Abstract
The houses, barns, and gardens that comprise cultural landscapes embody information about their makers because the built environment actively serves to create, reproduce, and transform social relations. Members of society use space to reinforce and resist relations of power, authority, and inequality by organizing the landscape to facilitate the activities and movements of some individuals, while concurrently constraining others. Historical investigations indicate that the occupants of the village of Plainwell, Michigan, have witnessed political, economic, and social changes at the local, regional, and national levels since the mid-19th century. Yet, archaeological investigation of the Woodhams site (20AE852)—a residential homelot in Plainwell—provides evidence for considerable continuity in class and gender relations, despite transformations in American society at these multiple scales of analysis.
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Rotman, D.L., Nassaney, M.S. Class, gender, and the built environment: Deriving social relations from cultural landscapes in Southwest Michigan. Hist Arch 31, 42–62 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03373602
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03373602