Historical Archaeology of Capitalism’s Cracks
Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2020
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Historical Archaeology of Capitalism’s Cracks," at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.
It is commonly said that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. Alternatives are framed as a simplistic dualism of capitalism vs communism that makes it difficult to envision what any alternative would look like. Instead, we would follow Marx to argue that the sprouts of communism already lie concealed in capitalism. This stems from the logic of capitalism based on contradictions that always create cracks or fissures, as well as the twofold nature of labor that contrasts the alienated labor of capitalism with sensuous human activity. The goal of this session is to provide the theoretical framing and concrete archaeological case studies that emphasizes people’s non-alienated activity or living ‘alternatives’ to capitalist logic. We will always find it difficult to envision alternatives to our capitalist present until we realize that models and inspiration have always existed internal to capitalism itself.
Other Keywords
Capitalism •
Logging •
Industrial Archaeology •
Camp •
Development •
Labor •
Landscape •
Memory •
Public Space •
homelessness
Temporal Keywords
20th Century •
Early Twentieth Century •
Early 20th Century •
19th - 20th Century •
Contemporary •
1600-1950 •
archaeology of modernity •
20th/21th century •
Capitalocene
Geographic Keywords
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) •
Delaware (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-8 of 8)
- Documents (8)
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Beyond the Age of Destruction – Remembering an Alternative Future at an Anti-nuclear Protest Camp (2020)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology of Capitalism’s Cracks" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Historical archaeology in Europe has focused on dark heritage and sites of trauma. While important, this work on the ‘time to destroy’ may inadvertently silence sites and events opposed to this daily destruction and alienation. A case study of an anti-nuclear protest camp in 1980s Germany will show that cracks in capitalism form...
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Crack Method: Community, Mutual Aid, and Appropriation in Washington D.C.’s Homeless Encampments (2020)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology of Capitalism’s Cracks" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Using a methodology developed within Capitalism’s cracks I weave together the past, present and future realties of Washington D.C.’s street homeless communities. The mutual aid developed within these communities has proven to reproduce alternative social relations. Appropriating, rather then consuming, the waste spaces and...
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Decomposing Capital: The Two Sides of Industrial Decay in Mill Creek Ravine (2020)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology of Capitalism’s Cracks" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In an age of virulent exploitation and ecological devastation, the decaying waste of capitalist production does not just reflect unjust relations of production, it also serves as a medium for toxic pollutants that harm vulnerable communities and landscapes. Focusing on the negativity embodied in decay, critical theory has also...
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Envisioning Logging Camps as Site of Social Antagonsim in Capitalism: An Anishinaabe Example from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. (2020)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology of Capitalism’s Cracks" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Slovenian Marxist philosopher, Slovoj Zizek has observed a curious paradox within western pop culture and society that “it’s much easier to imagine the end of all life on earth than a much more modest radical change in capitalism.” This paper presents an archaeological case study for imagining alternatives to living in...
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Labor’s Failure? (2020)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology of Capitalism’s Cracks" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Much of the archaeology and history of labor is based on organized labor, unions, and strikes, and the common rhetoric emphasizes the success or failure of union strike activities. This frames labor activism as analogous to sporting events with clear winners and losers and inadvertently adopts the vantage point of capital. As we...
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Praxis Communities and Uneven Development: Some Ideas on Maroons, Indigenous Americans, and Hobos (2020)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology of Capitalism’s Cracks" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. When thinking about ways to explore the American past with the goal of developing radical progressive ways of moving forward into our own histories, the specific perspectives we use and the people we study matter. In my interrogations of the lives of Maroons and Indigenous Americans of the Great Dismal Swamp (VA and NC), and,...
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Promised Land or Purgatory? The Archaeology of Florida’s Rural African American Towns (2020)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology of Capitalism’s Cracks" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Florida was once home to dozens of thriving, rural African American towns. These towns were largely destroyed through intersectional violence; the multidimensional ways interpersonal, structural, and symbolic violence interweave across time and space. Only a handful of these communities survived, and they did so by existing at...
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Theorizing Capitalism’s Cracks (2020)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology of Capitalism’s Cracks" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Perpetual economic and ecological crises, coupled with Marx’s loss of credibility have left many questioning whether any viable alternative is possible. While historical archaeology has done important work revealing capitalism’s destruction, exploitation and trauma, there is an inherent danger of perpetuating the idea of an...