Overview

The study of American institutional confinement, its presumed successes, failures, and controversies, is incomplete without examining the remnants of relevant sites no longer standing. Asking what archaeological perspectives add to the understanding of such a provocative topic, Eleanor Conlin Casella describes multiple sites and identifies three distinct categories of confinement: places for punishment, for asylum, and for exile. Her discussion encompasses the multifunctional shelters of the colonial era, Civil War prison camps, Japanese-American relocation centers, and the maximum-security detention facilities of the twenty-first century. Her analysis of the material world of confinement takes into account architecture and landscape, food, medicinal resources, clothing, recreation, human remains, and personal goods. Casella exposes the diversity of power relations that structure many of America's confinement institutions. Weaving together themes of punishment, involuntary labor, personal dignity, and social identity, """"The Archaeology of Institutional Confinement"""" tells a profound story of endurance in one slice of society. It will illuminate and change contemporary notions of gender, race, class, infirmity, deviance, and antisocial behavior.

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9780813031392

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The first, long overdue, critical historical perspective on institutional practice in contemporary America, and more broadly, the social philosophy of citizenship.

A work that will aid tremendously in both the exploration of changes in institutionalization as well as the archaeological study of institutions. The first, long overdue, critical historical perspective on institutional practice in contemporary America, and more broadly, the social philosophy of citizenship.

Author Information

Eleanor Conlin Casella, senior lecturer in archaeology at the University of Manchester, is the coeditor of Industrial Archaeology: Future Directions and The Archaeology of Plural and Changing Identities.

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