Sensory Engagement in Historical Archaeology
Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2018
Participants explore sensory approaches in historical archaeology, considering methods and approaches that afford insight into sensory experience in the past as well as the outcomes of archaeological engagement with the senses. Contributors probe the relationship between human activities, the senses, and the formation of identities in a wide range of early modern and modern locales and cultures in Finland, Sweden, Iceland, New England, and Panama, examining issues such as mourning rituals and other strategies for coping with death, acoustic and aromatic pleasures and intrusions, self-care, embodiment, fantasy play and domesticity in the brothel, the construction of identity through food preferences and avoidances, varied experiences of dining and mealtimes, and memorialization of victims of human trafficking through the reconstruction of the soundscapes of the Atlantic slave trade. The session concludes with an interactive panel and open discussion of how sensorial approaches enrich archaeological interpretations of historical lives and interactions.
Other Keywords
Identity •
embodiment •
Prostitution •
senses •
Iceland •
Soundscapes •
Emotions •
funerary attire •
mill workers •
meals as total experience
Temporal Keywords
17th Century •
Nineteenth Century •
19th Century •
18th Century •
Post-medieval •
Early modern •
1662-1671
Geographic Keywords
North America •
Coahuila (State / Territory) •
New Mexico (State / Territory) •
Oklahoma (State / Territory) •
Arizona (State / Territory) •
Texas (State / Territory) •
Sonora (State / Territory) •
United States of America (Country) •
Chihuahua (State / Territory) •
Nuevo Leon (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-8 of 8)
- Documents (8)
- Materiality of Odors: Experiencing Church Burials and the Urban Environment in an Early Modern Northern Swedish Town (2018)
- Mrs. Fox’s Table: Mealtimes at the Boott Mills Boardinghouses, Lowell, Massachusetts (2018)
- Preparing children’s burials in Post-Medieval Finland: Emotions awaken by sensory experiences (2018)
- Sensory Perspectives on Maize and Identity Formation in Colonial New England (2018)
- Smoke and Spirit: Exploring Bodily and Sensual Concerns at Early Harvard College (2018)
- Strange Tastes and Disgusting Smells: Experiences of German Merchants and Sailors in 16th-Century Iceland (2018)
- Trading Tones: Exploring the Soundscape of Human Trafficking in Spanish Colonial Panama (2018)
- Wares of Venus: The sensoriality of sex for purchase at a 19th-century Boston brothel (2018)