Abstract
Urban landscapes are constructed, in part, by the everyday practice and experience of those who dwell within them. This chapter seeks to better understand this process by using archaeologically recovered material culture to gain insight into the intersection of embodied movement, adornment, self-perception, social interaction, and the material and intangible aspects of the urban landscape. Analyzing material culture recovered from two nineteenth-century working-class sites located in Boston, Massachusetts, suggests several intersections that merit further investigation. This includes exploring self-presentation and social perception through artifacts of personal adornment, looking at consumer goods like bric-a-brac to gauge people’s relationship with larger cultural and social dialogues about public behavior, and using artifacts like embossed pharmaceutical bottles as tangible evidence for movement and experience in the urban landscape. A better understanding of the relationship between practice, the self, and urban space can help make sense of how living in cities affects how individuals perceive themselves and the world around them.
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Keim, A. (2013). In the Street: Personal Adornment and Movement in the Urban Landscapes of Boston. In: Beaudry, M., Parno, T. (eds) Archaeologies of Mobility and Movement. Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology, vol 35. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6211-8_15
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