The Unromantic West: Labor, capital, and struggle

McGuire, Randall H.; Reckner, Paul

doi:10.1007/bf03374359

Cited by 43 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…One reason that Gould moved into studying the more recent past was his frustration with the current state of archaeological reasoning and our inability to ask the types of questions about the distant past that were of most interest to him (personal communication 2008). Finding time periods and archaeological contexts more suited to one's questions is a viable strategy, and one used by others who want to examine various social or religious elements of past life or other supposedly difficult-to-establish archaeological cases (e.g., Leone 1984;McGuire and Reckner 2002).…”

Section: Does Archaeological Theory Really Matter?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Archaeological Theory and Snake-Oil Peddling: The Role of Ethnoarchaeology in Archaeology

Skibo¹

2009

Ethnoarchaeology

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By the 1970s ethnoarchaeology took on a more central role in archaeological method and theory. During that era some of the classic ethnoarchaeological projects took place across the globe, all with the general aim of making archaeology more anthropological. Since that time, there have been an increasing number of ethnoarchaeological projects serving not just the original Processual Archaeology goals but also the concerns of an expanding archaeological theory. Despite this increase in ethnoarchaeology, there is a general belief that it does little to serve the concerns of those doing "real archaeology, " that is excavating and making inferences about past activity. Through an analysis of citations in American Antiquity, I assess how ethnoarchaeological work has been used by prehistorians and whether there truly is a disjunction between ethnoarchaeological research and prehistoric reconstructions. In doing so, I explore the role of ethnoarchaeology in theory building, whether archaeological theory really matters, and the most productive way to employ ethnoarchaeological research. It is argued that archaeological theories come and go like snake-oil cures but those that last focus on the relationships between people and material culture. One such theory, a performance-based approach, is offered and contrasted with agency and practice theories.

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Section: Does Archaeological Theory Really Matter?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Archaeological Theory and Snake-Oil Peddling: The Role of Ethnoarchaeology in Archaeology

Skibo¹

2009

Ethnoarchaeology

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“…They are laboratories for social or technical or ''sociotechnical'' archaeological questions (Hardesty 2003(Hardesty , 2010(Hardesty , 2011a. They also have provided springboards for studying archaeologies of labor (see also Camp 2011b;Silliman 2001Silliman , 2006Wolf 1982, p. 75) and collective action such as the prolific research emerging from the archaeological sites at Colorado's Berwind coal camp and Ludlow tent colony, both of which were related to the infamous 1913-1914 labor strike in southern Colorado coal fields (Ludlow Collective 2001;McGuire 2008;McGuire and Reckner 2002;Saitta 2007a, b;Walker 2003;Walker and Saitta 2002;Wood 2004). …”

Section: Industrial Capitalism: An Intersection Of Transportation Exmentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical Archaeologies of the American West

Dixon

2014

J Archaeol Res

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Historical archaeology in western North America includes a vast collection of research that underscores the region's dynamic cultural heritage. Here, I review a sample of the literature related to this research and organize them into four conceptual themes: colonialism and postcolonialism, landscape transformation, migration and diaspora, and industrial capitalism. I conclude that the future of historical archaeology in the West will be grounded in research that integrates these themes. As the region continues to experience human dilemmas related to issues such as balancing resource extraction with sustainable conservation and lingering issues of colonialism, these archaeologies have value for transcending the natureculture divide and for understanding the ways in which humanity can navigate pressing issues relevant to our modern world, including vulnerability, risks, adaptation, resilience, and sustainability.

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“…Anthropologists and historians have spent considerable effort investigating the role of labor in colonialism, some addressing macroscale issues of world systems and economies within global labor structures (Crowell, 1997;Wallerstein, 1974;Wolf, 1982) and others emphasizing the microscale concerns of those implementing and experiencing labor (Cassell, 2003;Knack and Littlefield, 1995;Paterson, 2008;Silliman, 2006;Voss, 2008b). Historical and anthropological studies of plantation slavery have also paid attention to labor (Berlin and Morgan, 1993;Delle, 1998;Orser, 1990;Young, 1997), as have historical archaeologists studying industrial settings (Beaudry et al, 1991;Beaudry and Mrozowski, 2001;Casella, 2005;McGuire and Reckner, 2002;Mrozowski et al, 1996;Saitta, 2004;Shackel, 2000Shackel, , 2004. In general, though, archaeologists have lagged behind in this broad project by not developing ways of handling the material side of these labor relations beyond the laborers themselves.…”

Section: ■ Theories Of Labor and Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Indigenous traces in colonial spaces

Silliman

2010

Journal of Social Archaeology

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This article reconsiders how archaeologists find Indigenous people, particularly Native Americans, in past colonial communities. Significant progress has been made in studying indigenous living areas associated with colonial communities but not in recovering evidence for (or even remembering) Native people laboring in distinctly colonial spaces. I propose that the reason for the lag lies in an incomplete perspective on material culture and space that denies their polyvalent and ambiguous, yet informative and manifestly real, nature. A new perspective can be forged with greater use of social theory pertaining to practice, space, and labor. Reconceptualizing material culture and space in colonial contexts requires that archaeologists acknowledge the role of labor relations in structuring material and spatial practices and not conflate origins of artifacts and spaces with other possible social meanings derived from practice. This article examines these two dimensions with three North American cases from New England, Florida, and California.

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The Unromantic West: Labor, capital, and struggle

Cited by 43 publications

References 22 publications

Archaeological Theory and Snake-Oil Peddling: The Role of Ethnoarchaeology in Archaeology

Archaeological Theory and Snake-Oil Peddling: The Role of Ethnoarchaeology in Archaeology

Historical Archaeologies of the American West

Indigenous traces in colonial spaces

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