Archaeology Of Capitalism Research Articles

Towards an archaeology of rubber

This article aims to address the impacts of rubber via historical and contemporary archaeology of the Amazon. Through an “archaeology of rubber” a notion of modernity is examined here. From the creation of rubber gloves to snow boots and tires, rubber has allowed humans to expand their interactions with the environment. As these interactions expanded, the consolidation of the Industrial Revolution and Occidentalism entangled actors in a complex web of meanings, becomings and agencies in opposition to local knowledge. Through a plural and multispecies approach, this article places the study of rubber’s materiality in the field of the archaeology of capitalism and modernity. Also, through oral history, deep archival research and public archaeology, local ontologies and materialities offer contemporary archaeology a more elastic view, aimed at widening perceptions of a global story.

After 1918

After 1918

Introduction: Rethinking the Archaeology of Capitalism: Coercion, Violence, and the Politics of Accumulation

Long an analytical staple of historical archaeology, capitalism in recent years has found itself under renewed scrutiny, due in part to the repercussions of the 2008 global economic crisis. Questions about the failings of “free-market” self-regulation and the proliferation of predatory practices and value-manipulation instruments fostered discussions about what, in fact, the “true” nature of capitalism was, and whether such practices, drawing on extra-economic power, violence, and various forms of coercion in the name of unequal accumulation, were aberrational or foundational. A space emerges within these discussions for a critical rethinking of capitalism through the emerging contributions of feminist, new materialist, actor-network, and (post-)Marxist perspectives that emphasize the diverse mechanisms and practices generative of the effects attributed variously to an abstract, monolithic, epoch-defining capitalist system. The approaches articulated in this thematic collection push for a move away from limiting and inconsistent definitions of capitalism, and toward a more supple suite of analytical threads for the cross-context analysis of diverse assemblages with diverse histories of emergence that generate parallel capitalist effects. In turn, the contributors to this collection illustrate the broader relevance of the contributions of historical archaeologies of capitalism to other archaeological contexts and subdisciplines by providing common ground for the comparative analysis of contexts generative of similar human/nonhuman experiences and effects that have remained categorically segregated in their analyses.

The Archaeology of Capitalism in Iceland: The View from Viðey

This paper examines the particular nature of Icelandic capitalism as it emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Drawing on a recent project investigating the material processes surrounding the rise and fall of an early capitalist venture in the fishing industry, the role of commodities and their intersection with issues of colonialism and nationalism is explored. The study centers on a village community established in 1907 on an island in the bay of Reykjavik, which saw two periods of boom and bust in its short life before the village was abandoned in 1943.

Archaeologies of Recent Rural Sicily and Sardinia: A Comparative Approach

Although there have been increasing amounts of archaeological work carried out in the Mediterranean on Post-Medieval periods, particularly in Greece, historical archaeology in the Anglo-American sense is so far poorly developed in Italy. For many, work on this period is seen as synonymous with the archaeology of capitalism and the growth of world systems. Such concerns require many different scales of analysis and an inter-disciplinary approach. One crucial question for archaeologists is how processes at different scales and perhaps different tempos articulate. While fieldwork typically contributes to the local and regional, the archaeological search for broader syntheses often privileges ecological conditions as determining the nature of possible responses; historians and anthropologists, for their part, have tended to emphasize the economic. Here we present two case studies from broadly ecologically similar areas, the central highlands of Sicily and Sardinia, both with rich archaeological, historical and ethnographic archives from the last two centuries. Our analysis supports work elsewhere in the Mediterranean which suggests that even under the homogenizing influences of global trade and regional ecologies, the specific sociopolitical conditions within which communities and classes articulate with wider forces are crucial in determining historical and cultural trajectories.

Localised Capitalism in Global Historical Archaeology: A Discussion of the Archaeology of Improvement in Scotland

Dalglish is correct, historical archaeology is the archaeology of capitalism. Now the association seems obvious, capitalism is too important in the temporal responsibility of historical archaeology for it to be ignored or marginalised. Archaeologists, as Paynter (1988) pointed out, have always excavated, recorded, analysed, and interpreted evidence of capitalism. They were just rarely explicit about it. As historical archaeology becomes clearer regarding its subject matter, there needs to be more precise understandings of the complexity of capitalism, its uneven developments, and the variation in its expansion around the world.

Archaeologies of Capitalism. Theory, Method and the Reconsideration of the Scottish Highlands

A lot of the comments deal with things I did not consider, as much as with those I did. As will become clear below, I am in agreement with many of the issues raised and think some of them provide significant avenues of enquiry. In general, this reply, perhaps more than it is a defence of what I did say, is an agreement that the various issues raised should inform future research on the Highlands in the recent past. I feel the discussion has been positive in this respect and thank the various contributors for that.

Linking Local to Global: An Integrated Archaeology of Capitalism

Dalglish's paper raises several interesting issues, both methodological and theoretical. At the heart of this paper is the proposition that archaeology can contribute to our understanding of capitalism, because local landscape studies (by archaeologists) provide us with a more informed view of the common people and the disenfranchised, and their ‘mundane daily existence’ (as a rationale for historical archaeology in general see Falk 1991). Dalglish argues the need to analytically separate capitalism (an ideology of the individual knowable from routine) from capitalist societies, where capitalist values are not uniformly embedded. Variability in local responses to capitalism is important to understanding regional processes of change over the last few hundred years. Few historical archaeologists would quibble with this.

Archaeology and the Capitalist World System: A Study from Russian America

Russian America and the Archaeology of Capitalism. Three Saints Harbor Through the Lens of History. Archaeological Overview of the Three Saints Harbor Site. Houses and Households. Cultural Remains. Discussion and Conclusions. Appendix: Research at Three Saints harbor in 1962 Donald W. Clark. Index.

An archaeology of capitalism

Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. Enduring Structures and Historical Understanding. 3. Understanding Enclosure. 4. Housing, Fields, Maps and Cultures. 5. Ordering the World. 6. Archaeologies of Authority. 7. Redefining the Domestic. 8. Thinking about Objects. Conclusion. Glossary. References. Index.