Forming The Footprint Of A City: 19th Century Consumerism And Material Identity In Christchurch, New Zealand

Author(s): Jessie Garland

Year: 2016

Summary

The volume of archaeological work undertaken in Christchurch, New Zealand, since the 2011 earthquake has uncovered a vast quantity of material culture related to the 19th century settlement and development of the city. The challenge of interpreting this material has revealed several unique opportunities to examine questions of consumption and agency in the formation of the city’s material identity. In particular, the city-wide scale of archaeological excavation in combination with a site by site process of investigation allows us to examine these questions at both an individual level and within the context of a homogenised urban material culture. This, in turn, has implications for our understanding of the relationship between the material identity of Christchurch and the wider national and global context in which it was established.

Cite this Record

Forming The Footprint Of A City: 19th Century Consumerism And Material Identity In Christchurch, New Zealand. Jessie Garland. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Washington, D.C. 2016 ( tDAR id: 434502)

Keywords

Temporal Keywords
1850-1900

Spatial Coverage

min long: -176.843; min lat: -50.852 ; max long: 178.558; max lat: -34.415 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 597