White Privilege and the Archaeology of Accountability on Long Island

Author(s): Meg Gorsline

Year: 2013

Summary

Dating to ca. 1660 and occupied for several generations by a locally prominent family, the Brewster House is revered as the oldest home in a Long Island town keen on memorializing history.  An archaeology of accountability reveals another side of the story, one that destabilizes complacent expectations and sanitized interpretations of white middle class homes.  Working from Bernbeck and Pollock’s (2007) premise that historical archaeologists must uncover the disturbing parts of history along with the neutral and positive parts, an archaeology of accountability asks how this dominantly-constructed history perpetuates white privilege and seeks to expose a more deeply excavated history. 

Cite this Record

White Privilege and the Archaeology of Accountability on Long Island. Meg Gorsline. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Leicester, England, U.K. 2013 ( tDAR id: 428233)

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

Spatial Coverage

min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 502