The languages of archaeology

The commemoration of the Columbian quincentenary played an important role in stimulating new research on the biological effects of the arrival of Europeans on Native American groups throughout the New World. Although these discussions have involved many disciplines, physical anthropology has been underrepresented until recently. This article reviews a range of studies on the biological impact of European colonization of the Americas on native populations. Historical sources, mission and civil records, archaeological information, and human skeletal remains have provided a fund of data that are being used to document and interpret native health and well-being after 1492. Osteological investigations reveal that before contact, native populations were not living in a pristine, disease-free environment. Moreover, prehistoric populations experienced occasional eruptions of social conflict and violence, patterns of which are similar to what has been documented in contemporary small-scale societies. Archaeological, historical, and bioarchaeological studies provide compelling evidence that the arrival of Europeans did not occasion a sudden pandemic of smallpox in the early sixteenth century. Rather, epidemic disease in the contact era was a patchwork affair, striking some populations and not others at various times. Regionally based bioarchaeological investigations have disclosed new details about the contact period in the Americas and elsewhere (e.g., Polynesia), particularly in regard to variability in physiological stress, health status, diet and nutritional quality, and activity patterns. These studies show that although rapid population loss and extinction occurred in some areas, many groups survived and accommodated new and challenging circumstances. These findings also indicate that there are common elements to native response to contact with Europeans, but population and regional changes were shaped by localized factors. The demographic resurgence and population recovery during the twentieth century illustrates that Native Americans are a vital part of today's human biological landscape in the western hemisphere. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ajpa.1330370606

In the wake of Columbus: Native population biology in the postcontact Americas

The Physician and Sexuality in Victorian America. By John S. Haller, Jr., and Robin M. Haller. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1974. xv + 331 pp. Illustrations, tables, notes, selected bibliography, and index. $10.00.)

Introduction 1 Introducing the First Voice: Rosemary Joyce 2 Writing the Field of Archaeology: Rosemary Joyce and Robert W Preucel 3 Dialogues Heard and Unheard, Seen and Unseen: Rosemary Joyce 4 A Second Voice: Crafting Cosmos: Jeanne Lopiparo 5 Voices Carry Outside the Discipline: Rosemary Joyce, Carolyn Guyer, and Michael Joyce 6 The Return of the First Voice: Rosemary Joyce 7 Final Dialogues: Rosemary Joyce Bibliography

The Languages of Archaeology: Dialogue, Narrative, and Writing

Wari's imperial influence on local Nasca diet: The stable isotope evidence

In June 1996, archaeological excavations at the Union Station in downtown Los Angeles uncovered a portion of the city’s former red-light district. The district thrived from the 1870s until a reform government closed it down in 1909. A six-seat privy complex associated with a parlor house (ca. 1880–1901), densely filled with household items, provides insight into life behind the red lights. Domestic deposits from the prostitutes’ neighbors were also recovered, providing comparative collections. Artifact deposits were evaluated in the field to ensure that only those collections with integrity and clear historic associations were brought back to the lab for analysis. Documentary research focused on identifying features associated with specific brothels and households. Artifacts were tabulated using minimum number of item counts, and frequency tables were developed for making meaningful comparisons. Noteworthy contrasts between the prostitutes and their neighbors are found in activities related to the consumption of alcohol and food and to grooming and health.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/info/25617239

City of Angels, City of Sin: Archaeology in the Los Angeles Red-Light District ca. 1900

A chain-migration in the 1860s–1880s brought rural Italian villagers from near Genoa to the southern California Mother Lode. Among other traditions, that of baking bread in outdoor ovens persevered over generations until commercial bread became widely available in the 1930s. An archaeological study of these ovens, begun in 1979, included site excavation, data analysis, detailed measurments, and archival research. Occasional oral interviews also recorded the words, expressions, and feelings of those who remembered the ovens’ use, stories that were not addressed by academic research. These stories told by informants may constitute, ultimately, the more valuable record of this historic oven tradition. Excerpts from five stories are presented as examples of this rich source of information.

Bread fresh from the oven: Memories of italian breadbaking in the California Mother Lode

Nearly twenty years ago, three burials were excavated from the floor of the chapel at the site of El Real Presidio de Santa Barbara, California. Two of the graves contained only sparse remains while Burial #3 consisted of the nearly complete skeleton of a young woman and included fragments of material and ornaments from her clothing. Osteological analysis, study of associated artifacts, and documentary research have resulted in tentative identification of two of the individuals and have provided information on the genetic affinities, health, burial practices, and clothing styles of this early 19th century Hispanic community.

Burials from the Santa Barbara Presidio chapel

In 2001, field excavations were completed at the site of the San Bernardino, California, Chinatown, yielding about 10,000 items. Twenty-one discrete features were excavated, dating from about 1880 to the 1930s. Seventeen of these features reflected the history of Chinatown. Privy 1035, associated with a gambling hall at 19 Third Street, contained more than 6,800 individual items, representing diverse aspects of Chinatown life. Gambling activities in the early-20th century were represented by an abundance of artifacts, including a cache of more than 1,300 Asian coins, the largest ever found on an excavation in North America. Discussions of gambling artifacts and culture document the practice of this traditional, but often sensationalized, pastime of the Overseas Chinese.

The Luck of Third Street: Archaeology of Chinatown, San Bernardino, California

Recent archaeological reconnaissance and excavation on western San Miguel Island have uncovered the remains of a multicomponent and multiethnic historical base camp. Surface collections and small-scale testing identified the remains of three late-19th-to early-20th-century hearth features, faunal remains associated with intensive abalone fishing, and evidence for marine-mammal hunting and processing. Although prehistoric, historical, and modern flotsam and jetsam have been mixed by coastal erosion and seal and sea-lion activities, artifact analyses reveal that CA-SMI-614/H was serially occu-pied by the Island Chumash and their ancestors, 19th-century Chinese abalone collectors, early-20th-century Japanese hardhat divers, and European American seal hunters. The site offers a unique glimpse into the historical maritime occupations of southern California and provides critical data on an important but poorly understood period of Pacific Rim history, when fisheries in western North America had become a crucial part of globalized food exports.

Julia G. Costello

Papers

City of Angels, City of Sin: Archaeology in the Los Angeles Red-Light District ca. 1900

Bread fresh from the oven: Memories of italian breadbaking in the California Mother Lode

Burials from the Santa Barbara Presidio chapel

The Luck of Third Street: Archaeology of Chinatown, San Bernardino, California

Of Seals, Sea Lions, and Abalone: The Archaeology of an Historical Multiethnic Base Camp on San Miguel Island, California