Re-thinking the Archaeology of Us

Since William Rathje's Garbology Projects and Michael Schiffer and Richard Gould's "Modern Material Culture: the Archaeology of Us", the archaeology of the twentieth century has been rather quiet. As the century is coming to a close it is worthwhile taking another look at the archaeology of us to see where we have come since those earlier studies. Now that such studies are imminently part of recent past, how are we to deal with such 'historical' concerns, particularly as the modern is becoming part of the Heritage? How do we manage this aspect of the Heritage that is so close to us and conversely approach the archaeology of twentieth century sites in the new millennium. One of the central issues of this line of research is what can be made of the experience of modernism in various communities as we are about to leave it well behind in the last century and how does such work affect the various communities in which this research takes place?

The papers of this session will present the most recent work in this area of research on explicitly twentieth century topics and sites. From theoretical perspectives, both processualist and post-processualist, a variety of contexts will be examined from the uses of Art Deco ceramics to a broad spectrum of sites from the American South, the English North, council flats in Russia and council flats in England to the problems affecting the heritage management of twentieth century sites. In light of theoretical developments since the early 1980's these papers will engage in varying ways the positive insights an archaeology of us provides as well as its drawbacks in enabling a more thorough understanding of the experience of modernism and the communities it has continued to affect.

Dealing with Art Deco

The paper demonstrates that archaeological approaches to material culture can be productive even in periods where we already have excellent historical sources. An archaeological analysis of Art Deco as a design concept brings to light a deeper understanding of social relationships with cultural consumables. Archaeological critique can challenge design history and illustrate why terms such as Art Deco and Modernism can be both problematic and beneficial in writing recent social history. This paper looks at how we approach twentieth century social history, and cautions against simplistic categorisation into neat design histories such as Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Pop Art, etc.

Beyond Consumption: Toward an Archaeology of Consumerism

This paper presents an overview of modern material culture studies based on research carried out in archaeology since Rathje's seminal synthesis of 1979. Because archaeological research on modern material culture has lacked any sort of unity or coherence, a thematic focus is suggested for integrating the field. To wit, modern material culture studies can be considered the archaeology of consumerism. It is shown that most previous modern material culture studies, being concerned with aspects of consumption processes, are easily accommodated within this thematic framework. Finally, questions are posed for future research that can take the archaeology of consumerism considerably beyond the narrow concern with consumption.

Archaeology as modernist project speculations, examples of "Ways of Seeing"

Despite the socio-philosophical positioning of ourselves in a post-modern world, modernity remains a desirable condition for the bulk of the population. I would like to explore what is meant by "modernity" in both its academic and popular senses to see if there is a common ground from which to build. If there is, and I contend that there is indeed, can we use that common ground to explain the variety of archaeological remains of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries? By using data from recent work in Chester I will show that such an understanding does indeed provide important information about a number of relatively unexplored facets of the material culture record of the period.However, archaeology is a project intimately bound up with modernism, whose aims are modernist and whose techniques owe much to modernist conceptions, despite a shift towards post-modern modes of expression in the last two decades. By accepting that modernism is dead, am I sounding the death-knell of our discipline?

'"More for ornament than for necessarie uses': artefacts and diasporas"

When George Beste sailed with Frobisher to the New World in 1576 he was amazed by the rich diversity of objects that the expedition was able to acquire and ship back to England - the beginning of the "rich trade" that was to make the merchant capitalists of Europe wealthy, and which enabled complex sumptuary systems of display and denial that used artefacts to mark out social and economic status. Four centuries later, late modernity is characterised by different diasporas; 'guest workers' in Europe, Indians in Saudi Arabia, African political exiles scattered widely and white Rhodesians sharing nostalgia in Australian sunsets. In contrast with Frobisher's uncomfortable months at sea, electronic media seem to conquer the constraints of space and time, and to dissolve the tangible elements of the object into an assemblage of pixels. But behind this illusion of virtual reality seems to be a reliance on the materiality of 'things' that gives to some artefacts a sumptuary quality similar to that appreciated by George Beste. This paper will explore this archaeology of the electronic media.

The Archaeology of Alienation: A late 20^th Century British Council Flat

How is it possible for an individual to live and disappear in a late twentieth century context with absolutely no social or affective ties; that is to become for all intents and purposes invisible? Towards an answer to that question the results of an 'excavation' of an abandoned late 20^th. Century British council flat will be presented. This research examines the material processes of consumption and fiscal and social disenfranchisement that results in abandonment and the effective alienation of the individual from his or her immediate geographic and administrative community. Thus the material culture of alienation and its most extreme manifestation: abandonment will be discussed. By making the familiar unfamiliar through the archaeological act, important issues regarding the nature of archaeological evidence, interpretation and late twentieth century experience which would otherwise be unapproachable by any other social science method are addressed here directly.

Black Sharecroppers and White Frat Boys: Living Communities and the Construction of their Archaeological Pasts

Racism and social inequality are all issues which characterised the early 20th century and that continue to shape today's social discourse. As archaeologists working in this time period, we are confronted with multiple voices, voices of the living who created the archaeological sites, and their descendant populations. When these voices are raised in discord, archaeologists can be caught in the middle. In this paper, I will discuss two 20th century sites, one in California, the other in Louisiana. The California site was associated with a wealthy European-American college fraternity community at the University of California, the Louisiana site was associated with an African-American sharecropping community. Each community contained individuals who sought to influence and shape the way their past was constructed. While attempting to negotiate between different community groups can be frustrating, in both instances, working with informants allowed the archaeological interpretation to become contextualized within early and late 20th century social debates, allowing for the construction of a richer social dialogue.

"We are all Germans…but don't mention unification!" : The problem of ethnicity and the archaeology of post-communist change in East Germany.

This paper presents an interpretation of the supposed archaeological record evoked by the changes after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. This 'fictional' archaeological interpretation will then be contrasted with the actual problems of identity in East German after the fall of the Wall. How can political identity, even if enforced upon members of the same national identity, then turn into a form of ethnic identity? The physical wall of separation turned - after its destruction- into a conceptual 'us-them' separating two parts of Germany. The distinction of either 'us' or 'them' appears on the basis of written and spoken variations of language, general historical experience and West German modes of domination (particularly as seen in the East) which further deepen such separation. It will be suggested that East Germans have formed an identity beyond that associated with vertical or horizontal relations in society: an understanding of identity that actually runs counter to what a supposed archaeological interpretation would have uncovered.

My History or Yours?

The conversation of 20th century buildings, sites or structure is often difficult to sustain. Perhaps this is because the simplest criteria for significance and the one most people understand - the age of the site - is irrelevant. For the twentieth century we have to begin to explore other measures of significance, including much more explicit recognition of aesthetic, historical and social issues than most conservative archaeologists are used to dealing with. At the same time, we cannot afford to become too academic in the way we justify protection, and ignore the bounds of public acceptability. This paper will review issues emerging from the protection and care of twentieth century buildings, sites and monuments, and explore the implications for research.