The Invisible Institution: Archaeological Expressions of Coerced Labour Control through the Manipulation of Information.

Summary

Identifying the material expressions of torture, punishment, discipline, and imprisonment are key factors in addressing the ways in which society exerts its control over the individual; particularly the non-conformist, the criminal, and the slave. With respect to the spatial expression of coerced labour control, the emphasis has been upon the idea of the "panoptican" or the mechanism by which the labourer can never know if he is being watched. Another form of coerced labour management though, is that of controlling information; but in both directions. This is perhaps more subtle in the visible archaeological landscape, and may be considered an indirect form of social manipulation. This paper compares material and historical expressions of information control between a slavery context (at several 18th Century rice plantations in the Southeastern US), a virtual prison (Barrow Island, Western Australia – late 19th Century), and a literal prison (Fremantle Prison, Western Australia – late 19th Century).

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2015   •
• Approaching Labor through Archaeology in the Twenty-First Century

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 179