Cultural Heritage Management

This article uses the events of the 1913-14 Southern Colorado Coal strike and the cooperative work of the Colorado Coalfield War Archaeology Project to explore emergent historical narratives of working-class poverty and the role they play in shaping contemporary ideologies and public policy. It uses clothing as an entrée into discussions of the deserving and undeserving poor, and asks how competing groups used dress in the context of the 1913-14 southern Colorado coal strike to fashion subjects in particular ways. In so doing, it demonstrates the ineffectiveness of either-or dichotomies of deserving and undeserving that still influence current public policy.

An examination of intersectional historical factors that influenced the assimilation of birth control (particularly the birth control pill) into mainstream American society in the mid-late 20th century and early 21st century. This research examines the background of important reproductive legislation as well as social factors (race, religion, and socio-economic status) that influence women's decisions about birth control. The research concludes that, across history, socio-economic status is the largest predictor of whether a woman will use birth control and what type of birth control she will use. 

Presented at Phi Alpha Theta Biennal Convention, January 2020.

The start of the twenty-first century is marked by new levels of globalization, environmental degradation, and social conflict that are endangering the cultural landscapes and agrarian heritage of rural areas. In the wake of these threats, heritage professionals are imagining new, holistic models for shared cultural and natural heritage protection that support active community engagement around issues of cultural identity, material and ecological sustainability, and shared ethical values. Agricultural land conservation is fertile terrain in which to theorize how heritage protection can contribute to the mobilization of social cohesion to restore a balanced human ecology. Agrarian land tenure challenges heritage advocates to bridge the conventional binary of nature/culture that has divided heritage resource protection strategies and to support the protection of working, populated cultural landscapes. Over the past 35 years in the United States, a number of agricultural land protection programs have emerged that depend upon a complex web of cooperation among landowners, governments, and private land trusts to purchase development rights on farmland. I propose that such programs are both symptoms of and coping strategies for broader processes of socio-economic alienation. This paper focuses on a New England case study to explore the potential for agricultural land protection as a framework for shared heritage protection. Based on the results and research connected with this case study, I offer a theoretical and ethical framework of heritage protection as a culturally mediated discursive practice of community-building—one that references the past in order to intervene in present alienating processes and secure a recognizable future.

Recent studies of Northeast Algonquin cultures emphasize variation on the local level and position individuals as agents operating within-but not inescapably constrained by-a worldview. This welcome theoretical focus in Northeast studies presents a particular dilemma to the treatment of archaeological datasets. How can archaeologists structure and quantify data in ways that remain sensitive to local change and agency while simultaneously allowing for recognition of cultural tradition across space and time? This article documents the process of building a digital model and Web-based tool for archiving and analyzing ceramic attribute datasets using current theories in the field of Knowledge Discovery. Modeling and automating a manual laboratory process offers many lessons in the limits of statistical tools, the challenges of relational data schemas, and the continuing potential for computerized tools in archaeology. *I would like to thank the Robert E. Funk Memorial Archaeology Foundation for funding the digital ceramic attribute analysis research project.

A common narrative in the late twentieth–early twenty-first centuries is that historic rural landscapes and cultural practices are in danger of disappearing in the face of modern development pressures. However, efforts to preserve rural landscapes have dichotomized natural and cultural resources and tended to “freeze” these resources in time. They have essentialized the character of both “rural” and “developed” and ignored the dynamic natural and cultural processes that produce them. In this dissertation I outline an agenda for critical and applied heritage research that reframes heritage as a transformative social practice  in order to move beyond the hegemonic treatment of heritage as the objects of cultural property. I propose an anthropological theory of shared heritage: a culturally mediated ethical practice that references the past in order to intervene in alienating processes of the present to secure a recognizable future for practitioners and prospective beneficiaries. More specifically, I develop (1) an ethical framework for shared heritage practice that values social tolerance and future security, (2) a model for the critical assessment of a heritage protection strategy’s potential for supporting a shared heritage ethic, and (3) a methodology for scholars, heritage advocates, and community leaders to realistically enact shared heritage. I document two case studies of rural residents implementing heritage protection strategies in the face of suburban and tourism development in Hadley, Massachusetts, and Eleuthera, Bahamas, respectively. I engage with these case studies at three distinct levels: (1) locating and critiquing the potential for a shared heritage ethics in the attempts to preserve private agricultural land in Hadley; (2) developing and applying a community-based heritage inventory assessment in Hadley; and (3) modeling an internet-based communications system for supporting shared heritage development in Eleuthera. Taken together, this dissertation offers an anthropological model for documenting and analyzing the discursive and material productions of cultural identities and landscapes inherent in heritage resource protection and a set of methods that heritage professionals and practitioners can apply to cultivate shared heritage ethics.

Archaeological database management systems serve the basic and important functions of ordering, archiving, and disseminating archaeological data. The increased availability of computers and data storage over the past two decades has enabled the exponential growth of archaeological databases and data models. Despite their importance and ubiquity, archaeological database systems are rarely the subject of theoretical analysis within the discipline due to their ''black box'' nature and the perceived objectivity of computerized systems. Inspired by H. Martin Wobst's meditations on materiality and disciplinary ethics, in this paper I explore how archaeological database systems structure archaeological interpretation and disciplinary practice. In turn, I offer suggestions for how archaeological database systems can better support pressing anthropological research topics of the 21st century including multivocality, participatory research and ethics, social memory, and social complexity studies. ________________________________________________________________ Résumé: Les systèmes de gestion de base de données archéologiques remplissent des fonctions e ´lémentaires importantes consistant a ` ordonner, archiver et disséminer les données archéologiques. La présence croissante d'ordinateurs et de solutions de stockage de données au cours des deux dernières décennies a permis un accroissement exponentiel des bases de données archéologiques et des modèles de données. En dépit de leur importance et de leur ubiquité, les systèmes de bases de données archéologiques font rarement l'objet d'analyses théoriques au sein de la discipline en raison de leur caractère de « boıˆte noire » et de l'objectivité perçue des systèmes informatiques. Les méditations de H. Martin Wobst sur la matérialité et l'e ´thique de la discipline ont inspiré cet article dans lequel j'explore la façon dont les systèmes de bases de données archéologiques structurent l'interprétation archéologique et les pratiques de la discipline.

Chapter 1 of the PhD Dissertation in Anthropology, SHARED HERITAGE: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY AND METHODOLOGY FOR ASSESSING, ENHANCING, AND COMMUNICATING A FUTURE- ORIENTED SOCIAL ETHIC OF HERITAGE

A common narrative in the late twentieth–early twenty-first centuries is that historic rural landscapes and cultural practices are in danger of disappearing in the face of modern development pressures. However, efforts to preserve rural landscapes have dichotomized natural and cultural resources and tended to “freeze” these resources in time. They have essentialized the character of both “rural” and “developed” and ignored the dynamic natural and cultural processes that produce them. In this dissertation I outline an agenda for critical and applied heritage research that reframes heritage as a transformative social practice  in order to move beyond the hegemonic treatment of heritage as the objects of cultural property. I propose an anthropological theory of shared heritage: a culturally mediated ethical practice that references the past in order to intervene in alienating processes of the present to secure a recognizable future for practitioners and prospective beneficiaries. More specifically, I develop (1) an ethical framework for shared heritage practice that values social tolerance and future security, (2) a model for the critical assessment of a heritage protection strategy’s potential for supporting a shared heritage ethic, and (3) a methodology for scholars, heritage advocates, and community leaders to realistically enact shared heritage. I document two case studies of rural residents implementing heritage protection strategies in the face of suburban and tourism development in Hadley, Massachusetts, and Eleuthera, Bahamas, respectively. I engage with these case studies at three distinct levels: (1) locating and critiquing the potential for a shared heritage ethics in the attempts to preserve private agricultural land in Hadley; (2) developing and applying a community-based heritage inventory assessment in Hadley; and (3) modeling an internet-based communications system for supporting shared heritage development in Eleuthera. Taken together, this dissertation offers an anthropological model for documenting and analyzing the discursive and material productions of cultural identities and landscapes inherent in heritage resource protection and a set of methods that heritage professionals and practitioners can apply to cultivate shared heritage ethics.

Chapter 3 of the PhD Dissertation in Anthropology, SHARED HERITAGE: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY AND METHODOLOGY FOR ASSESSING, ENHANCING, AND COMMUNICATING A FUTURE- ORIENTED SOCIAL ETHIC OF HERITAGE

A common narrative in the late twentieth–early twenty-first centuries is that historic rural landscapes and cultural practices are in danger of disappearing in the face of modern development pressures. However, efforts to preserve rural landscapes have dichotomized natural and cultural resources and tended to “freeze” these resources in time. They have essentialized the character of both “rural” and “developed” and ignored the dynamic natural and cultural processes that produce them. In this dissertation I outline an agenda for critical and applied heritage research that reframes heritage as a transformative social practice  in order to move beyond the hegemonic treatment of heritage as the objects of cultural property. I propose an anthropological theory of shared heritage: a culturally mediated ethical practice that references the past in order to intervene in alienating processes of the present to secure a recognizable future for practitioners and prospective beneficiaries. More specifically, I develop (1) an ethical framework for shared heritage practice that values social tolerance and future security, (2) a model for the critical assessment of a heritage protection strategy’s potential for supporting a shared heritage ethic, and (3) a methodology for scholars, heritage advocates, and community leaders to realistically enact shared heritage. I document two case studies of rural residents implementing heritage protection strategies in the face of suburban and tourism development in Hadley, Massachusetts, and Eleuthera, Bahamas, respectively. I engage with these case studies at three distinct levels: (1) locating and critiquing the potential for a shared heritage ethics in the attempts to preserve private agricultural land in Hadley; (2) developing and applying a community-based heritage inventory assessment in Hadley; and (3) modeling an internet-based communications system for supporting shared heritage development in Eleuthera. Taken together, this dissertation offers an anthropological model for documenting and analyzing the discursive and material productions of cultural identities and landscapes inherent in heritage resource protection and a set of methods that heritage professionals and practitioners can apply to cultivate shared heritage ethics.

Chapter 4 of the PhD Dissertation in Anthropology, SHARED HERITAGE: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY AND METHODOLOGY FOR ASSESSING, ENHANCING, AND COMMUNICATING A FUTURE- ORIENTED SOCIAL ETHIC OF HERITAGE

A common narrative in the late twentieth–early twenty-first centuries is that historic rural landscapes and cultural practices are in danger of disappearing in the face of modern development pressures. However, efforts to preserve rural landscapes have dichotomized natural and cultural resources and tended to “freeze” these resources in time. They have essentialized the character of both “rural” and “developed” and ignored the dynamic natural and cultural processes that produce them. In this dissertation I outline an agenda for critical and applied heritage research that reframes heritage as a transformative social practice  in order to move beyond the hegemonic treatment of heritage as the objects of cultural property. I propose an anthropological theory of shared heritage: a culturally mediated ethical practice that references the past in order to intervene in alienating processes of the present to secure a recognizable future for practitioners and prospective beneficiaries. More specifically, I develop (1) an ethical framework for shared heritage practice that values social tolerance and future security, (2) a model for the critical assessment of a heritage protection strategy’s potential for supporting a shared heritage ethic, and (3) a methodology for scholars, heritage advocates, and community leaders to realistically enact shared heritage. I document two case studies of rural residents implementing heritage protection strategies in the face of suburban and tourism development in Hadley, Massachusetts, and Eleuthera, Bahamas, respectively. I engage with these case studies at three distinct levels: (1) locating and critiquing the potential for a shared heritage ethics in the attempts to preserve private agricultural land in Hadley; (2) developing and applying a community-based heritage inventory assessment in Hadley; and (3) modeling an internet-based communications system for supporting shared heritage development in Eleuthera. Taken together, this dissertation offers an anthropological model for documenting and analyzing the discursive and material productions of cultural identities and landscapes inherent in heritage resource protection and a set of methods that heritage professionals and practitioners can apply to cultivate shared heritage ethics.

A thriving plant is sustained by its roots.  Although hidden from view, roots anchor, support, and nourish the plant that eventually emerges from the earth.  Rural communities like Williamsburg, Massachusetts, trace their roots to agricultural traditions; however, in many of these towns, those practices are fading from view and receding into a forgotten past. What are the implications for rural communities’ present and future if these practices aren’t sustained?

This oral history project, sponsored by the Fertile Ground collaborative student gardening program at the Helen E. James School, empowered 6th grade students at the Anne T. Dunphy School to learn more about Williamsburg’s agricultural roots by interviewing community elders who grew up or worked on local farms. In cultivating these intergenerational connections, the students’ experiential learning as gardeners was enriched with a direct engagement with local history and a sense of the traditions rooted in the soils and farmers of the community. This project’s continuing goal is to foster a curiosity and respect for the knowledge that our elders hold and to provide a safe and fun environment for elders to share their memories and wisdom. The project is part of Fertile Ground’s larger initiative to support collaborative, intergenerational projects that build a sense of community and appreciation for local roots and betters the health and welfare of community members, young and old. The qualitative data gathered during the project will inform future programming to better meet the goals of Fertile Ground’s initiative.

The process of formulating one’s personal and professional ethics should be better integrated into the undergraduate and graduate curriculum.  My paper suggests one way of facilitating that for the student,  the provision of an interactive hypertext reader. Such a reader also provides a logistical alternative to a departmental ethics course, “self-taught” and sensitive to this profoundly personal developmental process.  By converting static text or pdf documents to hypertext, the site can link phrases, words and documents to form alternative paths through the text.  Students can insert their own text into the reader – elevating it to “journal” status and blurring the line between author and reader.  Such an ethics reader is not linear like an academic text, but  allows the reader to construct their own paths that may be long or short, linear or full of loops, resolved or unresolved.  This kind of document also enriches an ethics course, since it centers on the participant’s agency and encourages the creation of an artifact of that process.