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Beyond Consumption: Toward an Archaeology of Consumerism

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International Handbook of Historical Archaeology

In 1982, Kent V. Flannery ridiculed archaeologists—garbologists in particular—who had taken up the analysis of modern American artifacts. Despite Flannery’s denunciation, Rathje’s “Projet du Garbage” and other modern material culture studies have survived and prospered. As a genre of archaeology, however, modern material culture studies have low visibility because, we suggest, they lack a thematic focus.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This essay originally appeared under the same title in Archaeologies of the Contemporary Past, edited by Victor Buchli and Gavin Lucas, pp. 26–50, Routledge, London, and is included here by permission of the authors. The version that appears in this volume has been reformatted to conform with the handbook’s style and includes either new and/or higher-resolution images.

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Acknowledgments for Reprinted Version

The authors would like to thank the many colleagues who commented on various drafts of this chapter, particularly Patrick McCray, who suggested several useful references. Martyn Tagg of Statistical Research, Inc. (SRI) and Steve Gregory (museum technician, Fort Huachuca Museum) graciously assisted TM in obtaining Fig. 1, and SRI Graphics Manager Margaret Robbins lent her graphics skills and those of her staff to preparing the illustrations for this chapter, some of which are new to this revision. Figure 3 appears courtesy of Mr. Vernon Hughes, of Clarksville, Missouri, and TM would like to gratefully acknowledge the insights he has shared with her over the years regarding Aesthetic-movement ceramics.

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  1. Statistical Research, Inc., 6099 East Speedway Blvd, Tucson, AZ 85712, USA

    Teresita Majewski

  2. University of Arizona, Schiffer Department of Anthropology, 1009 E. South Campus Drive, Tucson, AZ 85721-0030, USA

    Michael Brian Schiffer

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  1. Teresita Majewski
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Correspondence to Teresita Majewski .

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    Majewski, T., Schiffer, M.B. (2009). Beyond Consumption: Toward an Archaeology of Consumerism. In: Gaimster, D., Majewski, T. (eds) International Handbook of Historical Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-72071-5_11

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