Interdisciplinary Investigations of the Boott Mills, Lowell, Massachusetts, Vol. 3


Book Description

Excerpt from Interdisciplinary Investigations of the Boott Mills, Lowell, Massachusetts, Vol. 3: The Boarding House System as a Way of Life The boardinghouse system may represent a pattern for corporate housing, but it is a pattern that differs as dramatically from private boarding as it does from normal - if such a term can ever be used with accuracy - domestic arrangements nuclear families). The Lowell boardinghouse system fostered a way of life that contrasted starkly with life in rural America, but it was a way of life that became common in industrial cities as the 19th century progressed. That the Lowell system was effective in meeting managerial goals is evident in the fact that, with minor modifications, it was widely adopted throughout New England (see Clancey, this volume). This system was a bounded arena which, despite its seeming rigidity, left openings for workers to operate creatively. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.










The Archaeology of Class in Urban America


Book Description

An engaging study which looks at archaeological, documentary and environmental evidence to explore the factors determining class identity.




Encyclopedia of Historical Archaeology


Book Description

A-Z organised Entries are written by an international team of 127 experts in the field Includes 29 b+w illustrations including 23 half-tones Contains cross references, suggestions for further reading and a comprehensive index




Household Chores and Household Choices


Book Description

Discusses the concepts of “home,” “house,” and “household” in past societies Because archaeology seeks to understand past societies, the concepts of "home," "house," and "household" are important. Yet they can be the most elusive of ideas. Are they the space occupied by a nuclear family or by an extended one? Is it a built structure or the sum of its contents? Is it a shelter against the elements, a gendered space, or an ephemeral place tied to emotion? We somehow believe that the household is a basic unit of culture but have failed to develop a theory for understanding the diversity of households in the historic (and prehistoric) periods. In an effort to clarify these questions, this volume examines a broad range of households—a Spanish colonial rancho along the Rio Grande, Andrew Jackson's Hermitage in Tennessee, plantations in South Carolina and the Bahamas, a Colorado coal camp, a frontier Arkansas farm, a Freedman's Town eventually swallowed by Dallas, and plantations across the South—to define and theorize domestic space. The essays devolve from many disciplines, but all approach households from an archaeological perspective, looking at landscape analysis, excavations, reanalyzed collections, or archival records. Together, the essays present a body of knowledge that takes the identification, analysis, and interpretation of households far beyond current conceptions.







Lines that Divide


Book Description

The division of human society by race, class, and gender has been addressed by scholars in many of the social sciences. Now historical archaeologists are demonstrating how material culture can be used to examine the processes that have erected boundaries between people. Drawing on case studies from around the world, the essays in this volume highlight diverse moments in the rise of capitalist civilization both in Western Europe and its colonies. In the first section, the contributors address the dynamics of the racial system that emerged from European colonialism. They show how archaeological remains shed light on the institution of slavery in the American Southeast, on the treatment of Native Americans by Mormon settlers, and on the color line in colonial southern Africa. The next group of articles considers how gender was negotiated in nineteenth-century New York City, in colonial Ecuador, and on Jamaican coffee plantations. A final section focuses on the issue of class division by examining the built environment of eighteenth-century Catalonia and material remains and housing from early industrial Massachusetts. These essays constitute an archaeology of capitalism and clearly demonstrate the importance of history in shaping cultural consciousness. Arguing that material culture is itself an active agent in the negotiation of social difference, they reveal the ways in which historical archaeologists can contribute to both the definition and dismantling of the lines that divide.