Papers by Mark Walker
Historical Archaeology, 2003
Because battlefields can be potent symbols in the construction of historical memory, they can rem... more Because battlefields can be potent symbols in the construction of historical memory, they can remain sites of struggle for as long as that memory is important. History professionals, such as archaeologists, participate fully in these struggles. The commemoration of the Ludlow Massacre Site, a battlefield in the industrial wars of the early-20th century is discussed. The commemoration of Ludlow highlights the role of class interest in the construction of historical memory. Doing archaeology at Ludlow entails acknowledging these interests, both ours, as archaeologists, and those of the working class people who guard the memory of Ludlow. One is not permitted to speak of one's wartime reminiscences today, nor is one under any impulse to do so. It is an area of general reticence: an unmentionable subject among younger friends, and perhaps of mild ridicule among those of radical opinions. All this is understood. And one understands also why it is so.
International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 2002
Field schools are a rite of passage for archaeologists, the first experience of what for many is ... more Field schools are a rite of passage for archaeologists, the first experience of what for many is the defining activity of the discipline: fieldwork. While teaching competence in practical techniques is the minimum goal of any field school, this technical training must be situated within the broader goals that drive the fieldwork. The University of Denver Archaeological Field School provides
Proceedings of the Society for California Archaeology , 2022
The role of alcohol in the construction of masculinity in the nineteenth century United States is... more The role of alcohol in the construction of masculinity in the nineteenth century United States is relatively well documented, but its role in the creation of women’s identities less so. The Anthropological Studies Center at Sonoma State University excavated an 1870s privy in San Francisco containing deposits that were probably associated with a household clean-out after a separation and divorce proceedings. An unusual feature at the time of this divorce is the husband’s legal grounds for seeking divorce was the wife’s intemperance. The archaeological assemblage and reporting on the divorce trial provide hints about women’s social networks, the role that casual drinking and entertaining played in maintaining those networks, and the costs when these social practices came under examination by the legal system.
Historical Archaeology, 1999
Journal of Conflict Archaeology, 2005
, a tent colony of striking coal miners at Ludlow, Colorado was the setting of the most notorious... more , a tent colony of striking coal miners at Ludlow, Colorado was the setting of the most notorious example of open class warfare in American History. This paper explores some dimensions of the conflict as revealed by archaeological investigations at the Ludlow Massacre Memorial. We consider the tactical strategies used by Labor and Capital to gain advantage in the conflict, as well as the survival strategies employed by ordinary people in harm's way. We also address recent vandalism at the Memorial which suggests that, ninety years later, the Ludlow ground remains a contested landscape.
International Journal of Historical Archaeology, Sep 1, 2002
Field schools are a rite of passage for archaeologists, the first experience of what for many is ... more Field schools are a rite of passage for archaeologists, the first experience of what for many is the defining activity of the discipline: fieldwork. While teaching competence in practical techniques is the minimum goal of any field school, this technical training must be situated within the broader goals that drive the fieldwork. The University of Denver Archaeological Field School provides the fieldwork for the Colorado Coal Field War Archaeological Project. This project is an experiment in archaeology as political action in the present. It explores ...
Proceedings of the Society for California Archaeology 27:217-223
Over the past five years, the Anthropological Studies Center (ASC) has been working at the Empire... more Over the past five years, the Anthropological Studies Center (ASC) has been working at the Empire Mine State Historic Park in Nevada County. In the course of this work, the ASC evaluated four residential sites associated with mining operations within the park boundaries. Three of the sites date from the 1850s to the 1880s, and one from 1900-1920. I compare the assemblages from the four sites to identify changes in living and working conditions as mining operations evolved. This paper presents the results of the analysis and some of the issues in comparing sites of this type.
The San Francisco Bay Area has a strong tradition of working-class organization extending back to... more The San Francisco Bay Area has a strong tradition of working-class organization extending back to the 1850s (Cross 1935; Issel and Cherny 1986), a tradition structured by specific historical conditions and the differing experiences, understandings, and actions of workers. Growing disparities in wealth, an unstable economy, and the creation of new regimes of work as industrial production expanded and increasing numbers of workers entered wage work, led to dramatic increases in labor struggles during the late 19th century.
Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, changing, and sometimes conflicting, ideas of ... more Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, changing, and sometimes conflicting, ideas of masculinity played out in how working class men formed common identities among themselves, and how they interacted with others, on both the shop floor and in their neighborhoods and homes. These gendered identities form a basis for both solidarity and exclusion. In this paper I consider the relationship between gender and class identities in the late nineteenth-century U.S., focusing on skilled male railroad workers in West Oakland, in the San Francisco Bay area of California. During this period the craft unions to which these workers belonged articulated a vision of “respectable masculinity” for their members that was intended to replace prevailing notions of masculinity centered on homosociality and hard drinking. This paper examines the impact of these conflicting visions.
Talks by Mark Walker
The late James Rock’s work on cans provides archaeologists with an invaluable set of tools for da... more The late James Rock’s work on cans provides archaeologists with an invaluable set of tools for dating historic-era sites. But his work can address questions well beyond chronology, and illustrates the importance of basic research in addressing higher-level questions. As a case study I use an isolated camp deposit from Butte County, California. His research made it possible to start addressing at least some questions about migrant and transient labor, which is an important part of California’s history, but very difficult to study either archaeologically or historically.
The landscape of much of rural California is the product of transient and migrant seasonal worker... more The landscape of much of rural California is the product of transient and migrant seasonal workers. Rootless, undocumented, and possessing very few personal possessions, this workforce presents problems for both historians and archaeologists. Most of our historical information derives from periods of labor unrest, when transient labor was perceived as a social problem that needed study and adjustment. Our archaeological information comes primarily from the study of work camps in CRM projects. Focusing on the aftermath of the labor violence of the 1910s, this paper discusses work camps as the outcome of changing management ideologies and argues for the need to consider work camps as simply one point in the broader landscapes constituted by the flows of transient labor.
Articles and book chapters by Mark Walker
Historical Archaeology through a Western Lens, 2017
A central metaphor within politically conscious archaeologies is that we are recovering silenced ... more A central metaphor within politically conscious archaeologies is that we are recovering silenced histories or giving voice to those without power. Yet sometimes, when we look deeper we find that the histories we seek to recover are not that silent or waiting for archaeologists to recover them but are jealously guarded by strong constituencies.
Ludlow is such a site. The Ludlow massacre is, like many similar episodes of class struggle in the United States, a silence within “official” histories, but nonetheless it is an event that has great importance in the construction of working-class identity and struggles right up to the present. This chapter discusses the histories of Ludlow as memory, an understanding of the past that to a certain extent creates, and is created in, the practices of everyday life. Ludlow is a living memory; and, as such, the debates over the control of this memory are fractious and on-going. Incorporating alternative understandings of the past is an important facet of a politically conscious archaeology. But this work is not straightforward. In recasting these alternative histories as memory and contrasting them with the academic practices of archaeology, this article chapter highlights some of the complexities and also the necessity of this work.
Within the railroad industry, the most powerful labor unions were exclusive craft organizations t... more Within the railroad industry, the most powerful labor unions were exclusive craft organizations that concentrated on defending the privileges of a few skilled workers. Data from archaeological work conducted by Sonoma State University during the Cypress Freeway Replacement Project is used in an historical materialist exploration of class-consciousness among railroad workers in a late-19th-century working-class neighborhood in West Oakland, California. Comparing aspects of diet and dining, this study focuses on divisions among the railroad workers along the lines of craft-skill and nativity, examining the ways skilled craft unionists used the assumptions of Victorian ideology to organize against both their employers and other groups of workers, especially immigrants.
Field schools are a rite of passage for archaeologists, the first experience of what for many is ... more Field schools are a rite of passage for archaeologists, the first experience of what for many is the defining activity of the discipline: fieldwork. While teaching competence in practical techniques is the minimum goal of any field school, this technical training must be situated within the broader goals that drive the fieldwork. The University of Denver Archaeological Field School provides the fieldwork for the Colorado Coal Field War Archaeological Project. This project is an experiment in archaeology as political action in the present. It explores the possibility of an emancipatory archaeology through engagement with contemporary audiences and struggles. In this paper we discuss some of the ways we try to link technical training with the admittedly unusual theoretical and political goals of the project, teaching not only skills but an awareness of the responsibilities these skills should bring.
Archaeologist not only live class they also study it. Archaeology as a discipline serves class in... more Archaeologist not only live class they also study it. Archaeology as a discipline serves class interests and as a profession, or occupation, it has its own class structure. The discipline of archaeology has, since its founding, primarily served middle-class interests. It has formed part of the symbolic capital that has been necessary for membership in the middle class during this century. Archaeology has traditionally reproduced itself in the university using a guild model of apprenticeship and mastery. In both the academy and in cultural resource management today this guild model has become an ideology that obscures the existence of an archaeological proletariat of teaching assistants, adjuncts, and field techs. The ideology justifies denying these archaeologists respect, a living wage, job security, and benefits. A seven step program is proposed to rectify the structural class inequalities of modem archaeology.
Because battlefields can be potent symbols in the construction of historical memory, they can rem... more Because battlefields can be potent symbols in the construction of historical memory, they can remain sites of struggle for as long as that memory is important. History professionals, such as archaeologists, participate fully in these struggles. The commemoration of the Ludlow Massacre Site, a battlefield in the industrial wars of the early-20th century is discussed. The commemoration of Ludlow highlights the role of class interest in the construction of historical memory. Doing archaeology at Ludlow entails acknowledging these interests, both ours, as archaeologists, and those of the working class people who guard the memory of Ludlow.
Uploads
Papers by Mark Walker
Talks by Mark Walker
Articles and book chapters by Mark Walker
Ludlow is such a site. The Ludlow massacre is, like many similar episodes of class struggle in the United States, a silence within “official” histories, but nonetheless it is an event that has great importance in the construction of working-class identity and struggles right up to the present. This chapter discusses the histories of Ludlow as memory, an understanding of the past that to a certain extent creates, and is created in, the practices of everyday life. Ludlow is a living memory; and, as such, the debates over the control of this memory are fractious and on-going. Incorporating alternative understandings of the past is an important facet of a politically conscious archaeology. But this work is not straightforward. In recasting these alternative histories as memory and contrasting them with the academic practices of archaeology, this article chapter highlights some of the complexities and also the necessity of this work.
Ludlow is such a site. The Ludlow massacre is, like many similar episodes of class struggle in the United States, a silence within “official” histories, but nonetheless it is an event that has great importance in the construction of working-class identity and struggles right up to the present. This chapter discusses the histories of Ludlow as memory, an understanding of the past that to a certain extent creates, and is created in, the practices of everyday life. Ludlow is a living memory; and, as such, the debates over the control of this memory are fractious and on-going. Incorporating alternative understandings of the past is an important facet of a politically conscious archaeology. But this work is not straightforward. In recasting these alternative histories as memory and contrasting them with the academic practices of archaeology, this article chapter highlights some of the complexities and also the necessity of this work.