Contaminated Consumption: An Archaeological Examination of the Consequences of Adaptation in Industrial and Illicit Alcohol Production in the Southeastern United States

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The economic and communal importance of alcohol production across the Southeastern United States can be traced from colonization to the present day. From colonists' advertisements for wives who could brew beer, to moonshiners outrunning revenuers and Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agents, to distillery-based tourism in the present day, alcohol production has sustained lives and livelihoods, becoming an embedded tradition throughout the region. Alcohol is the center of many community anxieties, constructed narratives, and targeted surveillance and policing. Archaeological investigations of alcohol production sites present colonists and homesteaders striving to survive in new landscapes, vast networks of illicit production and trade, and the adaptability of the alcohol industry during and after Prohibition. In this paper, we explore how the material culture of alcohol production and consumption in the Southeastern United States both coincides with and contradicts historic narratives of these activities. We specifically focus on the transition periods into and out of Prohibition, examining how cultural narratives between legal and illicit alcohol display communal anxieties about race, gender, class, and health while erasing the diversity, agency, and contamination involved in production, distribution, and consumption of alcohol.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40087.0