ceramic Technology of the Asurini do Xingu, Brazil: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Artifact Variability

Silva

2008

J Archaeol Method Theory

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This article presents some of the results of ethnoarchaeological research on ceramic technology I have conducted among the Asurini do Xingu, an Amazonian indigenous population inhabiting a village in the margins of the Xingu River, Pará, Brazil. Based on collected data, presented throughout the article, I discuss the reasons behind the formal, quantitative, spatial and relational variability of the Asurini ceramic vessels. This work will demonstrate that these distinct dimensions of variability are related to the potters' technological choices during the vessels' production process, the ceramic teaching-learning structure, and the type, frequency, method and context of use of the same vessels. I try to make clear the different practical and symbolic aspects that may influence the production, use, reuse, storage and discard processes of the vessels. Furthermore, I compare the Asurini context with other ethnographic contexts and try to distinguish regularities that may serve as interpretative references to the study of archaeological ceramic assemblages. Resumo Este artigo apresenta alguns resultados da pesquisa etnoarqueológica sobre tecnologia cerâmica que eu tenho conduzido entre os Asurini do Xingu, uma população ceramista amazônica, que ocupa uma aldeia às margens do rio Xingu, Pará, Brasil. A partir dos dados apresentados ao longo deste artigo, discuto os fatores responsáveis pela variabilidade formal, quantitativa, espacial e relacional das vasilhas cerâmicas Asurini. Este trabalho demonstrará que estas distintas dimensões da variabilidade estão relacionadas com as escolhas tecnológicas levadas a cabo pelas ceramistas durante o processo de produção das vasilhas cerâmicas e, ao mesmo tempo, com a estrutura de ensino-aprendizagem e o tipo, freqüência, método e contexto de uso das vasilhas. Tento esclarecer que diferentes aspectos práticos e simbólicos podem influenciar a produção, uso, reuso, estocagem e descarte das vasilhas. Além disso, comparo o contexto Asurini com outros contextos etnográficos e tento distinguir regularidades que possam servir como referências interpretativas para o estudo dos conjuntos arqueológicos cerâmicos.

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“…Ethnoarchaeological studies have tended to support such assumptions (Deal 1985;Hayden and Cannon 1983). Beck (2006) and Beck and Hill (2004) have recently documented that, in the Philippines, sherds deposited in middens were representative of overall composition of vessels in use. In Costa Rica, residents of a single isolated household transported their trash at least 10 m to dump it into a drainage ditch (Lange and Rydberg 1972:427-428).…”

Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The larger than expected mean size of the sherds and daub fragments may indicate that the construction fill used to build Mound 3 was collected early in the Conchas phase, and that midden and other materials were relatively quickly amassed and redeposited as fill. Alternatively, this pattern may be explained by the observations of Beck (2006) and Beck and Hill (2004) that burying trash provides protection from mechanical attrition.…”

Section: Mean Size Of Ceramic Sherds and Daub From Five Conchas-phasementioning

confidence: 99%

Early Mesoamerican Garbage: Ceramic and Daub Discard Patterns from Cuauhtémoc, Soconusco, Mexico

Rosenswig

2009

J Archaeol Method Theory

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Formation processes are all too infrequently addressed by archaeologists excavating in Mesoamerica. This paper examines refuse disposal patterns from the site of Cuauhtémoc on the Pacific coast of Chiapas, Mexico, to provide insight into how the site formed and how artifacts accumulated. This analysis uses materials dating between 1600-800 BCE which encompass the centuries before, during and after the late Early Formative or Early Olmec period (i.e., 1250-900 BCE). First, I employ sherds and daub from shared open-air middens and trash-filled pits to explore trash deposit formation through the 800 years that the site was occupied. Next, I use these same classes of data to make synchronic comparisons between five different depositional contexts dating to the Conchas phase (900-800 BCE). For all phases, these analyses demonstrate that pit features received more debris than openair middens and that material in the latter contexts were more broken up. Further, the low density of daub from late Early Formative period contexts suggests that distinctive architectural customs may have been practised during this time. Conchas phase refuse indicates that waste disposal locations physically separated an elite residential zone from the rest of society and that elite contexts were more intensively used. Accounting for the formation of archaeological deposits allows for more nuanced interpretations of this early Mesoamerican village.

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Rubbish, Relatives, and Residence: The Family Use of Middens

Cited by 55 publications

References 32 publications

Midden formation and intrasite chemical patterning in Kalinga, Philippines

Midden formation and intrasite chemical patterning in Kalinga, Philippines

Ceramic Technology of the Asurini do Xingu, Brazil: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Artifact Variability

Early Mesoamerican Garbage: Ceramic and Daub Discard Patterns from Cuauhtémoc, Soconusco, Mexico

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