Papers by LouAnn Wurst
Many connections have been made between the Great Depression and the current crisis in Neoliberal... more Many connections have been made between the Great Depression and the current crisis in Neoliberal capitalism, and many solutions proposed by the Left hearken to FDR's New Deal programs. While New Deal policies had real benefits, assuming that they were uniformly beneficial to all lower class individuals is short-sighted. This is clear from the vantage point of our research in the Finger Lakes National Forest. The New Deal's Resettlement Administration purchased these farms when implementing land-planning policies to move farmers off "submarginal" land to save families "stranded on sub-marginal farms." Our research demonstrates that governmental land-use programs saved some farms by sacrificing others. This case makes it clear that solving current crises need more than nostalgic yearning for a mythic past. Solutions must come from a thorough examination of the "real concrete" past, not simply the past as imagined.
Historical Archaeology is a discipline defined as the study of capitalism even though it has seld... more Historical Archaeology is a discipline defined as the study of capitalism even though it has seldom confronted capitalism head on. A philosophy of internal relations, with its emphasis on dialectics, social totality, and analytical abstraction, provides powerful tools to help us realize the potential of confronting capitalism. In this paper, I present a range of case studies to articulate how a class perspective framed within a philosophy of internal relations can help archaeologists better understand the human past. In turn, historical archaeology can play an important role helping us all better understand the history of capitalist dispossession: by fleshing out how capitalism has unfolded, humanizing these processes, and making us aware of just how contested and contingent the history of capitalism was. If historical archaeology does anything it reminds us that capitalism has always had boom and bust cycles, that it has only thrived through dispossession, and that it has always had its casualties.
International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 2002
The rural hamlet of Peterboro, the home of Gerrit Smith, the nineteenth century's most famous soc... more The rural hamlet of Peterboro, the home of Gerrit Smith, the nineteenth century's most famous social reformer, has been portrayed as an idyllic and peaceful community free of class conflict. The extensive documentary record suggests a less harmonious situation and indicates that the community was fraught with struggle, engendered as much by Smith's reform efforts as by general class relations. This article examines class-based struggle through several vignettes, including a look at the voting patterns of the Liberty party in Smithfield, the social conditions of African Americans who lived in Peterboro, and the story of the temperance hotel.
International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 2011
H.G. Wells claimed that his real interest in Niagara Falls was the “human accumulations” that gre... more H.G. Wells claimed that his real interest in Niagara Falls was the “human accumulations” that grew up around it. Niagara has figured prominently in the escalating research on the history of tourism, most of which focuses on when and how the middle-classes went on holiday. This copious literature seldom acknowledges the complexity of social relations involved in travel. These accounts typically ignore the hotel and restaurant employees who made the middle-class experience possible. The leisure, travel, and hedonism of the middle-classes was only made possible because of the labor provided by an army of workers. Archaeology at one of Niagara Fall’s hotels provides a context to examine how the Niagara experience was created by many different classes of people. Thus, the “human accumulations” at Niagara can be seen as the physical manifestation of these social relations of class.
International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 1999
Consumer behavior and choice models have assumed a major role in historical archaeology. Recent i... more Consumer behavior and choice models have assumed a major role in historical archaeology. Recent interest in consumption is an honest attempt to move beyond an emphasis on production. Consumer models have clear material referents, making them useful in historical archaeology. These models, however, separate production from consumption, and privilege the autonomous individual as the preferred unit of analysis. They also reinforce and validate ideologies that obscure inequalities and power relations in modern society. For us the important issue is how people reproduce themselves as social beings. Focusing on social reproduction integrates both production and consumption.
International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 2002
Many postprocessual archaeologists have argued that active individuals make history. The apotheos... more Many postprocessual archaeologists have argued that active individuals make history. The apotheosis of the individual has been achieved under the rubric “identity,” the most pervasive theoretical term of the last few years. This focus obscures the fundamental idea that individuals do not exist in isolation. The relational concept of struggle will help us past this theoretical impasse. This concept has many components including real struggles in the past, our struggles to know the past, and using the past to struggle in the present. Our goal is to “struggle past” identity politics and the individual by focusing on peoples' real struggles in real cases.
Articles and book chapters by LouAnn Wurst
In this paper, I begin with ideas of difference and try to weave together aspects of our discipli... more In this paper, I begin with ideas of difference and try to weave together aspects of our disciplinary structure, contemporary theoretical critique, and research agendas to show how our emphasis on difference, multiplicity, and individual identity makes it difficult to comprehend all that we share and constrains our political action to only local concerns. Instead, the kind of archaeological research that I envision focuses on commonalities through questions of labor, class and capitalism geared toward developing an understanding of all that we as people share.
Archaeologists have largely embraced the idea that our discipline is political; that from its inc... more Archaeologists have largely embraced the idea that our discipline is political; that from its inception it has been intimately linked to capitalism and implicated with nationalist, colonialist, imperialist, sexist and racist agendas. Archaeologists have always validated our existence by the social relevance of our work, often with varying success. We believe that the best method may be to study history backward: to begin with the present result and look to the past to consider its preconditions. Bringing these understandings forward again allows us to project this potential into the future and examine the present complete with its ties to the past. This dialectical connection of past, present and future provides an important perspective on the long-term historical study of the social relations of capitalism. In this paper, we provide the larger theoretical context to elucidate these issues that form the foundation for this issue.
Many postprocessual archaeologists have argued that active individuals make history. The apotheos... more Many postprocessual archaeologists have argued that active individuals make history. The apotheosis of the individual has been achieved under the rubric “identity,” the most pervasive theoretical term of the last few years. This focus obscures the fundamental idea that individuals do not exist in isolation. The relational concept of struggle will help us past this theoretical impasse. This concept has many components including real struggles in the past, our struggles to know the past, and using the past to struggle in the present. Our goal is to “struggle past” identity politics and the individual by focusing on peoples’ real struggles in real cases.
"Consumer behavior and choice models have assumed a major role in historical archaeology. Recent ... more "Consumer behavior and choice models have assumed a major role in historical archaeology. Recent interest in consumption is an honest attempt to move beyond an emphasis on production. Consumer models have clear material referents, making them useful in historical archaeology. These models, however, separate production from consumption, and privilege the autonomous individual as the preferred unit of analysis. They also reinforce and validate ideologies that obscure inequalities
and power relations in modern society. For us the important issue is how people reproduce themselves as social beings. Focusing on social reproduction integrates both production and consumption."
For decades, archaeologists have "ponied up" to the Marxist buffet, picking and choosing from a v... more For decades, archaeologists have "ponied up" to the Marxist buffet, picking and choosing from a vast array of appealing tidbits that are incorporated in various aspects of their research. We believe that praxis is one of the key issues separating Marxism from other theoretical approaches. For Marxist archaeologists, praxis comes from knowledge and critique; they generate knowledge about the past, use this
knowledge to engage in a critique of our own world, and come to action based on the realization that there is real oppression in the world that must be challenged. In this paper, we present examples spanning the last eighty years including V. Gordon Childe, the New Archaeology, La rqueología Social, the so·called Annapolis school, and the postprocessual approach-to evaluate how praxis has been defined and how such views have changed over time.
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Papers by LouAnn Wurst
Articles and book chapters by LouAnn Wurst
and power relations in modern society. For us the important issue is how people reproduce themselves as social beings. Focusing on social reproduction integrates both production and consumption."
knowledge to engage in a critique of our own world, and come to action based on the realization that there is real oppression in the world that must be challenged. In this paper, we present examples spanning the last eighty years including V. Gordon Childe, the New Archaeology, La rqueología Social, the so·called Annapolis school, and the postprocessual approach-to evaluate how praxis has been defined and how such views have changed over time.
and power relations in modern society. For us the important issue is how people reproduce themselves as social beings. Focusing on social reproduction integrates both production and consumption."
knowledge to engage in a critique of our own world, and come to action based on the realization that there is real oppression in the world that must be challenged. In this paper, we present examples spanning the last eighty years including V. Gordon Childe, the New Archaeology, La rqueología Social, the so·called Annapolis school, and the postprocessual approach-to evaluate how praxis has been defined and how such views have changed over time.