Book Description
American things, American material culture, and American archaeology are the themes of this book. The authors use goods used or made in America to illuminate issues such as tenancy, racism, sexism, and regional bias. Contributors utilize data about everyday objects - from tin cans and bottles to namebrand items, from fish bones to machinery - to analyze the way American capitalism works. Their cogent analyses take us literally from broken dishes to the international economy. Especially notable chapters examine how an archaeologist formulates questions about exploitation under capitalism, and how the study of artifacts reveals African-American middle class culture and its response to racism.
Historical Archaeologies of Capitalism (Contributions to Global Historical Archeology FROM THE CRITICS
Booknews
Archaeologists look at the material culture of capitalism to help understand how issues such as class, race, and gender in the past has led to the current conditions. Six of the nine studies focus on the US from such perspectives as identity in modern America; race, repression, and resistance in New York City; later capitalism in the 19th-century west; capitalist farm tenancy, African America and consumer culture; and measuring time routines and work discipline in the ceramics industry in Annapolis, Maryland. The other contributions discuss theoretical issues. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Art & Photography
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