Modern Material Culture (eBook)

Front Cover 1
Modern Material Culture: The Archaeology of Us 4
Copyright Page 5
Table of Contents 6
List of Contributors 14
Preface 16
PART 1: METHOD AND THEORY IN MODERN MATERIAL-CULTURE STUDIES 20
Chapter 1. Archaeology's Relationship to the Present and the Past 24
Acknowledgments 33
Chapter 2. The Modern Material-Culture Field School: Teaching Archaeology on the University Campus 34
Introduction 34
Teaching Archaeological Fieldwork 35
Course Design 39
The Projects 42
Discussion and Conclusions 47
Chapter 3. The Use of Material Culture in Diachronic Anthropology 50
The Use of Material Culture in Diachronic Anthropology 51
Social Change within Isolated Agricultural Communities 52
Comparative Mennonite Architectural Change 55
Social versus Chronological Time 59
Results: Quantitative Comparison of Change Trends 59
An Explanation and Discussion of Rapid Internal Diffusion in Isolated Agricultural Communities 65
Summary and Discussion 67
Chapter 4. A Manifesto for Modern Material-Culture Studies 70
PART 2: EARLY AND LATE AMERICANA 76
Chapter 5. Waste Not, Want Not: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Reuse in Tucson, Arizona 86
Preliminary Definitions 87
Background to the Reuse Project 88
The Reuse Project 90
Reuse Project Findings 93
Cross-Cultural Implications 102
Conclusions 104
Acknowledgments 105
Chapter 6. Graffiti and Racial Insults: The Archaeology of Ethnic Relations in Hawaii 106
The Artifacts 107
Analysis of Content 111
Distribution of Sites 114
Graffiti Are Products of Liminal Spaces 114
Ethnographic Confirmation 116
Review and Summary 117
Chapter 7. A Herbalist's Shop in Honolulu: Traditional Merchandising in a Modern Setting 120
Introduction 120
The Research 121
Goals 125
Analysis 125
Chapter 8. Ideology and Material Culture 132
The Museum As ISA 135
Conclusions 143
Acknowledgements 144
Chapter 9. Don't Fence Me In 146
Chapter 10. 
 
 
156 
What Can Gravestones Tell Us about Community? 156
Why the Cemetery? 157
The Types of Data: Form and Substance 157
Pictures and Decorations 158
Size 158
Inscriptions 159
Geography 160
The Cemetery As a Model 160
Testing the Model Idea 161
The Quantitative Data 162
The Federal Period 169
The Civil War Period 170
The Industrial Expansion Period 171
The "Reform" Period 173
"Miscellaneous" Observations 177
Acknowledgments 178
Chapter 11. Pennies from Denver 180
The Data and Their Collection 181
Description and Analysis: Physical Attributes 181
Variation in Dates 182
Variation in Mint Location 184
Production, Distribution, Consumption 185
Decision-Making at the Mint 187
Measuring the "Need" for Pennies 189
Withdrawal from Circulation 192
Interpretive Models 196
Money as Ritual 198
Summary and Conclusion 199
Acknowledgments 200
Chapter 12. The Raw and the Cooked: The Material Culture of a Modern Supermarket 202
Introduction 202
Methodology 203
Data Analysis 206
Chapter 13. The Community Store: A Dispersal Center for Material Goods in Rural America 216
Introduction 216
Methodology 218
The Friendly Market 219
Discussion and Conclusions 229
Acknowledgments 231
Chapter 14. A Microarchaeological View of Human Settlement Space and Function 232
The Goffman Model 233
The Field Study 234
Other Studies 236
Yellen's Study and Model 238
Conclusions 241
Chapter 15. The Archaeological Significance of Counting Houses: Ethnoarchaeological Evidence 244
Estimating Population From Domestic Structures 245
Mean Household Size through Time 245
The Significance of Counting Houses 248
Conclusion 251
Acknowledgments 252
PART 3: EXPERIMENTAL APPROACHES 254
Chapter 16. Experimentation with Modern Materials 258
Conclusion 264
Acknowledgments 265
Chapter 17. A Simulative Experiment in Simple Product Manufacture 266
The Simulative Experiment 267
Summary of Observations 268
Discussion and Summary 272
Acknowledgments 273
Chapter 18. Cumulative Graphs and Seriation 274
Conclusions 282
Further Implications 283
Acknowledgments 285
PART 3: TRADITIONAL TECHNOLOGIES 
286 
Chapter 19. Brandon Revisited: A New Look at an Old Technology 288
Brandon: The Setting 289
Fieldwork in Brandon 290
Flint Procurement 291
Manufacture 292
Discard 297
Production 297
The Principle of Archaisms 298
The End Is Near 299
Acknowledgments 300
Chapter 20. Making Stone Vases: Contemporary Manufacture of Material-Culture Items in Upper Egypt 302
Ancient Egyptian Use of Alabaster 304
Geologic Sources of Alabaster 304
Alabaster-Working in Ancient Egypt 305
Contemporary Alabaster Technology 308
Socioeconomics and Organization of the Workshop 315
Concluding Comments 318
Acknowledgments 320
Chapter 21. 
 
 
 
322 
Introduction 322
Obsidian Scrapers and Ethiopian Tanners 323
Morphological Characteristics of Hide Scrapers 327
Analysis of Edge-Wear 330
The Chawa Homestead and Disposal of Obsidian Waste 333
Archaeological Evidence for Hide Scrapers in Ethiopia 338
Conclusion 339
References 342
Subject Index 362
STUDIES IN ARCHAEOLOGY 367