Overview

Waste represents a category of ‘things’, which is familiar and ubiquitous but rarely reflected in archaeological and cultural studies. Perception of waste changes over time and practices associated with waste vary. The ambiguity of waste challenges traditional archaeological approaches that take advantage of refuse to infer past behaviour. Recent developments in research in the social sciences and humanities indicate that waste offers many more dimensions for exploration. This interdisciplinary book brings together scholars who demonstrate the potential of research into waste for understanding humans, non-humans and their inter-relations. In 12 chapters the authors cover topics ranging from the relationship between waste and identity in early agricultural settlements to the perception of contemporary nuclear waste. Although archaeological approaches dominate the contributions, there are also chapters that represent the results of anthropological and historical research. The book is structured into three main sections that explore the relationship between waste and three domains of interest: value, social differentiation, and space. Archaeologies of Waste will interest archaeologists, anthropologists, historians and other readers intrigued by the potential of things, which were left behind, to shed light on social life.

Full Product Details

Author:   Daniel Sosna ,  Lenka Brunclíková
Publisher:   Oxbow Books
Imprint:   Oxbow Books
Dimensions:   Width: 17.00cm , Height: 1.30cm , Length: 24.00cm
Weight:   0.476kg
ISBN:  

9781785703270

ISBN 10:   1785703277
Pages:   182
Publication Date:   21 December 2016
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

Preface Daniel Sosna & Lenka Brunclíková   1.  Introduction Daniel Sosna & Lenka Brunclíková   SECTION 1 – Value of the Unwanted 2.  Wastes and Values   Joshua Reno 3. Purity and Holy Dumps of Garbage: Organising Rubbish Disposal in the Middle and Late Bronze Age of the Carpathian Basin Laura Dietrich     4.  Nightman’s Muck, Gong Farmer’s Treasure: Local Differences in the Clearing-Out of Cesspits in the Low Countries, 1600 – 1900 Roos van Oosten   SECTION 2 – Social Practice: Consumption and Differentiation 5.  Waste, Very Much a Social Practice Anders Högberg   6.  One Man’s Trash: How the Excavation of Copenhagen’s Moat is revealing Valuable Information about the City’s 17th Century Population Ed Lyne & Camilla Haarby Hansen   7.  Cesspits and Finds: Study of Waste Management and its Social Significance in Medieval Tartu, Estonia Arvi Haak   8.  Recyclable Waste as a Marker of Everyday Life Routine Lenka Brunclíková   SECTION 3 – Positioning Waste: Spatial Nature of Waste 9.  Waste Wanted: No Space without Time and Place Sabine Wolfram 10. Neolithic Settlement Space: Waste, Deposition and Identity Petr Květina & Jaroslav Řídký   11. The Detritus of Life and Death: Re-evaluating Perceptions of Rubbish on an Irish Late Bronze Age Enclosure Clíodhna Ni Lionain   12. Heterotopias behind the Fence: Landfills as Relational Emplacements Daniel Sosna   Afterword Claudia Theune

Reviews

We now live in an age where we find ourselves having to deal with floating islands of garbage the size of Texas and contemplating sending our trash to outer space. This makes Archaeologies of Waste a timely and much needed update to the growing body of literature on the cultural, economic, and political importance of refuse. Following in the footsteps of Rathje's Garbage Project, the editors have assembled a diverse set of innovative papers to help us understand the new and sophisticated ways that archaeology, sociocultural anthropology, and history, are forcing us to rethink the human universals of waste production and waste handling. This is a must for scholars and students interested in consumption, materiality, archaeology of the contemporary, and well, garbage. -- Jason De Leon

Author Information

Daniel Sosna is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of West Bohemia, Czech Republic, and focuses on the research of contemporary waste. Lenka Brunclíková is a researcher at the University of West Bohemia, Czech Republic, and focuses on the research of contemporary waste.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions