Small Towns and Mining Camps: A Comparative Analysis of Chinese Diasporic Communities in Oregon

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.

Chinese Diaspora archaeology has historically focused on urban contexts or in-depth case studies, with minimal comparative studies. The Oregon Chinese Diaspora Project is a multi-agency partnership conducting research on Chinese migrant populations across the state. This paper focuses on the comparative study of material culture from the John Day Chinatown, the Jacksonville Chinese Quarter, and four remote Chinese mining camps in an effort to understand the social and economic relationship between Chinese communities. Archaeological data and documentary records is used to interrogate the ways in which Chinese individuals negotiated their position within the larger non-Chinese society in rural Oregon during the Exclusion Era. A comparative analysis of the ceramic, clothing, and personal adornment assemblages from each site is done in an effort to gain insight into the economic relationships between rural towns and mining camps, by evaluating access, consumer preference, and use of everyday items in each context.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 358