A Historical Archaeology of the Modern World

by Charles E. Orser Jr.

This unique book offers a theoretical framework for historical archaeology that explicitly relies on network theory. Charles E. Orser, Jr., demonstrates the need to examine the impact of colonialism, Eurocentrism, capitalism, and modernity on all archaeological sites inhabited after 1492 and shows how these large-scale forces create a link among all the sites. Orser investigates the connections between a seventeenth-century runaway slave kingdom in Palmares, Brazil and an early nineteenth-century peasant village in central Ireland. Studying artifacts, landscapes, and social inequalities in these two vastly different cultures, the author explores how the archaeology of fugitive Brazilian slaves and poor Irish farmers illustrates his theoretical concepts. His research underscores how network theory is largely unknown in historical archaeology and how few historical archaeologists apply a global perspective in their studies. A Historical Archaeology of the Modern World features data and illustrations from two previously unknown sites and includes such intriguing findings as the provenance of ancient Brazilian smoking pipes that will be new to historical archaeologists.

Genres: Archaeology

264 pages, Hardcover

First published January 31, 1996

Reviews

[Carl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most historical archaeologist get this book in their introductory classes, in part because it is a readable intro to the subject. That said, there are some significant problems with it, in my opinion.

First, the mutualist position is theoretically weak and ultimately of little utility for anyone interested in serious research. That things and people are connected is a truism more explicitly dealt with elsewhere.

Second, the four haunts of historical archaeology are problematic. By defining the subject as primarily concerned with the radiation of Europeans throughout the world and the colonial context is itself an extremely ethnocentric position, one that carries the possibility of blinkering the discipline and keeping it intellectually confined to North America and Europe. It should come as no surprise that we are thinly represented outside of these areas.