Intemperate Men: Alcohol and Autonomy Within the Lumber Camps of Michigan's Upper Peninsula

Summary

This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Industrial capital often instilled discipline through control of social behaviors. Alcohol consumption was most often targeted due to its effects on worker productivity. Although many late 19th and early 20th century corporations had strict alcohol policies, the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company (CCI) never enforced sobriety within their lumber camps. CCI took a hands off approach to managing their lumber camps, which allotted their workers a great deal of autonomy in their everyday lives. These lumber camps provide the opportunity to explore how workers used alcohol within this industrial setting when given this level of autonomy. Looking at bottle remains and the feature contexts they were recovered from, I examine the influence of alcohol consumption on variables such as ethnicity, class, and residency amongst workers. From this I explore how these variables influenced workers use of alcohol in a setting where they had the autonomy to do so freely.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• 2020 SHA General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 935