Modern Material Culture Studies in Modern and Past Populations

Summary

This project presents data from a month long archaeological survey of refuse conducted on a university campus in New York City and uses it in conjunction with conventional theoretical methods applied to the analysis of the material culture. The previous archaeological analyses of secondary aggregates or deposit sites in which localized, high concentrations of refuse are examined, provide hypotheses regarding human behavioral patterns (Johnson 1999) and serve as a comparative model from which to derive further inferences about the modern refuse sample. The identification of secondary aggregates involves determining the frequency of relevant artifacts, their density, diversity, and deposit location resulting in a link between behavior and the materials examined in situ. The constant presence of material culture and its discard in human life acts as an analogous correlate to human behavior. This project highlights the importance of material culture research for a greater understanding of human interaction with surrounding environments, both past and present.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage