Unmaking Waste - New Histories of Old Things

"In Unmaking Waste, Sarah Newman asks what happens when there are disagreements about what constitutes waste and what one should do with it, both at singular moments in time (for example, when ideas about waste collide in emerging colonial contexts) and across time (such as between those who left things behind in the past and the archaeologists who recover them). Newman examines ancient Mesoamerican understandings of waste, Euro-American perceptions of waste in New Spain, and early modern European ideals of civility and Christian understandings of good and bad, expressed metaphorically through cleanliness and filth. These differing perceptions, Newman argues, demands that we rethink centuries of assumptions imposed on other places, times, and peoples: so long as "waste" remains a category misunderstood to be common-sensical and stable, archaeological methods will prove unequal to their task. Newman instead proposes "anamorphic archaeology," an approach that emphasizes the possibility that archaeological objects have multiple physical and conceptual lives"--

About the author

Sarah Newman is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago.

Product details

• Authors: Sarah Newman, Newman Sarah
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.05.2023
• EAN: 9780226826370
• ISBN: 978-0-226-82637-0
• No. of pages: 296
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Pre and early history; Non-fiction book > History > Pre and early history, antiquity; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography, Ethnic groups and multicultural studies, Social and cultural anthropology, Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies, Relating to Latin / Hispanic American people, Hispanic & Latino Studies