Changing Systems of Labor and the (Re)Production of Identity

Summary

Space and society are mutually constituting. The organization of space creates and reproduces a system of relations in both production and labor power. Conversely, revolutionizing a dominant system of labor and the relations that sustained it anticipates the reconfiguring of the fabric and meaning of space. A notable example is separating the spheres of work and home under industrial capitalism. This paper reveals the implications of labor relations on changing perceptions of race by investigating the transition from an enslaved to wage-labor system on a plural farmstead on Long Island, New York. Altering domestic space and racial discourse and practice are considered evidence for how the transition between comparable systems of exploitative labor perpetuated an unequal distribution of power and wealth and, thus, a dispossessed laboring class.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Labor and Plurality: Excavating the Political Economy of Identity   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-58,01