Barbara L. Voss

Archaeologies of Sexuality

Status, age and gender have long been accepted aspects of archaeological enquiry, yet it is only recently that archaeologists have started seriously to consider the role of sex and sexuality in their studies. Archaeologies of Sexuality is a timely and pioneering work. It presents a strong, diverse body of scholarship which draws on locations as varied as medieval England, the ancient Maya kingdoms, New Kingdom Egypt, prehistoric Europe, and convict-era Australia, demonstrating the challenges and rewards of integrating the study of sex and sexuality within archaeology. This volume, with contributions by many leading archaeologists, will serve both as an essential introduction and a valuable reference tool for students and academics.

Gender, Race, and Labor in the Archaeology of the Spanish Colonial Americas

Gender and race are central to archaeological investigations of empire. In research on the Spanish colonization of the Americas, one prominent theory, the St. Augustine pattern, argues that cohabitation between Spanish men and Native American and African women in colonial households resulted in a distinctly gendered form of cultural transformation: indigenous, African, and syncretic cultural elements appear within private domestic activities associated with women; and European cultural elements are conservatively maintained in publicly visible male activities. This article reconsiders the St. Augustine pattern through analyses of new research that has revealed considerable diversity in the processes and outcomes of colonization throughout the Spanish Americas. Archaeological methodologies such as the St. Augustine pattern that rely on binary categories of analysis mask the complexity and ambiguity of material culture in colonial sites. Additionally, the abundance and ubiquity of indigenous, African, and syncretic material culture and foodstuffs in colonial households in the circum‐Caribbean indicate that macroscale economic, trade, and labor relationships, rather than household composition, were important causes of colonial cultural transformation in the Americas. An analytical focus on labor in colonial settings provides a multiscalar methodology that encompasses both institutional and household‐level entanglements between colonizers and colonized.

The archaeology of Overseas Chinese communities

Archaeological research on Overseas Chinese communities has expanded rapidly during the last twenty years, yet the subfield still remains marginal within historical archaeology as a whole. This article argues that a dominance of acculturation theories and methodologies has contributed to this marginal position. Further, a persistent research focus on the ethnic boundary between Chinese and non-Chinese and the portrayal of Overseas Chinese communities as resolutely traditional have curtailed the range of research topics investigated at Overseas Chinese sites. Community-focused collaborative research on the Market Street Chinatown in San José, California, provides an alternative perspective. Historical and archaeological evidence suggests that the communitys residents did not always experience their lives through oppositions between East and West or between tradition and modernity. By embracing a broader research agenda, investigations of Overseas Chinese communities can make significant contributions to archaeological studies of race, ethnicity, gender, immigration, labor and social inequality.

Feminisms. queer theories, and the archaeological study of past sexualities

Archaeology faces the unique challenge of stretching social theories of sexuality in new chronological and methodological directions. This essay uses an analysis of citational practices to consider how feminist and queer theories articulate with archaeological investigations of sexuality. Both queer theories and feminist archaeological practices are shown to be powerful tools that can be used to expand archaeological interpretations of gender and sexuality.

Overseas Chinese Archaeology: Historical Foundations, Current Reflections, and New Directions

As historical archaeologists increase their involvement in studies of Overseas Chinese communities, it is especially important that this research be grounded in a solid understanding of the history of the Chinese diaspora. A transnational framework is instrumental in facilitating an understanding of the ways in which Overseas Chinese communities and identities formed through global economic, political, and cultural networks. The archaeology of Overseas Chinese communities currently faces many challenges, including underpublication, a tendency towards descriptive rather than research-oriented studies, and orientalism. These difficulties are being surmounted through collaborative research programs that foster dialogue between archaeologists and Chinese heritage organizations, as well as through interdisciplinary exchanges that are forging new connections among historical archaeology and Asian American studies and Asian studies.

Curation as research. A case study in orphaned and underreported archaeological collections

As archaeologists grapple with the international curation crisis, new attention is being given to the problem of ‘orphaned’ archaeological collections and collections that are underanalysed and underreported. The common rationale for curating such collections is to restore research potential, but such efforts are met with frustration because of the difficulties of re-establishing provenance and quantitative control for artefacts long separated from their original archaeological context. Moreover, most archaeologists view curation as a process that manages, rather than investigates, archaeological collections. To the contrary, this article argues that accessioning, inventory, cataloguing, rehousing and conservation are not simply precursors to research, but rather meaningful generative encounters between scholars and objects. Examples from the curation of the Market Street Chinatown archaeological collection illustrate how the process of curation can generate innovative research undertakings. Because archaeological research on this collection cannot proceed in a typical way, the research developed through the curation process departs from archaeological conventions to bring new perspectives on the social history of the Overseas Chinese diaspora.

Between the Household and the World System: Social Collectivity and Community Agency in Overseas Chinese Archaeology

At the Market Street Chinatown in San Jose, California, residential arrangements were profoundly shaped by institutionalized racism, anti-Chinese violence, labor practices, and immigration policies. These, in turn, shaped the form and content of the archaeological record. As is typical of many Overseas Chinese sites, archaeological features cannot be associated with specific households—in fact, the “household” concept is not always pertinent. A contextual, multiscalar approach to research on this residential community highlights other forms of social collectivity, such as district associations and business consortiums, that were able to act meaningfully to promote community survival and well-being. The archaeology of Overseas Chinese communities has a significant contribution to make to archaeological method and theory by opening new pathways of inquiry into the “middle scale” between the individual or household and the world system.

Status and Ceramics in Spanish Colonial Archaeology

Archaeologists have long used ceramics, especially majolica, as a key indicator of status in the Spanish colonial Americas. In actuality, archaeological evidence for the relationship between status and ceramics varies greatly. Requisitions and invoices (memorias and facturas) from two presidio settlements in Alta California provide valuable information about pricing of ceramic goods and the terminology that colonial officials used to describe them. Analysis of these documents suggests that ceramics were peripheral to Spanish colonial negotiations of status and rank. Some ceramics commonly assumed to indicate high status, such as majolica, are among the least expensive wares shipped to the province. Vessel function appears to have been more important to colonial officials than the ware types or decorative types emphasized by archaeologists. While the findings of this study are specific to Alta California, these results suggest that a broader re-examination of archaeological interpretations of Spanish colonial ceramics may be in order.

What's New? Rethinking Ethnogenesis in the Archaeology of Colonialism

Many archaeological researchers studying colonialism are critiquing theories of cultural change (e.g., hybridity, creolization) in favor of interpretive models that emphasize cultural persistence and continuity. Ethnogenesis, the emergence of new cultural identities, has been put forward as a consensus model: what is “new“—the “genesis“ in ethnogenesis—is increasingly interpreted as an authentic remaking of communal identities to foster persistence and survival. This somewhat utopic emphasis on continuity in ethnogenesis theory broadens the concept of ethnogenesis to the point that its value as a theory of identity transformation is being lost. Overall, the archaeological emphasis on ethnogenesis as a tactic of resistance among subaltern communities has led to a general neglect of how ethnic identity practices are deployed in the exercise of power. The increasing use of bioarchaeological evidence in ethnogenesis research also raises pressing ethical and epistemological issues about the relationship between the body and identity. A more focused and restricted application of ethnogenesis theory is necessary to identify and investigate those situations in which colonialism and its consequences resulted in ruptures and structural transformations of identity practices.

El Presidio de San Francisco: At the Edge of Empire

El Presidio de San Francisco, the northernmost presidio of New Spain, was founded in 1776 as a reaction to the Russian economic expansion onto the Pacific coast of North America. Demographics indicate that the pool of colonial recruits bound for San Francisco came from regions with a diverse cultural matrix, including Native Californians, after the presidio was established. Over time, the colonial population became increasingly homogenous in recognizing its own ethnic identity. Although the location of the presidio of San Francisco was generally known prior to 1993, its exact location and the extent to which it was preserved archaeologically was unknown. The 1993 discovery confirmed its predicted general location but also revealed that its situation and configuration was somewhat different than that predicted by historic documents. Structural examinations of the site reveal considerable information about the settlement’s architectural development, which became increasingly institutionalized. Ongoing laboratory investigations of excavated deposits from the site indicate that dietary practices differed somewhat from other settlements in Alta California. The archaeological interpretation of this frontier presidio requires both global and local perspectives to reckon influences as diverse as European geopolitics and frontier pragmatics.