Praxis Communities and Uneven Development: Some Ideas on Maroons, Indigenous Americans, and Hobos

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology of Capitalism’s Cracks" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

When thinking about ways to explore the American past with the goal of developing radical progressive ways of moving forward into our own histories, the specific perspectives we use and the people we study matter. In my interrogations of the lives of Maroons and Indigenous Americans of the Great Dismal Swamp (VA and NC), and, transient hobos in Delta, PA, I have explored social worlds created by people who acted though a living critique of the wider capitalistic world. A central part of that critique was recognizing the parts of the American geographic landscape that we would later call “underdeveloped” or “undeveloped” areas—effectively, “cracks” in the spatial world of capital. Using examples from my work, I discuss why these people do matter to our contemporary discussions on fomenting radical social transformations today.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020   •
• Historical Archaeology of Capitalism’s Cracks

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 682