Contemporary Archaeology (Other Keyword)
26-43 (43 Records)
This paper examines Donald Trump’s New York City apartment as a populist performance of affluence that simultaneously justifies ostentatious shows of wealth and defends idiosyncratic individual taste. Rather than reduce the grandiose penthouse simply to a transgression of "good taste," this paper examines a distinctive notion of material wealth that embraces pretentious and idiosyncratic expressions of style and affluence. In a conservative world that has often been characterized by stylistic...
Materializing Nationhood: the Many Roles of Built Landscape Management Policy in Post-Partition India and Pakistan (2017)
This paper discusses built landscape management policies put in place during the aftermath of the 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan. It is argued that the management of out-migrant associated buildings (both monumental and residential) was influenced by three divergent goals of nationhood: (1) modernization, (2) secularism, and (3) cultural cohesion. These goals pointed towards conflicting actions. Providing shelter to millions of incoming refugees required the hasty allocation of dwelling...
Microhistories of the "Funnel Effect": Tracing the banal materialities of U.S. border enforcement, 2000-present (2017)
Nearly two decades have passed since the strategic border security paradigm known as "prevention through deterrence" took root in the landscape of Southern Arizona. The aim is to deter illicit migration by strategically amassing border security forces to funnel migrants into a treacherous landscape of increased risk. Thousands of undocumented migrants have died when confronting those risks in an outcome known as the "funnel effect." This paper draws upon dissertation research that studied the...
New Methods for New Materials: Contemporary Archaeology and Coastal Plastic Pollution (2023)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Methods for Monitoring Heritage at Risk Sites in a Rapidly Changing Environment", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. As the issue of plastic pollution grows, coastal and maritime archaeological sites are increasingly being impacted by single-use plastic waste. While we can see these impacts at existing cultural resources, it is important to recognize role of plastic waste in creating entirely new, anthropogenic...
Out of Sight, Out of Mind. Contemporary Archaeology of Illegal Forest Dumping in Quebec (Canada) (2023)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. From the end of the 19th century and under the influence of the hygienist movement, the relationship of individuals to what is considered to be waste has changed drastically. Privy and other open-air structures are banned by public health, leading to the development of new waste management techniques. In addition to creating more...
Partition Refugee Housing As Emergent Heritage (2021)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology in South Asia" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Readings of material heritage are always entangled with understandings of who rightfully belongs. In India, colonial archaeology was used to legitimize subjugation in the past while nationalist archaeology today is used to justify the marginalization of minorities. The narratives surrounding modern day material patterns, while rarely the...
Power and Nature: A Contemporary Archaeology of Yosemite National Park (2015)
Parks are the creation of established power structures, and are themselves statements about power over nature. Visitors to these parks, however, negotiate these structures in their own ways. Often, historical archaeological analysis focuses on power struggles: domination and resistance between classes, races, genders, etc. This paper analyzes how some of the tools of these more traditional archaeological analyses apply to the present. A contemporary archaeology of litter in Yosemite has explored...
Public Memory and Dark Heritage at Santa Claus Village (2016)
Cutting across the Arctic Circle in the heart of Finnish Lapland, Santa Claus Village celebrates familiar holiday legends while offering visits with Santa and the opportunity to purchase a host of consumer goods. The Yuletide tourist attraction north of Rovaniemi sits on a landscape that was a Luftwaffe airbase during World War II, and many of the foundations of the massive base’s support structures visibly dot the forests around Santa Claus land. The history of Finland’s status as...
Rebellion, Civil War, and Transformation: The Archaeology of Modern Ireland Before and During Europe’s Interwar Period (2018)
Ireland’s modern history has been largely ignored archaeologically. It was not until the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising that sparked archaeological interest. The work deals mostly with the actual event, thus forms a study of a single moment in time. What is missing is a dialogue linking Ireland’s interwar transformations to that happening across Europe after World War I. This presentation seeks to begin the discussion of interwar Ireland through the material culture recovered from the...
Refugees as a Productive Force, National Belonging as Mutable: The Case of 1947 Partition Refugee Resettlement in Delhi, India (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeologies of Immigration and Refugee Resettlement" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Many archaeologists have focused on the material ramifications of nationalist exclusion. Such works have documented how discriminatory policies impact the ability of immigrants and refugees to build new lives post-migration, and in some cases, even endanger their lives. In this paper, I explore the opposite question: what happens...
Sacrifice, Litter, and Loss: The Archaeology of the Recent Past atop a Sacred Island in the Sky (2015)
Located in the eastern San Francisco Bay area, Mount Diablo (3,848’) rises from an otherwise almost featureless terrain, making it highly visible from much of central California. Because of its visibility, Diablo is a backdrop to ethnographic and contemporary mythologies. The view from the peak is considered one of the most spectacular and unhindered in the world. Easily accessible by vehicle, the summit is visited daily by hundreds of tourists, many whom throw coins and other objects from the...
"Stepping Over the Line": Hyper-Masculinity, Institutionalized Violence, and the Archaeology of the U.S. Border Patrol (2015)
The U.S. Border Patrol has come under heavy scrutiny following the deaths of 42 civilians since 2005, numerous reports of migrants being physically and sexually assaulted while in custody, and the surfacing of videos showing aggressive encounters between agents and U.S. citizens. Because a great deal of boundary enforcement happens in remote parts of the desert, documenting how agents do their job is difficult. In this paper, we highlight data from numerous interviews with agents, migrant...
The Tokyo Tape Project (2018)
In 2015, we participated in an artist residency in Tokyo. Working collaboratively, we embarked on a photography-based project that explores the use of tape in Tokyo subway stations. Among other functions, the tape is used to provide direction for passengers, mark borders, and instruct construction crews. Contrasting other collaborative work, the art led the project. The culmination of this project was an exhibition in Tokyo in 2016. This paper will reflect on the Tokyo Tape Project and the roles...
Usable Aid: Refugee Resettlement in Post-Partition Delhi (2020)
This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Previous archaeologies of socialism and the welfare state demonstrate how spaces designed by centralized authorities are often incongruent with the needs of individuals. This paper considers 1947 Partition refugee resettlement in Delhi as a contrasting example, one that exemplifies the potential effectiveness of government investment in public housing. Delhi’s colonies are unique...
We Want In on This: Contemporary Queer Archaeology and the Preservation of Queer Cultural History (2015)
This research will address how contemporary archaeology can be used to explore notions of identity, gender expression and self-determination, community belonging, and the value of queer cultural heritage, with an emphasis on the experiences and engagement of queer and trans youth. Queer and trans youth are organizing in their schools and communities to create change that affects their lives and the lives of their friends and families. They are creating new language for queer and trans identities...
What Can Archaeology Tell Us about Refugees and Forced Immigration? (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeologies of Immigration and Refugee Resettlement" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The authors in this session use archaeological methods to analyze refugees and forced migrations. We seek to better understand the material ramifications of migration in the lives of individuals. We wish to understand the tangible, material consequences of migration at a human scale. The papers in the session spring from historical...
What the Animals Tells About Us. Survival Strategies of the Guerrilla Warfare in Northwestern Iberia Through the Faunal Remains (2023)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Artifacts are More Than Enough: Recentering the Artifact in Historical Archaeology", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The recent development of Contemporary Archaeology in the Iberian Peninsula has prompted the progressive incorporation of well-known archaeological methodologies to delve into recent historical processes. This is the case, for example, of taphonomic and zooarchaeological analysis, even though...
World War II in Western Massachusetts: Contemporary Archaeology of a Plane Crash (2021)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology of Conflict (General Sessions)" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Mount Holyoke, a mountain in Western Massachusetts, is the site of ten World War II casualties. Without excavating, I interrogate how the physical remains of a 1944 plane crash exist in the present and actively shape the lived experiences of residents and visitors. The mountain is a mnemotopos, a place of memory and materialization...