Women’s Work: Archaeology and Mothering

Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Women’s Work: Archaeology and Mothering," at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Using motherhood as a lens, papers in this symposium explore all aspects of mothering and archaeology: the archaeology of historic mothers and motherhood, the actions of “mothering” in archaeology, and the second shift often pressed on women. Some papers present intersectional research on diverse historic ideologies and practices of motherhood and mothering that varied among classes, races and ethnic groups. Some papers discuss how female identifying archaeologists often take on a disproportionate amount of labor, particularly emotional labor, both in their careers and in the home. The goal of this session is to bring research on historic motherhood and mothering, and “those conversations” we have amongst ourselves to the larger Society and have an honest reckoning with how to create a more equitable discipline. Some papers address how becoming a mother affected women's archaeological practices and careers, or discuss why women are doing most of the deeply engaged community archaeology.

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-10 of 10)

  • Documents (10)

Documents
  • Archaeology of Mothering in 19th Century Colonial Yucatán (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Minette Church.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Women’s Work: Archaeology and Mothering" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The investigation of mothering naturally parallels that of childhood in archaeological literature. Arguments for the status of women as the last colonized population and childhood as a colonial construct make looking at mothering in colonial contexts compelling and necessary. In Spanish and British colonial Yucatán, it can be difficult...

  • The CRM Mother: Case Studies in Working in the Industry as a Mother (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kimberly M Smith.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Women’s Work: Archaeology and Mothering" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. This presentation, ne discussion, will focus on the logitstics of being a mother in CRM archaeology. It is an attempt to open the dialogue on the struggles of being a mother in an industry where fieldwork and breastfeeding can often be difficult. Where acceptance of the necessary time off for doctor's visitation or sick children can...

  • Do Archaeologist Make Terrible Parents? Reflections from Finnish Children Books and from Real Life (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Tiina Äikäs. Anna-Kaisa Salmi.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Women’s Work: Archaeology and Mothering" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In contemporary Finnish children books researchers, quite often archaeologists, are described as distant parents who travel constantly or are so absorbed by their work that they hardly notice their children. As archaeologists and parents, we wonder if an absent-minded researcher parent is just practical plot device for allowing the...

  • I’m Too Tired To Come Up With A Clever Title: Mothering and Archaeology-ing In The 21st Century (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Holly Norton.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Women’s Work: Archaeology and Mothering" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. I never wanted to get married or have children, and of the two not having children was the more concrete. In the end I chose to do both, marry and reproduce. I will talk about how I came to the decision to have a child just out of grad school when I was still early career, what consequences that had at the time, and what the last 5.5...

  • Kids in the Trenches: Women as Mothers and Professionals in Archaeology (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Elizabeth Hoag. Kathleen von Jena.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Women’s Work: Archaeology and Mothering" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In many STEM and academic settings being a woman with children can be seen as a liability to her progress in her field. While men are praised for being academics and fathers, mothers are routinely penalized in terms of their pay, ability to participate in professional conferences, advancement in the field, and publication rates. We...

  • Material Challenges to Mothering During Incarceration (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only April Kamp-Whittaker. Dana O. Shew.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Women’s Work: Archaeology and Mothering" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Japanese American internees during WWII faced many challenges to the practices of mothering. Confinement in government run incarceration centers limited access to familiar resources, tools, materials, and activities while individual backgrounds created divergent ideologies surrounding appropriate strategies for child rearing....

  • Materializing Transformations In Western Ideologies Of Mothering (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Suzanne Spencer-Wood.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Women’s Work: Archaeology and Mothering" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Western gender ideology transformed the morally superior childrearer from fathers to mothers over the 18th century because by 1690 women already formed 75% of church congregations as men were pulled out of churches by the conflicting overly-competitive values of capitalism, which promoted the biblical sins of usury, price gouging and...

  • Natural Child at Nurse: migrant mothers and their children in New York’s almshouse system. (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Katherine Fennelly.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Women’s Work: Archaeology and Mothering" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Throughout the nineteenth century the city of New York expanded significantly, its growth fed by large numbers of migrant groups. Many of these groups came from the British Isles and northern Europe, where established systems of charitable institutional care were in place. Consequently, migrants were familiar with the types of...

  • Of Monks and Mothers: Examining Privilege, Parenting, and Best Laid Plans (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Laura Seifert.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Women’s Work: Archaeology and Mothering" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Becoming a mother was a learning experience in misogyny and discrimination. From a radical lack of maternity leave to the second shift at home, exhausted does not begin to describe my condition. However, as anthropologists, we are also trained to see our privilege (in my case a private office for pumping breastmilk and a flexible work...

  • "The Site Mama": Mothering and Mentorship as the Taproot of Community Driven Research Projects (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Katherine Seeber.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Women’s Work: Archaeology and Mothering" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Most every site, every crew, has their “site mama”; a lady who reminds everyone to drink water, pick up their garbage, and check for ticks. The Site Mama does the unpaid labor of keeping the crew and site well. Community oriented archaeology, which thrives only under an ethic of care, is many times formulated and dependent on this same...