Chuck’s Stomping Grounds and Historical Archaeology’s Haunts: Or, How Charles Orser’s Work Haunts Me

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Transformation of Historical Archaeology: Papers in Honor of Charles E Orser, Jr" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Chuck Orser has taken me all sorts of places, both geographic and intellectual. In fact, he has helped me see the value of connecting concept and place. This paper situates the sociopolitical dynamics of colonialism, Eurocentrism, capitalism, and modernity in their inescapably trans-Atlantic places by examining crucial moments and places of another thing Chuck has a certain fondness for: chocolate. The history of chocolate demonstrates the colonizing effort to incorporate and differentiate. It is a case study in Eurocentrism. Likewise, chocolate and capitalism are more profoundly connected than one might expect.  In some places, it is hard to imagine a modern world without chocolate, while its absence in certain contexts is exemplary of the development and repercussions of modernity. Chuck’s theoretical curiosity and peripatetic adventurousness has been an inspiration for showing how seemingly small places and quotidian things actually matter a lot.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2019   •
• The Transformation of Historical Archaeology: Papers in Honor of Charles E Orser, Jr

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 348