Interpreting the Yreka Chinatown Collection through a Modern Lens

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.

In the Spring of 1969, California State Park archaeologists conducted excavations at Yreka’s third Chinatown, prior to its destruction by the construction of Interstate 5. It was one of the earliest excavations of a Chinese community in California, and one of the first large-scale historical archaeological salvage projects in the state. The excavation took place shortly after the second annual meeting of the SHA, where archaeologists Paul Chace and Chris Evans discussed their research on a Chinese railroad worker camp at Donner Summit and introduced the term “Overseas Chinese archaeology.” It was a time when historical archaeological studies of ethnic groups primarily focused on models of assimilation and acculturation. Cultural practices of immigrant groups including the Chinese, were frequently viewed as static and homogeneous. Recent re-analysis of artifactual materials from the Yreka Chinatown excavation has allowed for a more holistic, revisionist approach to understanding the lives of Yreka’s Chinese community.

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): 374