"For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People": A Critical examination of American park-space

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Contested Landscapes: The Archaeology of Politics, Borders, and Movement" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

"For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People". Teddy Roosevelt’s words speak to the legacy of park-land narratives as unrestricted spaces open to all. Beneath this public veneer are contested landscapes founded in social division and inequality. With the origins of the National Parks, we look at how such spaces were initially unavailable to segments of the urbanized American public. Next, we discuss the creation of city parks and how theses, like their National counterparts, reinforced and legitimized the American socioeconomic status quo. Using case studies from the West and St. Louis, we show that park landscapes are rooted in ideas of restriction as much as they are in narratives of inclusion. This restriction extends to the present, in how we continue to use such spaces, and in narratives archaeologists and park staff use to describe National Parks. Cherished as virgin wilderness, these subjectively constructed landscapes spin exclusionary histories. To maintain the myth of untouched wilderness, indigenous subjects are turned into romanticized objects, while simultaneously marginalizing the voices of historic-period peoples. The result is that complex narratives are often sacrificed for spoon-fed myths. Though subtle, critically examining park-spaces allows us to address colonialistic legacies that continue to haunt Americans today.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Contested Landscapes: The Archaeology of Politics, Borders, and Movement   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25386