Professional Documents
Culture Documents
PDF An Archaeology of Nineteenth Century Consumer Behavior in Melbourne Australia and Buenos Aires Argentina Pamela Ricardi Ebook Full Chapter
PDF An Archaeology of Nineteenth Century Consumer Behavior in Melbourne Australia and Buenos Aires Argentina Pamela Ricardi Ebook Full Chapter
PDF An Archaeology of Nineteenth Century Consumer Behavior in Melbourne Australia and Buenos Aires Argentina Pamela Ricardi Ebook Full Chapter
https://textbookfull.com/product/biota-grow-2c-gather-2c-cook-
loucas/
https://textbookfull.com/product/student-consumer-culture-in-
nineteenth-century-oxford-sabine-chaouche/
https://textbookfull.com/product/trustworthy-global-
computing-8th-international-symposium-tgc-2013-buenos-aires-
argentina-august-30-31-2013-revised-selected-papers-1st-edition-
martin-abadi/
https://textbookfull.com/product/cloud-computing-and-big-
data-7th-conference-jcc-bd-2019-la-plata-buenos-aires-argentina-
june-24-28-2019-revised-selected-papers-marcelo-naiouf/
Public Key Cryptography PKC 2014 17th International
Conference on Practice and Theory in Public Key
Cryptography Buenos Aires Argentina March 26 28 2014
Proceedings 1st Edition Hugo Krawczyk (Eds.)
https://textbookfull.com/product/public-key-cryptography-
pkc-2014-17th-international-conference-on-practice-and-theory-in-
public-key-cryptography-buenos-aires-argentina-
march-26-28-2014-proceedings-1st-edition-hugo-krawczyk-eds/
https://textbookfull.com/product/an-archaeology-of-structural-
violence-life-in-a-twentieth-century-coal-town-michael-roller/
https://textbookfull.com/product/history-of-europe-in-the-
nineteenth-century-benedetto-croce/
https://textbookfull.com/product/consumer-behavior-7th-edition-
wayne-d-hoyer/
Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology
Pamela Ricardi
An Archaeology of
Nineteenth-Century
Consumer Behavior in
Melbourne, Australia, and
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology
Series Editor:
Charles E. Orser Jr.
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN, USA
An Archaeology
of Nineteenth-Century
Consumer Behavior
in Melbourne, Australia,
and Buenos Aires,
Argentina
Pamela Ricardi
School of Archaeology and Anthropology
Australian National University
Acton, ACT, Australia
ISSN 1574-0439
Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology
ISBN 978-3-030-21594-1 ISBN 978-3-030-21595-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21595-8
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
For Marta and Duncan
Acknowledgments
vii
Contents
1 Introduction���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 1
1.1 Casselden Place�������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 5
1.2 La Casa Peña������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 6
1.3 Book Structure���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 7
References�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 8
2 Consumer Choice, Class, Ethnicity, and Other Factors���������������������� 13
2.1 Consumer Choice������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 13
2.2 Class�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 17
2.3 Ethnicity�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 23
2.4 Gender and Childhood���������������������������������������������������������������������� 28
2.5 Complexities of an Interpretative Approach ������������������������������������ 30
References�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 31
3 Marvellous Melbourne���������������������������������������������������������������������������� 39
3.1 Setting the Scene: Early Melbourne ������������������������������������������������ 40
3.2 Little Lon and Working-Class Life in Nineteenth-Century
Melbourne ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 47
3.3 Previous Archaeological Work Conducted at Little Lon������������������ 50
3.3.1 Development of the Commonwealth Centre
Site (1979 and 1987)������������������������������������������������������������ 50
3.3.2 Little Lon: Archaeological Investigation of
the Commonwealth Block (1989)���������������������������������������� 50
3.3.3 Mayne and Murray (1999–2003)������������������������������������������ 52
3.3.4 Casselden Place Development Phase 3 (2001) �������������������� 54
3.3.5 Casselden Place Archaeological Excavations
(2002–2003)�������������������������������������������������������������������������� 55
3.3.6 Post 2003������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 56
3.4 Previous Archaeological Work Conducted at Lot 35,
Little Leichhardt Street (Casselden Place)���������������������������������������� 57
3.4.1 Historical Overview�������������������������������������������������������������� 57
ix
x Contents
Index������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 237
List of Figures
xv
xvi List of Figures
xvii
Chapter 1
Introduction
When we think of Melbourne and Buenos Aires in the mid- to late nineteenth cen-
tury, we imagine two very different places. Buenos Aires had by then experienced a
long and diverse history. The city had been settled (twice) by Spain in the sixteenth
century. Steadily, it became an important port city due to the growth of local indus-
tries such as cattle grazing and a lucrative trade in contraband (Brown 1982:3). Its
population predominately consisted of people of European, Indigenous, and African
descent (Gutman and Hardoy 1992:41). However, by the mid-nineteenth century,
Buenos Aires had undergone radical changes. Independence from Spain was
achieved in 1810 leading to a period of civil war and political instability (Lewis
2003:38–41; Rock 1986:76–104). When this subsided, the city experienced a period
of unprecedented growth marked by free trade, foreign investment, and (predomi-
nately European) immigration (Cortés-Conde 1993:54–55; Rock 1986:131). It was
during this period of growth, when French and Italian architectural styles dominated
public building works, that Buenos Aires began to be referred to as “the Paris of
South America” (Scobie 2002:170).
Melbourne had a short history in comparison. The city had been settled in 1835
by a small group of pastoralists from Launceston, in what today is known as
Tasmania (then Van Diemen’s Land). Official authorization to settle the area was
not granted until the following year by the governor of New South Wales represent-
ing the British Crown (Blainey 2013:18–23). As with Buenos Aires, Melbourne
became an important port city due to the growth of local pastoral industries. The
city’s growth accelerated further following the discovery of gold in the Port Phillip
district in 1851 (Priestley 1984:30). This brought an influx of immigrants, predomi-
nately from Britain, but also from other Australian colonies and other nations
throughout Asia and Europe (Blainey 2013:44). During this period of growth, as
public buildings with grand facades were erected throughout the city, journalist
George Augustus Sala dubbed it “Marvellous Melbourne” (Davison 1978:11).
Although we initially imagine two very different places, this very brief history of
each city has already highlighted some similarities as well. But what was life like
for working-class people in the cities’ urban spaces? What was life like for the many
recently arrived immigrants to “Marvellous Melbourne” and the “Paris of South
America”? What were people buying? What was available for them to buy? This
book examines these questions through the archaeology of two household units by
focusing on what the material culture and documentary data reveal about consumer
behavior. In doing so, it makes a transnational comparison of two diverse cities at
the edge of the world.
Historical archaeological studies in the past have extensively explored themes
such as class (e.g., Beaudry 1989; Karskens 1999; Leone 1996; Mayne and Murray
2001; McGuire and Paynter 1991; Mrozowski and Beaudry 1990; Orser 1996;
Wurst 1999; Wurst and Fitts 1999; Wylie 1999; Yamin 1998, 2001a, b), ethnicity
(e.g., Brighton 2004, 2006, 2011; Fesler and Franklin 1999; Greenwood 1980;
Jones 1997; Lydon 1999; McGuire 1982; McGowan 2003; Milne and Crabtree
2001; Orser 1996; Praetzellis and Praetzellis 1998, 2004, 2009; Rains 2003; Staski
1990), and consumer behavior (e.g., Crook 2000; Mullins 1999, 2001; Spencer-
Wood 1987). Some historical archaeologists have looked internationally to compare
results (e.g., Brooks 2002; Lawrence 2003), and others have stressed the importance
of such comparisons (e.g., Deetz 1991; Murray and Mayne 2001; Orser 1996). It
has even been suggested (Deetz 1991:2) that international comparison is valuable in
everything we do as historical archaeologists, because we focus on a period in time
marked by the spread of people across the world.
However, when dealing with urban sites within the British Empire, comparative
studies in the past have tended to focus on other British colonies, former British
colonies, and Britain itself. At least in the English-speaking literature, comparative
studies have tended not to stray outside these confines, ignoring other cities outside
the British Empire (e.g., Crook 2011; Karskens 2003; Klose and Malan 2000;
Murray 2006). This absence points to an entire area of research that has been left
unexplored.
Researchers (e.g., Brooks and Rodríguez 2012; Schávelzon 2000) have high-
lighted the potential of South American urban archaeology for broadening our
understanding of consumer culture and global interactions during the nineteenth
century. It is clear that valuable information can be gained by comparing British
colonial sites to South American sites and this is what the current volume aims to
provide. The book compares consumer behavior at two sites, Casselden Place in
Melbourne and La Casa Peña in Buenos Aires, with a focus on establishing the role
that consumer choice, class, ethnicity, and other factors had on consumer behavior.
Both sites were located in nineteenth-century working-class urban neighborhoods
and are discussed further below.
Exploring these questions through material culture is complex in nature.
Interpretations may be hindered by multiple or changing meanings and a range of
factors that affect the types of data that can be used (e.g., discard patterns, site for-
mation processes, and field methodologies). Critics of global-scale analysis have
also warned that such an approach can mask the diversity of local experience
(Gilchrist 2005:333). However, others (e.g., Murray 2006; Orser 1996; Wilkie and
Farnsworth 1999) have stressed that historical archaeology needs to focus on both
1 Introduction 3
the macro- and microscales of analysis – the local and global experience in order to
provide a thorough understanding of a site, which is what this book does. In addi-
tion, the study of consumer behavior, ethnicity or the working class are not novel
themes or unique to this book. However, the significance of this study lies in its
comparative approach, which crosses sociopolitical divides and moves beyond
comparing sites solely within the British Empire.
The first theme explored throughout this book deals with consumer choice. The
question of why particular goods are chosen for acquisition and the idea that goods
are carriers of meaning have been explored in the past through a range of disciplines
(e.g., Appadurai 1986; Douglas and Isherwood 1980; Spencer-Wood 1987). The
aim here is to explore whether there is any evidence in the assemblages that goods
were selected for specific reasons, such as fashion and self-expression. Exploring
choice in consumer behavior has the potential to reveal much about people’s daily
lives and the kinds of things that mattered to them. However, the data may reveal
that choice was in fact limited. If this is the case, it is important to explore the rea-
sons behind it. Was class/poverty a major reason (Wurst and McGuire 1999) or were
other underlying factors limiting choice? This book considers the factors that may
have restricted consumer choice for the residents of Casselden Place and La Casa
Peña.
Another theme explores the role of ethnicity on consumer behavior. Previous
historical archaeological studies have recognized the potential of artifacts in reveal-
ing ethnic identity, group membership, and cultural continuity (e.g., Brighton 2004;
McGowan 2003; Milne and Crabtree 2001). Nineteenth-century Melbourne and
Buenos Aires were cultural melting pots. However, different ethnic groups made up
the majority of inhabitants in each city (Anglo-Saxon/Anglo-Celtic in Melbourne
and Hispanic/Mediterranean in Buenos Aires). This study considers whether differ-
ences in ethnicity influenced consumer behavior. For instance, is there evidence of
cultural preferences and continuity in everyday things such as food and beverage
options? If evidence of cultural preferences and continuity are few or not visible in
the assemblages, then it is necessary to ask why. In two such culturally different
cities, what factors other than ethnicity influenced consumer behavior?
The impact of class, gender, and childhood on consumer behavior is also explored
in order to gain a more complete understanding of life at the two sites. Issues of
class and poverty have long been recognized as an integral part of modern world
archaeology (e.g., McGuire and Paynter 1991; Mayne and Murray 2001; Mrozowski
2000, 2006; Orser 1996). Recent trends focus on not losing perspective of the hard-
ships faced by people living in poverty (e.g., Mayne 2011; Orser 2011; Symonds
2011; Walker et al. 2011). The residents of two working-class urban neighborhoods
such as Little Lon in Melbourne and San Telmo in Buenos Aires would certainly
have endured hardships. Poor sanitation, disease, harsh working conditions, and low
economic means are some of the pressures people would have faced from day to
day. This applies to all residents at the sites. Recent studies on gender and childhood
(e.g., Brandon and Barile 2004:7; Wilkie 2000:100), along with other power strug-
gles such as class and ethnicity, call for a fluid and holistic approach that considers
the assemblage as a whole. This approach is taken here, where the aim is to explore
4 1 Introduction
what the assemblages reveal about the daily lives of all of the sites’ residents. For
instance, what do the artifacts reveal about work and leisure, health, and hygiene?
What do they reveal about the lives of women and children and family life more
broadly? By exploring such questions, we gain a more complete picture of working-
class urban life and how people’s experiences shaped consumer behavior. Once
again, however, if we encounter two similar urban working-class assemblages at
opposite ends of the world, we also need to consider the reasons why.
In considering the abovementioned themes, it will also be necessary to reflect on
the role of globalization and international trade networks during the period under
study. Globalization can be defined as the interconnectedness of the world and trade
expansion that resulted from western imperialism and technological advances such
as the introduction of steamships, rail infrastructure, telegraph, and mechanized
methods of production (Engerman 1996). International trade experienced unparal-
leled growth during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with goods reaching
vast distances in shorter amounts of time than ever before. But what trade networks
reached periphery cities such as Melbourne and Buenos Aires? How did they differ
from each other and how did this impact the types of goods that were available for
people to purchase? This book looks at the types of goods that were traded in
Melbourne and Buenos Aires and the trade networks operating at the time.
Establishing the impact of these larger factors on consumer behavior will assist in
understanding the role of consumer choice, class, and other factors. Did these have
an impact on consumer behavior at all or were they overshadowed by the impact of
globalization?
The methodology used in comparing these sites incorporates archaeological and
documentary data. The archaeological component involves the analysis of the
domestic artifact assemblages from the two sites. Organics and building materials
were not analyzed due to the unavailability of these artifact types at one of the sites.
Artifacts were sorted and then catalogued using the Exploring the Archaeology of
the Modern City (EAMC) database.1 Artifact attributes recorded in the database
included color, decoration, minimum number of vessels (MNV) counts, place of
manufacture, and date range, among others (see Chap. 5 for further details).
Primary and secondary documentary sources such as newspaper entries, statisti-
cal returns, and economic histories were also consulted. Documentary data was
collected with the aim to understand the economic condition of nineteenth-century
Melbourne and Buenos Aires. What imports were arriving and where were they
coming from? This was necessary in order to understand the types of artifacts we
find at Casselden Place and La Casa Peña and to place them in the wider context of
international trade and industry.
1
The EAMC database was first developed as part of the Australian Research Council (ARC)
Linkage project “Exploring the Archaeology of the Modern City, 1788–1900.” This project was
conducted by La Trobe University and Industry partners; the Historic Houses Trust of New South
Wales (NSW), the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, Godden Mackay Logan, the Heritage
Office of NSW, the City of Sydney and Heritage Victoria (Crook and Murray 2006:5).
1.1 Casselden Place 5
In Melbourne, the site explored is Casselden Place. This site was located within the
“Commonwealth Block” in the northeastern corner of the Melbourne Central
Business District (CBD), bounded by Spring, Lonsdale, Exhibition, and Little
Lonsdale Streets (Fig. 1.1). Numerous archaeological studies have been undertaken
within the Commonwealth Block (discussed later in Chap. 3). However, this book
focuses on the archaeological investigations conducted in 2002 by Godden Mackay
Logan et al. prior to major redevelopment works occurring at the site (Godden
Mackay Logan et al. 2004 vol. 1:1). The 2002 project involved the excavation of an
extensive area encompassing a residential and light industrial neighborhood dating
from mid-nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. Specifically, this book looks at the
artifact assemblage from a single allotment within the Casselden Place site, Lot 35
Little Leichardt Street.
Historically, the Casselden Place site was part of an inner-city neighborhood col-
loquially known as “Little Lon.” This was a working-class locale predominately
Fig. 1.1 Location of the Casselden Place site within the Commonwealth Block, Melbourne.
(Source: Ricardi 2018; Murray and Mayne 2001:91; Figure by Ming Wei)
6 1 Introduction
housing recently arrived British and Irish immigrants. It was also home to people
from a range of other nationalities (e.g., Germany, India, Lebanon) to a lesser extent
(Mayne 2006:324). Little Lon was essentially a poor and multicultural neighbor-
hood that was considered by many middle class contemporaries and portrayed by
later historians, as a slum. In 1914, the poet Dennis (2012) mentioned Little Lon in
one of his most famous works, “The Sentimental Bloke.” He summed up this con-
ventional view of Little Lon in the following couplet:
But when they deals it out wiv bricks an’ boots
In Little Lon, they’re low, degraded broots.
The presence of brothels, pubs, and opium dens in the area fuelled such allegations,
and as a result, Little Lon was considered a place of vice, disease, and immorality
(Murray and Mayne 2002:7).
In Buenos Aires, the site explored is La Casa Peña, located on the corner of Defensa
and San Lorenzo Streets, San Telmo, south of the Buenos Aires CBD (Fig. 1.2). The
site was excavated between 1994 and 1995 by the Centro de Arqueologia Urbana
de Instituto de Arte Americano e Investigaciones Estéticas M. J. Buschiazzo (Centre
Fig. 1.2 Location of the Casa Peña site in the Suburb of San Telmo, Buenos Aires. (Source:
Ricardi 2018; Figure by Ming Wei)
1.3 Book Structure 7
for Urban Archaeology at the Institute of American Art and Aesthetic Studies),
University of Buenos Aires (Zarankin and Senatore 1995: no pagination). The proj-
ect was undertaken as a rescue excavation prior to redevelopment works carried out
on the property.
Following the arrival of Europeans, the site was inhabited since the eighteenth
century. During the 1840s, it became the residence of the upper middle class Peña
family. Part of the original Peña dwelling is still standing today. During the 1870s,
however, the family moved out, and the dwelling was subdivided into three rental
properties. Two properties became what are known in Argentina as conventillos.
These were a typical form of working-class tenement housing. Individual rooms
were leased to singles, families, or groups with shared bathroom facilities and yard
space. Conventillos were popular in major Argentinean cities throughout the nine-
teenth and early twentieth centuries. They often housed recently arrived European
immigrants (Italian, Spanish, and French). However, many immigrants from a range
of other nations and other Argentinean provinces lived in conventillos (Ramos
2005:11). This type of housing accommodated the poor and, similarly to Little Lon
in Melbourne, conventillos were considered to be slums by contemporary observers
and later historians. Conventillos were also portrayed negatively in popular culture
and were a recurring setting for many tango lyrics such as “El Conventillo” (de la
Torre and Rolón 1965
):Yo nací en un conventillo
de la calle Olavarría
y me acunó la armonia
de un concierto de cuchillos
The first four chapters of this book provide background information. This chapter
forms the introduction and defines the problem statement, aims, scope, and over-
view of the study. This is followed by Chap. 2, which explores the background lit-
erature and theory for the major themes that guide this study and their application in
historical archaeology. These themes include consumer choice, class, ethnicity, gen-
der, and childhood. The final background chapters (Chaps. 3 and 4) essentially set
the scene. Each of these chapters begins by providing a brief history of Melbourne
and Buenos Aires (respectively) and then discusses the archaeological work
8 1 Introduction
previously conducted in the suburbs of Little Lon and San Telmo. The chapters
close by looking at the previous archaeological work conducted within the sites of
Casselden Place and La Casa Peña.
Following the background chapters, Chap. 5 presents the methodology. This
chapter describes the two artifact datasets and the procedures involved in artifact
processing (e.g., sorting, separating, and labeling). It then discusses how the arti-
facts are analyzed and catalogued using the EAMC database and includes a list and
explanation of specific fields. The chapter also outlines the types of primary and
secondary records used for the historical research component of the study and where
these records were sourced. This is followed by a statement discussing the limita-
tions of the methodology and how they were managed.
The next three chapters present the results including the artifact analysis for La
Casa Peña and Casselden Place presented in Chaps. 5 and 6, respectively. Discussions
of artifact types in both chapters are divided by activity type (e.g., “Beverage
Service,” “Clothing,” “Recreation”), and within each activity type, artifact attributes
are discussed (e.g., form, decoration, manufacturing technique). This is preceded,
however, by a general discussion on context including stratigraphic data, the spatial
distribution of artifacts, and datable objects. The last of the results chapters, Chap.
8, presents the results of the archival research. It explores the types of goods arriving
to the ports of Melbourne and Buenos Aires, where they originated, and the trade
networks and restrictions relevant to each city. It also considers the main local
industries that were operating at the time and the shopping practices in each city.
The three final chapters use the information gathered in previous chapters to
interpret the results. Chapter 9 provides a comparison of the two sites and the two
cities in terms of consumer goods using the artifact material and archival research.
Chapter 10 is broken up into three sections, which explore the role of consumer
choice, class, ethnicity, and other factors on consumer behavior. The concluding
chapter summarizes the study and its main findings, highlighting the significance of
a comparative approach that looks beyond sites within the former British Empire
and points to the need for further studies of this kind.
References
Appadurai, A. (1986). Introduction: Commodities and the politics of value. In A. Appadurai (Ed.),
The social life of things commodities in cultural perspective. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press.
Beaudry, M. C. (1989). The Lowell Boott Mills complex and its housing: Material expressions of
corporate ideology. Historical Archaeology, 23, 19–32.
Blainey, G. (2013). A history of Victoria. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.
Brandon, J. C., & Barile, K. S. (2004). Introduction household chores; or the chore of defining the
household. In K. S. Barile & J. C. Brandon (Eds.), Household chores and household choices
theorizing the domestic sphere in historical archaeology. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama
Press.
Brighton, S. A. (2004). Symbols, myth-making, and identity: The Red Hand of Ulster in late
nineteenth-century Paterson, New Jersey. International Journal of Historical Archaeology,
8(2), 149–164.
References 9
Lawrence, S. (2003). Exporting culture: Archaeology and the nineteenth century British Empire.
Historical Archaeology, 37(1), 20–33.
Leone, M. P. (1996). Interpreting ideology in historical archaeology: Using the rules of perspective
in the William Paca Garden in Annapolis, Maryland. In C. Orser (Ed.), Images of the recent
past. Walnut Creek: Altamira Press.
Lewis, D. K. (2003). The history of Argentina. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Lydon, J. (1999). Many inventions: The Chinese in the rocks 1890–1930 (Monash Publications in
History No 28). Clayton: Department of History, Monash University.
Mayne, A. (2006). Big notes from a little street: Historical research at Melbourne’s “Little Lon”.
International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 10(4), 317–328.
Mayne, A. (2011). Beyond metrics: Reappraising York’s Hungate ‘Slum’. International Journal of
Historical Archaeology, 15, 553–562.
Mayne, A., & Murray, T. (Eds.). (2001). The archaeology of urban landscapes explorations in
slumland. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
McGowan, B. (2003). The archaeology of Chinese alluvial mining in Australia. Australasian
Historical Archaeology, 21, 11–17.
McGuire, R. H. (1982). The study of ethnicity in historical archaeology. Journal of Anthropological
Archaeology, 1, 159–178.
McGuire, R. H., & Paynter, R. (Eds.). (1991). The archaeology of inequality. Oxford: Blackwell.
Milne, C., & Crabtree, P. J. (2001). Prostitutes, a rabbi and a carpenter- dinner at the five points in
the 1830s. Historical Archaeology, 35(3), 31–48.
Mrozowski, S. A. (2000). The growth of managerial capitalism and the subtleties of class analysis
in historical archaeology. In J. A. Delle, S. A. Mrozowski, & R. Paynter (Eds.), Lines that
divide historical archaeologies of race, class and gender. Knoxville: University of Tennessee
Press.
Mrozowski, S. A. (2006). The archaeology of class in urban America. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Mrozowski, S. A., & Beaudry, M. C. (1990). Archaeology and the landscape of corporate ide-
ology. In W. M. Kelso & R. Most (Eds.), Earth patterns essays in landscape archaeology.
Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.
Mullins, P. R. (1999). Race and the genteel consumer: Class and African-American consumption,
1850–1930. Historical Archaeology, 33(1), 22–38.
Mullins, P. R. (2001). Racializing the parlor: Race and Victorian Bric-a-Brac consumption. In
C. E. Orser Jr. (Ed.), Race and the archaeology of identity. Salt Lake City: University of Utah
Press.
Murray, T. (2006). Introduction. International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 10(4), 297–304.
Murray, T., & Mayne, A. (2001). Imaginary landscapes: Reading Melbourne’s ‘Little Lon’. In
A. Mayne & T. Murray (Eds.), The archaeology of urban landscapes explorations in slumland.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Murray, T., & Mayne, A. (2002). Casselden Place development archaeological works, phases 1
and 2. Full Research Design. Unpublished document prepared for Godden Mackay Logan Pty.
Ltd. in association with Archaeology Program La Trobe University and Austral Archaeology.
Orser, C. E., Jr. (1996). A historical archaeology of the modern world. New York: Plenum
Publishers Corp.
Orser, C. E., Jr. (2011). The archaeology of poverty and the poverty of archaeology. International
Journal of Historical Archaeology, 15, 533–543.
Praetzellis, A., & Praetzellis, M. (1998). Archaeologists as storytellers. Historical Archaeology,
32(1), 86–93.
Praetzellis, M., & Praetzellis, A. (Eds.). (2004). Putting the “there” there: Historical archaeolo-
gies of West Oakland: 1–880 Cypress Freeway Replacement Project. Oakland: Anthropological
Studies Centre, Sonoma State University. Distributed by the Department of Transportation,
District 4, Cultural Resource Studies Office.
References 11
Praetzellis, M., & Praetzellis, A. (2009). South of market: Historical archaeology of 3 San Francisco
Neighborhoods the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge west approach project. Unpublished
report for the California Department of Transportation.
Priestley, S. (1984). The Victorians making their mark. McMahons Point: Fairfax, Syme and
Weldon Associates.
Rains, K. (2003). Rice bowls and beer bottles: Interpreting evidence of the overseas Chinese at a
Cooktown dumpsite. Australasian Historical Archaeology., 21, 30–41.
Ramos, J. (2005). Inquilinato: Luces y Sombras del Habitar Porteño. In D. Schávelzon (Ed.),
Los Conventillos de Buenos Aires La Casa Minima un estudio arqueologico. Buenos Aires:
Ediciones Turisticas de Mario Banchik.
Ricardi, P. (2018). Working-class consumer behavior in ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ and Buenos
Aires, the ‘Paris of South America’. International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 22(1),
131–146.
Rock, D. (1986). Argentina 1516–1982: From Spanish colonization to the Falklands war. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
Sabugo, M. (2005). La Idea de Conventillo. In D. Schávelzon (Ed.), Los Conventillos de Buenos
Aires La Casa Minima un estudio arqueologico. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Turisticas de Mario
Banchik.
Schávelzon, D. (2000). The historical archaeology of Buenos Aires a city at the end of the world.
New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
Scobie, J. R. (2002). The Paris of South America. In G. Nouzeilles & G. R. Montaldo (Eds.), The
Argentina reader: History, culture, politics. Durham: Duke University Press.
Spencer-Wood, S. M. (Ed.). (1987). Consumer choice in historical archaeology. New York:
Plennum Press.
Staski, E. (1990). Site formation processes at Fort Fillmore, New Mexico: First interpretations.
Historical Archaeology, 24(3), 79–90.
Symonds, J. (2011). The poverty trap: Or, why poverty is not about the individual. International
Journal of Historical Archaeology, 15, 563–571.
Walker, J., Beaudry, M., & Wall, D. (2011). Poverty in depth: A new dialogue. International
Journal of Historical Archaeology, 15, 629–636.
Wilkie, L. (2000). Not merely child’s play: Creating a historical archaeology of children and child-
hood. In J. S. Derevenski (Ed.), Children and material culture. London: Routledge.
Wilkie, L., & Farnsworth, P. (1999). Trade and the construction of Bahamian identity: A multisca-
lar exploration. International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 3(4), 283–320.
Wurst, L. (1999). Internalizing class in historical archaeology. Historical Archaeology, 33(1),
7–21.
Wurst, L., & Fitts, R. K. (1999). Introduction: Why confront class? Historical Archaeology, 33(1),
1–6.
Wurst, L., & McGuire, R. H. (1999). Immaculate consumption: A critique of the “Shop till you
drop” school of human behavior. International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 3(3),
191–199.
Wylie, A. (1999). Why should historical archaeologists study capitalism? The logic of question and
answer and the challenge of systemic analysis. In M. P. Leone & P. B. Potter (Eds.), Historical
archaeologies of capitalism. New York: Kluwer/Plenum Press.
Yamin, R. (1998). Lurid tales and homely stories of New York’s notorious Five Points. Historical
Archaeology, 32(1), 74–85.
Yamin, R. (2001a). Alternative narratives: Respectability at New York’s five points. In A. Mayne &
T. Murray (Eds.), The archaeology of urban landscapes explorations in slumland. Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press.
Yamin, R. (2001b). From tanning to tea: The evolution of a neighborhood. Historical Archaeology,
35(3), 6–15.
Zarankin, A., & Senatore, M. X. (1995). Informe de los trabajos realizados en la Casa Minima
(la Esquina), barrio de San Telmo. Unpublished report for Centro de Arqueología Urbana,
Universidad de Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires.
Chapter 2
Consumer Choice, Class, Ethnicity,
and Other Factors
This chapter looks predominately at the background literature and theory for the
themes of consumer choice, class, and ethnicity. Gender and childhood are also
explored in order to gain a fuller picture of life in Little Lon and San Telmo. The
chapter addresses how these themes have been applied in historical archaeology,
their limitations, and ways in which they may help to achieve a greater understand-
ing of consumer behavior in the nineteenth century. The last section of the chapter
explores some of the complexities associated with an interpretative approach.
Since the time of Simmel and Veblen however, social scientists have tended to
focus less on ideas of emulation and competitive display. Douglas and Isherwood
(1980:72), for example, argued that goods are carriers of meaning and that the
meanings different people attach to goods can vary. They maintained that differ-
ences in meaning are governed by choice and that rational human thought is respon-
sible for creating a space where choice can take place. Later, Bourdieu (1984:1–7)
saw cultural consumption as a deliberate and predisposed way to carry out a social
function and legitimize social differences. However, he argued that this is achieved
through “taste” and that consumer taste is acquired through education and social
influence.
Appadurai (1986:3) and Kopytoff (1986:64) regarded commodities as having
social lives and as the cultural contribution within a system of mass production. This
link between consumption and culture was further elaborated on by Miller (1987)
who saw goods as part of the process of objectification by which people create
themselves as a society. Such an approach links consumer behavior to the construc-
tion of the self by stressing that goods are representations of people’s identities,
social affiliations, and part of everyday practices (Miller 1987:215; Young 1989:76–
77). This book largely takes this viewpoint when exploring consumer choice.
Friedman (1994) expanded this approach by arguing that “One is what one makes
oneself to be. Consumption in such a situation is a grand experiment in life style, the
creation of alternative existences” (Friedman 1994:21). Consumption according to
Friedman (1994) is both an opportunity to express oneself and a form of escapism.
A number of historical studies began to develop work around the concept of
consumer choice in order to help explain the major changes in consumer behavior
that occurred in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. McKendrick et al. (1982)
observed that as goods became increasingly affordable to all social classes, they
also came to be viewed as “fashionable” and not just as necessities. Following
Simmel (1957) and Veblen (1994), McKendrick et al. (1982:1–6) attempted to
explain this trend as driven by social competition (see also Glennie 1995:167).
Others (e.g., Smart Martin 1996; Weatherill 1988) however challenged McKendrick
et al.’s argument that emulation is the only driving model for consumer practices.
Weatherill’s (1988) study considered a more nuanced approach looking at other fac-
tors influencing consumer behavior such as location (urban vs. regional settings)
and occupation (tradespeople owning a greater number of most consumer goods
than the gentry, for instance). Despite this criticism, fashion remains an important
factor driving purchases today, so it would be dangerous to completely ignore it in
the past. This book will also explore fashion as a potential driver for consumer
choice.
Smart Martin (1996) looked at the consumption of household goods through the
analysis of probate and store records from eighteenth-century Virginia. Following
Miller (1987) and Bourdieu (1984), Smart Martin (1996:75) saw material goods as
being imbedded in culture and as carriers of their own meanings. Focusing on the
social construction of gentility, (discussed further in the following section on class)
Smart Martin (1996:76) argued that knowing how to act also meant knowing what
to buy and use. However, she challenged the link between gentility and the
2.1 Consumer Choice 15
c onditioning, and taste have a greater influence on consumption than cost. It is the
types of goods selected for consumption, however, which change across time, place,
and class.
Critics of consumer choice studies (e.g., Wurst and McGuire 1999) have argued
that the study of consumer choice blurs the realities behind social relations, power
struggles, and control. According to Wurst and McGuire (1999:194), the reality of
the concept of “choice” is only available to certain individuals and not others.
Although socioeconomic factors certainly affect consumer behavior, consumer
choice remains an important field of analysis. It contributes to our understanding of
the past motivators in consumer behavior available to people of all different social
classes as Crook (2008) found through her study. Rather than obscuring social rela-
tions, the study of consumer choice helps to distinguish them.
This book considers the concept that goods have the potential to carry meaning
and reveal aspects of people’s identities as explored by previous research (Appadurai
1986; Cook et al. 1996; Douglas and Isherwood 1980; Kopytoff 1986; Miller 1987).
Also taken into account is the view that fashion plays an active role in consumer
choice (McKendrick et al. 1982). Although this is influenced by earlier theories of
emulation and social display (e.g., Simmel 1957; Veblen 1994), fashion remains an
important factor in consumer choice today in everything from clothing to cars to
soft drink varieties. It should therefore not be ignored when attempting to study
consumer behavior in the past. This book, however, will also consider what factors
other than choice influenced consumer behavior.
Other than class (e.g., Wurst and McGuire 1999) and race (e.g., Mullins 1999,
2001), researchers have suggested numerous factors that affect consumer behavior.
Site location, for example, can greatly impact the availability of goods according to
LeeDecker et al. (1987:233–235). This, however, plays a greater role in rural or
isolated settings as opposed to inner-city sites such as Casselden Place or La Casa
Peña. LeeDecker et al. (1987:233–257) further suggested that household structure,
life cycle, home ownership versus tenancy, and income strategy can also influence
consumer behavior. Generally, tenants tend to accumulate fewer possessions than
owner/occupiers. We know that tenants rather than owner/occupiers resided at
Casselden Place (Lot 35) and La Casa Peña. However, other than this fact, not much
detail is known about the individuals or nature of the household structures or the
income strategies employed by the residents (see Chaps. 3 and 4). Other factors that
may contribute to consumer behavior include marketing, sociocultural environ-
ment, and a range of internal factors (e.g., ethnicity, age, gender, religion, political
affiliations) according to Henry (1991). All of these factors may have affected con-
sumer behavior for the residents of Casselden Place and La Casa Peña, but some of
these would not be visible in the archaeological record. De Cunzo (1987:261) sug-
gests that larger factors such as industrialization and urbanization influence con-
sumer behavior, and this concept will be explored further throughout this book.
Combining different concepts from consumer choice theory (e.g., goods as car-
riers of meaning, as an expression of identity, and as fashion statements) leads to a
greater understanding of the factors that drive consumer choice. This is expanded by
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
When Toodles was left alone he started out on a tour of inspection.
The first objects of interest were the dead chicken and the peach-pit
basket, but his attention was soon detracted from these by the bright
pan that held the cream; it had been pushed to the edge of the table.
As Toodles approached it he saw the reflection of a chubby baby
face on the outside.
“Baby,” said Toodles. He smiled and the pan baby smiled, and he
concluded that the pan must be full of pretty, smiling babies, and he
wanted them to play with. He could just get his little fingers over the
edge of the pan. He pulled and tugged with all his might to get the
pan baby down.
He succeeded, for the pan toppled over and deluged the
immaculate Toodles with thick, yellow cream. His pretty curls were
filled with chunks of oily coagulation, and cream ran in rivulets down
his little back and bosom.
He seated himself in the middle of it and paddled and spattered in
great glee.
The calf pen took longer to fix than Jack had expected, and as he
neared the house he heard the clock striking twelve, and, looking
fieldward, he saw his wife coming to dinner.
“Jumping Jupiter! what will she say?” was his mental comment.
“But she will soon fix things, I’ll bet.”
As he entered the kitchen what a sight met his gaze. The room
was dark with smoke from burned prunes, the table piled full of
unwashed pans and dishes. The cream. Heavens, the cream! The
dead chicken lay in the middle of the floor and the pit-basket was
upset, as Toodles had left it for the pan baby. The open-mouthed
churn stared at him.
Mr. Telfer opened the oven door; his pie was a black mass.
“I can see now why women sit down and cry sometimes. I’m
blessed if I don’t feel like it myself,” he said.
Toodles, drenched but happy, called from the middle of his cream
puddle, “High me, papa; high me.”
Mrs. Telfer called out as she passed the house: “Hello! Dinner
ready? I’m awful hungry.” But her husband was not visible.
She had enjoyed her morning’s work and was in excellent spirits.
She watered and fed the team, then started for the house. The
novelty of the situation amused her. She expected Jack would have
some surprise ready, some extra dish for dinner, the table decorated
with flowers or, perhaps, be tricked out in one of her white aprons
with his hair curled and a pink ribbon around his neck to show how a
wife should greet her husband.
He was such a wag it was impossible to tell what he might do. As
she entered the house she stood dumb with amazement. Her eyes
took in the situation. The breakfast dishes, the burned pie, the
creamy Toodles, the dead chicken, the littered sitting-room with the
remains of Toodles’ toilet and the distracted-looking man.
“How soon will dinner be ready?” she asked. But her husband did
not answer; he was busy picking up peach pits. “I’ve got to get back
to work as soon as I can,” she continued.
Crossing the room, she took up a paper and went outside and sat
down in the shade to read.
Toodles, greasy and dripping, trotted after.
“Oh, baby, go to papa and get cleaned up. Go tell papa to clean
baby up, darling,” said his mother. And the little fellow hurried into
the house, saying: “Keen baby up, papa; keen baby up.”
Poor Jack, he had lost out. He was hopelessly balled up. He was
mad. He had felt somehow that his troubles were over when he saw
his wife coming, but when she took the paper and sat down to read,
leaving him in that awful muss, the iron entered his soul.
Yet he knew that was exactly the way he did, and only yesterday
when she asked him to get a pitcher of fresh water for dinner he had
said:
“It’s a pity a man can’t get a moment to rest without having to
chore around the house.”
“Keen baby up, papa; keen baby up!” reiterated Toodles. Jack
looked down at the greasy, smeary child with its cream-matted curls
and capitulated.
“Say, Jennie,” he called, “I’ll give up. I know when I’m worsted. It’s
my treat. If you’ll come in here and help me out of this mix-up you
can name your own price and I’ll pay it. I’ve worked all the morning
and haven’t done a blamed thing but get all balled up. I never would
have believed a woman had so much to do if I hadn’t tried it. I am
dead sore at the whole deal.”
“Why, Jack,” laughed his wife, as she came to his assistance, “you
don’t seem to like paper-flower work. I guess you forgot to tie one
hand behind you and so used both to throw time at the birds.”
“Now see here, Jennie, don’t strike a man when he’s down. I’ll
admit that I’m not nearly so smart as I thought I was this morning,
but how things ever got in this shape I can’t tell,” said Jack with a
grim smile.
Together they soon brought order out of chaos, and as they sat
eating their picked-up dinner Jack said:
“If it is all the same to you, Jennie, I’ll finish the orchard this
afternoon.”—The Los Angeles Times.
A BAD NIGHT
By J. Ross Browne
I gradually dropped off into a doze, a mere doze, for I scorn the
charge of having slept a wink that night. The grating of the
grindstones, the everlasting clatter of tongues, the dust, the chaff,
smoke, and fleas, to say nothing of the roar of the water down below,
were enough to banish all hope of sleep; I merely closed my eyes to
try how ridiculous it would feel. How long they remained closed I
scarcely know; it was not long, however, for I soon heard a heavy
breathing close by my head, and felt the warm breath of some
monster on my face. I knew it to be no Arab; it blew and snuffed
altogether unlike anything of the human kind. Thinking it might be all
fancy, I cautiously put out my hand in the dark and began to feel
around me. For some moments I could discover nothing, but in
waving my hand around I at length touched something—something
that sent the blood flying back to my heart a good deal quicker than it
ever flew before. To tell the honest truth, I never was so startled in all
the previous adventures of my life. The substance that I put my hand
on was bare and warm; it was wet also and slimy, and had large
nostrils which seemed to be in the act of smelling me, previous to the
act of mastication. With the quickness of lightning I jerked up my
hand, and felt it glide along a skin covered with long rough hair; the
next instant my ears were stunned by the most dreadful noises,
which resembled, as I thought in the horror of the moment, the
roaring of a full-grown lion. But it was not the roaring of a lion; it was
only the braying of an ass.—From The Mill of Malaha.
AN UNTHANKFUL ORPHAN
By Kate Langley Bosher
My name is Mary Cary. I live in the Yorkburg Female Orphan
Asylum. You may think nothing happens in an Orphan Asylum. It
does. The orphans are sure enough children, and real, much like the
kind that have Mothers and Fathers; but though they don’t give
parties or wear truly Paris clothes, things happen.
To-day I was kept in. Yesterday, too. I don’t mind, for I would rather
watch the lightning up here than be down in the basement with the
others. There are days when I love thunder and lightning. I can’t
flash and crash, being just Mary Cary; but I’d like to, and when it is
done for me it is a relief to my feelings.
The reason I was kept in was this: Yesterday Mr. Gaffney, the one
with a sunk eye and cold in his head perpetual, came to talk to us for
the benefit of our characters. He thinks it’s his duty, and, just
naturally loving to talk, he wears us out once a week anyhow.
Yesterday, not agreeing with what he said, I wouldn’t pretend I did,
and I was punished prompt, of course.
I don’t care for duty-doers, and I tried not to listen to him; but
tiresome talk is hard not to hear—it makes you so mad. Hear him I
did, and when, after he had ambled on until I thought he really was
castor-oil and I had swallowed him, he blew his nose and said:
“You have much, my children, to be thankful for, and for everything
you should be thankful. Are you? If so, stand up. Rise, and stand
upon your feet.”
I didn’t rise. All the others did—stood on their feet, just like he
asked. None tried their heads. I was the only one that sat, and when
his good eye stared at me in such astonishment, I laughed out loud. I
couldn’t help it, I truly couldn’t.
I’m not thankful for everything, and that’s why I didn’t stand up.
Can you be thankful for toothache, or stomachache, or any kind of
ache? You cannot. And not meant to be, either.
The room got awful still, and then presently he said:
“Mary Cary”—his voice was worse than his eye—“Mary Cary, do
you mean to say you have not a thankful heart?” And he pointed his
finger at me like I was the Jezebel lady come to life.
I didn’t answer, thinking it safer, and he asked again:
“Do I understand, Mary Cary”—and by this time he was real red-in-
the-face mad—“do I understand you are not thankful for all that
comes to you? Do I understand aright?”
“Yes, sir, you understand right,” I said, getting up this time. “I am
not thankful for everything in my life. I’d be much thankfuller to have
a Mother and Father on earth than to have them in heaven. And
there are a great many other things I would like different.” And down
I sat, and was kept in for telling the truth.
Miss Bray says it was for impertinence (Miss Bray is the Head
Chief of this Institution), but I didn’t mean to be impertinent. I truly
didn’t. Speaking facts is apt to make trouble, though—also writing
them. To-day Miss Bray kept me in for putting something on the
blackboard I forgot to rub out. I wrote it just for my own relief, not
thinking about anybody else seeing it. What I wrote was this:
“Some people are crazy all the time;
All people are crazy sometimes.”
“In the winter, by the fireside, when the snow falls soft and white,
I am waiting, hoping, longing, but for what I don’t know quite.
And when summer’s sunshine shimmers, and the birds sing clear
and sweet,
I am waiting, always waiting, for the joy I hope to meet.
“It will be, I think, my husband, and the home he’ll make for me;
But of his coming or home-making, I as yet no signs do see.
But I still shall keep on waiting, for I know it’s true as fate,
When you really, truly hustle, things will come if just you’ll wait.”
And such singing! We’d been practicing in the back part of the
yard, and humming in bed, so as to get the words into the tune; but
we hadn’t let out until that night. That night we let go.
There’s nothing like singing from your heart, and, though I was the
minister and stood on a box which was shaky, I sang too. I led.
The bride didn’t think it was modest to hold up her head, and she
was the only silent one. But the bridegroom and bridesmaids sang,
and it sounded like the revivals at the Methodist church. It was
grand.
And that bride! She was Miss Bray. A graven image of her couldn’t
have been more like her.
She was stuffed in the right places, and her hair was frizzled just
like Miss Bray’s. Frizzled in front, and slick and tight in the back; and
her face was a purple pink, and powdered all over, with a piece of
dough just above her mouth on the left side to correspond with Miss
Bray’s mole.
And she held herself so like her, shoulders back, and making that
little nervous sniffle with her nose, like Miss Bray makes when she’s
excited, that once I had to wink at her to stop.
The groom didn’t look like Dr. Rudd. But she wore men’s clothes,
and that’s the only way you’d know some men were men, and almost
anything will do for a groom. Nobody noticed him.
We were getting on just grand, and I was marrying away, telling
them what they must do and what they mustn’t do. Particularly that
they mustn’t get mad and leave each other, for Yorkburg was very
old-fashioned and didn’t like changes, and would rather stick to its
mistakes than go back on its word. And then I turned to the bride.
“Miss Bray,” I said, “have you told this man you are marrying that
you are two-faced and underhand, and can’t be trusted to tell the
truth? Have you told him that nobody loves you, and that for years
you have tried to pass for a lamb, when you are an old sheep? And
does he know that though you’re a good manager on little and are
not lazy, that your temper’s been ruined by economizing, and that at
times, if you were dead, there’d be no place for you? Peter wouldn’t
pass you, and the devil wouldn’t stand you. And does he know he’s
buying a pig in a bag, and that the best wedding present he could
give you would be a set of new teeth? And will you promise to stop
pink powder and clean your finger-nails every day? And—”
But I got no further, for something made me look up, and there,
standing in the door, was the real Miss Bray.
All I said was—“Let us pray!”—Abridged from “Mary Cary,”
copyrighted by The Century Company, New York, and used by the
kind consent of author and publisher.