Historical Archaeologies of Capitalism

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

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2. Issues in a Historical Archaeology Devoted to Studying Capitalism

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Setting Some Terms for Historical Archaeologies of Capitalism

      • Mark P. Leone

      Pages 3-20

3. Where the Questions Come From

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 21-22

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   2. Why Should Historical Archaeologists Study Capitalism?

      • Alison Wylie

      Pages 23-50

   3. Historical Archaeology and Identity in Modern America

      • Parker B. Potter Jr.

      Pages 51-79

   4. The Contested Commons

      • Terrence W. Epperson

      Pages 81-110

4. Integration into Capitalism and Impoverishment

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 111-113

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   2. Ex Occidente Lux?

      • Margaret Purser

      Pages 115-141

   3. Archaeology and the Challenges of Capitalist Farm Tenancy in America

      • Charles E. Orser Jr.

      Pages 143-167

   4. “A Bold and Gorgeous Front”

      • Paul R. Mullins

      Pages 169-193

   5. Ceramics from Annapolis, Maryland: A Measure of Time Routines and Work Discipline

      • Mark P. Leone

      Pages 195-216

5. Beyond North America

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 217-218

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   2. Historical, Archaeology, Capitalism

      • Matthew Johnson

      Pages 219-232

6. Back Matter

   Pages 233-248

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American things, American material culture, and American archaeology are the themes of this book. The authors use goods used or made in America to illuminate issues such as tenancy, racism, sexism, and regional bias. Contributors utilize data about everyday objects - from tin cans and bottles to namebrand items, from fish bones to machinery - to analyze the way American capitalism works. Their cogent analyses take us literally from broken dishes to the international economy. Especially notable chapters examine how an archaeologist formulates questions about exploitation under capitalism, and how the study of artifacts reveals African-American middle class culture and its response to racism.

• Annapolis
• american archaeology
• artifacts
• historical archaeology
• material culture

`Matthew Johnson's commentary does an excellent job of pulling the articles ... together, exploring the problems that they raise, and placing their concerns in an even broader temporal and spatial context. As he points out, writing a historical archaeology of capitalism is a complex and difficult task. This volume is a welcome and useful contribution to that task.'
Journal of Anthropological Research, 56 (2000)

• University of Maryland, College Park, USA

  Mark P. Leone

• Sargent Museum of Archaeology Concord, USA

  Parker B. Potter

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