North America (Geographic Keyword)
3,401-3,425 (3,468 Records)
Beginning with Marx, labor history was founded upon illuminating the role the working class can play in challenging our system of political economy. As vogelfrei (literally "bird-free") or rightless, unprotected bodies condemned to only sell their labor, the lives of the working class have been imagined to inhabit a kind of empty raw inertia propelling mass social change. Labor history has responded to this basic idea throughout its disciplinary history, changing with material, political,...
Who Speaks for the Archaeological Record?: A Media Analysis of Canadian Archaeology (2016)
Archaeology is often conducted under the pretense of being to protect archaeological resources for the good of the general public; however, it is not always clear how archaeological excavations and research serve the public interest. There are many examples of how the Canadian public is interested in the archaeological discipline, but the voice of the academic archaeologist is often absent within public discussions of archaeology and history. By conducting a media analysis of how archaeology is...
Who/What Is In That Vial? (2018)
Archaeologists typically conceptualize the "material" in an integrated analysis of material culture and biological data as artifacts/objects/things recovered through excavation from an historic mortuary setting. However, further explorations of meaning are possible when the definition of material encompasses both what is recovered and produced by archaeologists. Destructive testing, as a component of bioarchaeological analysis, creates additional materialized relationships between the living and...
Whole Molding Construction in Baía de Todos os Santos, Brazil (2015)
The survival of late medieval Mediterranean techniques to conceive and build ships and boats in Brazil was noted by John Patrick Sarsfield in the 1980s, but his study of the Valença shipwrights was interrupted by his tragic death in 1990. This paper is a contribution to the understanding of these shipbuilding techniques, which are still widely used in the region, from Valença to the Baía de Todos os Santos area.
Whose Midden is it Anyway? : Exploring the Origins of the Southwest Yard Midden at James Madison's Montpelier (2016)
During the 2014 field season, the Montpelier Archaeology Department sampled an area known as the Southwest Yard. A large midden containing approximately 14,300 individual faunal elements and fragments was found. The Southwest Yard is located in close proximity to the domestic enslaved living and working area known as the South Yard, suggesting the midden could belong to the enslaved community. Within the South Yard, however, is an 18th century kitchen known as the South Kitchen. I will look at...
Why "Chinese Diaspora" Is More Than Just An Ethnic Label (2016)
Some scholars, myself included, have recently argued in favour of a shift from "Overseas Chinese" to "Chinese Diaspora" as the most appropriate name for our field of study. But are we simply substituting one interchangeable ethnic label for another in accordance with intellectual trends? I argue that the term "diaspora" can potentially unite our disparate research interests because it brings with it a valuable body of theory that helps us understand the process of overseas Chinese migration and...
Why BISC-2’s Brick Ballast May Have the Most Interesting (Archaeological) Things to Say about Imperial Marginality (2013)
In this paper we will analyze the documented ballast of the BISC-2 site focusing on three primary—and interlinked-- questions: 1-the archaeological evidence that this was a case of ballast as cargo; 2-the mounting empirical evidence that suggests that these bricks may be "ladrillos" –a form manufactured in Spanish (rather than British)North America; 3-and the potential implications of finding this type of likely less documented cargo on a ship that was clearly carrying a large cargo of English...
Why Don't We Know When the First People Came To North America? (1989)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.
Why Move? : A case study of change and migration in rural Ireland and connections to broader social and political movements (2018)
Scholars acknowledge that residential practices changed throughout 19-20th century Irish coastal villages, Little research, however, has explored these residential changes from the conceptual frameworks of the Irish famine and consequential social upheaval. This paper explores 19th and 20th century social and residential history of Westquarter, Inishbofin, Co. Galway, Ireland. Centered on village residential changes, I track concurrent patterns of continuity, relocation and migration of...
Why we conserve artifacts, the CSS Georgia Story. (2016)
As part of the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project, the USACE, Savannah District, tasked Panamerican Consultants with archaeologically recording and systematically recovering the artifacts from the wreck of the CSS Georgia. More than 125 tons of material was recovered, which created a few interesting challenges for the field crew and the Conservation Research Lab. What artifacts does one conserve, and what do we document and rebury. This paper presents a number of ways that a well-equipped...
Why We Should Reassess How We Define Sensitive Archaeological Data and How We Share It (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Openness & Sensitivity: Practical Concerns in Taking Archaeological Data Online" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We all want to be published and want our archeological research to be relevant, useful, and available to other archeologists, but in this digital age, it may be too easy to share, and too easy for sensitive site location information to end up in places that could cause irreparable harm to the archeology that...
Why We Shouldn’t Wait until a Project is Proposed (2018)
Tribal officials suggest the National Historic Preservation Act should more appropriately be called the National Mitigation Act. For several years we worked to develop policy to direct more effort into identification of areas of cultural concern even before projects proposals were received. We advocated production of appositely designed projects to reduce the amount of adverse effects and mitigation. This effort included encouraging the use of the planning process to assemble data and add...
The Wickedest City: Ecological History and Archaeological Potential at La Balise (2018)
La Balise was a French outpost in the Southeast Pass of the Mississippi River -- one of the most geologically dynamic landscapes on earth. The fort was built in 1723 to defend the waterway from encroaching armies and to justify relocating Louisiana’s capital from Biloxi to New Orleans. La Balise’s geographical position led it to become the colony’s port of call, and its frontier environment fostered a profusion of cultural and technological adaptations. However, the same environmental conditions...
The Wide and Wonderful World of Digital Archaeology in Cultural Resource Management (2016)
Archaeologists in Cultural Resource Management (CRM) adopt digital tools to improve both the efficiency and quality of our work. While archaeologists have often adopted new tools, technology like digital tablets, user-friendly databases, 3D scanning/modeling/visualization tools, and accessible media like blogs and podcasts provide new opportunities to greatly expand the extent and speed of data collection, as well as the ways archaeologists may disseminate both data and research results. For...
Wild animal use and landscape interpretations at Pimeria Alta Spanish colonial sites (2016)
European livestock accompanied the foundation of Spanish missions and presidios in the arid Pimeria Alta, altering the local landscape and native society. Livestock connected desert farmers to distant colonial markets and providing a new source of protein and grease, but also required new economic, social, and spatial arrangements, potentially affecting the availability of wild animals in native communities near Spanish colonial sites . This paper surveys wild animal presence and diversity at...
William Berkley, Civil War Sutler: Archaeological Investigations (2016)
Sutler stores were a common component of large Civil War era camps. At Camp Nelson, a large Union Civil War Depot in Jessamine County, Kentucky, several stores are listed in official records. The store run by William Berkley has been the site of archaeological investigation for the last few years. New work at the site has greatly expanded our understanding of the breadth of goods sold, including the international original of many goods. These excavations have also enhanced our...
Williamsburg's Raleigh Tavern Revisited (2017)
The Raleigh Tavern stands out as both a pioneering excavation in the history of historical archaeology, and as one of Colonial Williamsburg’s earliest reconstruction projects. First excavated in 1928, the foundations recorded at the site formed the basis of a tavern reconstruction that when completed in 1932, marked the official opening of Colonial Williamsburg to the public. In summer 2016, Colonial Williamsburg’s archaeologists revisited the iconic tavern site with the hopes of reexamining...
The Wind Cries Mary: The Effects of Soundscape on the Prairie Madness Phenomenon (2018)
Prairie madness is a documented phenomenon wherein immigrants who settled the Great Plains experienced episodes of depression and violence. The cause is commonly attributed to the isolation between the households and settlements. However, historical accounts from the late 19th and early 20th century also specify the sound of the winds on the plain as a catalyst. A number of conditions such as acute hyperacusis can cause increased sensitivity to environmental sounds. These conditions can result...
Wind-Powered Sugar Mills as Constructions of Control in the Plantation Landscapes of Montserrat, West Indies (2017)
As James Delle recently argued, Caribbean plantation landscapes were built environments designed to mediate interactions between planters and enslaved labourers. In this paper, wind-powered sugar mills on the island of Montserrat are singled out as being prominent components of the plantation environment that were not only economically productive, but also served as markers of planter power and control. The mills’ distinctive shape and height renders them instantly identifiable, and their...
A Window to the Past: The Archaeological Significance of the Plank Log House to Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania (2015)
Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania is a town with a history as long as European settlement in the Middle Atlantic United States region. First a Swedish trading outpost, then owned by the Dutch, and finally incorporated into William Penn’s holdings, the Borough of Marcus Hook now refers to itself as the Cornerstone of Pennsylvania. During the 18th century, the town had a major market which was the last port of call on the trade route to Philadelphia. The Plank Log House on Market Street, was built in the...
Windshields and Warfighters: Sharing Lessons Learned from the Roads and Military Installations of Texas (2018)
In Texas, federal agencies encounter complex issues and procedural challenges related to protecting and maintaining the resources that reflect our state’s rich legacy. Cultural resources on military installations present a unique challenge to those responsible for their management. Likewise, federal highway funded projects require special consideration of historic properties during transportation project planning. Balancing regulatory compliance with agency objectives, either supporting the...
Wine, Brandy, and Botijas at the Periphery of the Afro-Atlantic World: Production and Ethnicity on the Jesuit Estates of the Southern Pacific Coast of Peru (2015)
The Haciendas of Nasca Archaeological Project, focusing on slavery on colonial Jesuit wine estates of the Peruvian south coast, was initiated to broaden our understandings of the African diaspora in Peru, which historically existed at the edge of the Afro-Atlantic World, and is presently at the periphery of historical and archaeological scholarship. This paper explores the production and use of botijas – so-called Iberian Olive Jars – in the making of wine and brandy at two Jesuit estates and...
Within These Walls and Beyond: How the NHPA Saved and Continues to Protect Dry Tortugas National Park (2016)
Dry Tortugas National Park lies approximately 70 miles to the west of Key West in the direct path of the Florida Straits, as the western most terminus of the Florida Keys. Having been desginated initially as a National Monument in 1935, it wasn't until the establishment of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 that it truly saw protection from treasure hunters in the pristine reefs, and in a ironic twist, also from the then director of the National Park Service. Shipwrecks and material...
"Without prominent event": the McDonald Site in the Hoosier National Forest (2016)
The National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and Section 106 process were enacted to ensure that archaeological knowledge is preserved. One problem this creates is that sites with ambiguous associations to particular occupants or events are offered less protection because their significance is also deemed ambiguous. The McDonald Site (12 OR 509) in the Hoosier National Forest is an example of how an ineligible site can still contribute significant information to local and regional histories....
Without regard for persons: The archaeology of american capitalism (2013)
In The Archaoelogy of American Capitalism, I examine a diverse range of studies to make the case that the historical archaeology in the United States is well served by a direct analysis of capitalism as a principle context for production, consumption, and cultural experience in America. Whether looking at the fur trade, the Georgian order, the creation of modern cities and industries or the practices of history-making and archaeology itself, I show how the lust for profit and bourgeois...