Ethnic Markers and Comparative Approaches to the Asian Diaspora

Summary

Direct comparisons between Chinese and non-Chinese sites go back decades. However, most current Asian diaspora archaeology focuses on single-household or single-community case studies, with comparative work limited to using ethnically-linked artifacts to explore patterns of cultural persistence and change or present evidence for interethnic interaction with neighboring communities. Here, I argue that we need to spend more time conducting direct and detailed comparisons between households and communities of varying ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and consider this research part of the core scope and definition of Chinese or Japanese diaspora archaeology. This can involve comparison of two adjacent and interacting communities or larger diasporic communities of varying ethnic origins separated in space and time. As examples, I explore my own attempts at comparing Asian and non-Asian cannery workers and developing a comparative approach to the archaeology of global diasporas.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Writing Inequality, Endurance, and Transnationalism: The Archaeology of Chinese and Japanese Immigrants and their Descendants in North America   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2017

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 273