Community Networks at the Stanford Arboretum Chinese Workers’ Quarters

Summary

The historical response and endurance of Chinese diaspora communities in California, living with legally reified racism, is a critical component of understanding the economic and social impacts of immigration restriction. Between 1876 and 1925, the Chinese employees at the Stanford Stock Farm and Stanford University impacted the development of agriculture and infrastructure through their labor and entrepreneurship as farm workers, in construction, as gardeners, and as domestic workers. Over that time, they experienced hostility and political pressure as exclusion increased and anti-Chinese demonstrations increased. Archaeological work can provide a perspective on how they persevered: how daily activities were organized to cope with their conditions and how social connections through trade and movement were maintained. This paper is an analysis of materials recovered from the Chinese employees’ living quarters in the Stanford Arboretum during non-archaeological ground disturbance in the 1980s, and suggests how archaeological work can add to these findings.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions) 2016   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

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PaperId(s): 611