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An archaeological analysis of the centrality of race and racism in American culture. Using a broad range of material, historical, and ethnographic resources from Annapolis, Maryland, during the period 1850 to 1930, the author probes distinctive African-American consumption patterns and examines how those patterns resisted the racist assumptions of the dominant culture while also attempting to demonstrate African-Americans' suitability to full citizenship privileges.
List of contents
Racializing Consumer Culture.- The Politicization and Politics of African-American Consumption.- Material and Symbolic Racism in Consumer Space.- "Producers as Well as Consumers".- Moralizing Work and Materialism.- Modes of Consumption.- Affluent Aspiration.- Double Consciousness, Whiteness, and Consumer Culture.
Report
`The book is a good example of the fruits an interdisciplinary approach can bear, for the author mixes very skillfully documents, oral testimony, photographs, and material evidence. Mullins is also keen to draw on anthropology, sociology, semiotics, history, and philosophy, not restricting himself to archaeology, and the result is clearly worth of praise... Most importantly, though, is his commitment to write a specific people's history...'
Historical Archaeology, 34:2
`...his work is rigorous, well-founded historically, and carefully considered theoretically. ...successfully brought together archaeology, history, and social theory and applied them to a critically important contemporary issue. This is a fine piece of scholarship that marks a major step forward in the maturation of historical archaeology. Race and Affluence should be an obvious choice for a variety of courses on history, historical archaeology, and anthropological theory. For this research, Mullins was given the 2000 John J. Cotter Award by the Society for Historical Archaeology.'
Journal of Anthropological Research, 56 (2000)
