Spatial Relationships at Ethnic Chinese Dominated Section Stations in the Western United States

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Arming the Resistance: Recent Scholarship in Chinese Diaspora Archaeology" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

My research into Chinese Railroad Worker archaeology on the Central Pacific has focused on section station life in the 1870s into the 1890s in Utah and Nevada. These investigations and others have pointed out elements of the distinctive Chinese ethnic material culture, the specific housing provided by the railroad for Chinese workers, and the unique demographics that were at play within most section station sites along the railroad. Spatial relationships, however, have not been as well explored. In this paper, I examine, in more detail, the spatial aspects of section station sites during this period of time and the details provided by archaeology and documents. I then explore what implications this information may suggest for social stratification and power politics in this and other rural industrial sites in the West, such as gold mining camps, where there were also large populations of ethnic Chinese during this period of time.  

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Arming the Resistance: Recent Scholarship in Chinese Diaspora Archaeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 304