capital (Other Keyword)
1-4 (4 Records)
Hobos and other transient laborers were integral to the development of industrial capital in the United States. They traversed the country filling essential temporary positions at the behest of capital interests. Yet, they frequently utilized alternative market practices in their labor arrangements, relying partially on direct trade over monetary payment. They likewise maintained intricate social networks, the material remains of which lay extant in past hobo campsites. Despite fulfilling a...
Intemperate Men: Alcohol and Autonomy Within the Lumber Camps of Michigan's Upper Peninsula (2020)
This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Industrial capital often instilled discipline through control of social behaviors. Alcohol consumption was most often targeted due to its effects on worker productivity. Although many late 19th and early 20th century corporations had strict alcohol policies, the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company (CCI) never enforced sobriety within their lumber camps. CCI took a hands off approach to...
Out of the Ordinary: Exploring strategic decision making of the Baker family in 17th century St. Mary’s City, Maryland (2025)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Prior archaeological studies of ordinaries primarily focused on determining the material correlates of the ordinary or how the ordinary functions as a liminal space, often because of alcohol. There is a recent trend of interrogating ordinaries as a place of strategic decision making, but not at the household level. The Bakers...
Worker’s Housing and Class Struggle in the Northern Forest (2017)
Worker’s housing is the material embodiment of the contradictions and class struggle between capital and labor. These contradictions stem from capital’s goal of securing cheap and reliable labor while workers strive for higher wages and gaining a measure of control and autonomy over their own lives. Archaeologists tend to overly simplify these complex social relations by uncritically adopting common ideological descriptions such as paternalism or overusing dualisms like dominance and resistance....