Albert’s Corset? A Queer Approach to Middle-Range Theory

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Gender Revolutions: Disrupting Heteronormative Practices and Epistemologies" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Popularized by Binford, middle-range theory works at the intersection between data and interpretation to analyze the ways social practices manifest archaeologically. In this paper, I take a queer approach to the middle-range that critically engages the often-elided barrier between social prescriptions and daily use around gendered clothing artifacts. My primary case study comes several 20th century trash deposit features excavated from the Halcyon House site in Washington, DC. From 1900-1938, the house was occupied by Albert Adsit Clemons and a male carpenter (name unknown). Both listed as men in documents, their backyard trash deposits are full of metal clips from corsets, garters, stockings, and other lingerie items marketed exclusively to women. Rather than seeking to definitively determine the sexual and gendered practices of Clemons specifically, I instead seek to disrupt the heteronormative assumptions around gendered objects. Queering middle-range theory opens up new possibilities for studying gender nonconformity in archaeological contexts.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020   •
• Gender Revolutions: Disrupting Heteronormative Practices and Epistemologies

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 759