Connecting Working Class History with Working Class Culture: Activist Archaeology in the Portland Neighborhood

Author(s): M. Jay Stottman

Year: 2019

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Communicating Working Class Heritage in the 21st Century: Values, Lessons, Methods, and Meanings" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Is working class history being forgotten?  What is working class heritage to the working class today?  This paper will examine the relationship between working class people and their history.  It also will critically analyze academia’s role in preserving this history and its inherent disconnect from working class culture.  Within an activist framework, archaeologist can help connect the working class with the past and advocate for present day communities.  I will focus on ethnographic research and public archaeology conducted in the working class neighborhood of Portland located in Louisville, Kentucky as a case study to illustrate archaeology’s activist potential for working class culture.

Cite this Record

Connecting Working Class History with Working Class Culture: Activist Archaeology in the Portland Neighborhood. M. Jay Stottman. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, St. Charles, MO. 2019 ( tDAR id: 448972)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 346