Drinking, Laundry, and Haircuts: Framing Nikkei Material Culture in the Context of "Moral Reform" Politics at Barneston, WA (1907-1924)

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Diverse and Enduring: Archaeology from Across the Asian Diaspora" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Previous studies of pre-WWII Japanese immigrant/Japanese American (Nikkei) archaeology have largely (but not entirely) focused on culture change, typically through theories of assimilation/acculturation, ethnic retention, and/or diaspora and transnationalism. In this paper, I propose an alternative approach to Nikkei archaeology that is grounded in Race Formation Theory and theories of anti-Japanese racism. My thesis holds that certain material and archival patterns—centered on drinking activities and personal care—are reflective of “working-class” navigations of internal reform efforts and respectability which appeared in the early 20th century in part as a response to Nikkei racialization. What emerged from this was a particular set of norms around drinking activities and personal care that drew upon, but were noticeably distinct from, what we might expect of full adherence to reform efforts. I describe evidence for this thesis on the sawmill town of Barneston, Washington, and explore future research questions that could help refine it.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Diverse and Enduring: Archaeology from Across the Asian Diaspora   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology