In Small Things Remembered II: An Archaeology of Affective Objects and Other Narratives

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "In Small Things Remembered II: An Archaeology of Affective Objects and Other Narratives," at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

James Deetz’s assertion that “the past can be seen most fully by studying the small things so often forgotten,” transformed material culture studies in historical archaeology. By focusing analytical attention on the incidental objects of everyday life, Deetz urged archaeologists to explore the reciprocal entanglements of human life and material culture, confronting distortions of history by revealing subaltern narratives. For the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery Project, these affective objects serve as vital windows into the lives, deaths, and burials of more than 2,400 poor, institutionalized, and unidentified individuals interred from 1882 through 1925. Papers in this session explore how a selection of small things transform our holistic insights and understandings of the individuals, histories, and narratives of this site.