The Plurality of Power [electronic resource] : An Archaeology of Industrial Capitalism /
Cowie, Sarah.author.
How do people experience power within capitalist societies? Research presented here explicitly addresses the notion of pluralistic power, which encompasses both productive and oppressive forms of power and acknowledges that nuanced and multifaceted power relations can exist in combination with binary dynamics such as domination and resistance. This volume addresses growing interests in linking past and present power relationships engendered by capitalism and in conducting historical archaeology as anthropology. The Plurality of Power: An Archaeology of Industrial Capitalism explores the subtle distribution of power within American industrial capitalism through a case study of a company town. Issues surrounding power and agency are explored in regard to three heuristic categories of power. In the first category, the company imposed a system of structural, class-based power that is most visible in hierarchical differences in pay and housing, as well as consumer behavior. A second category addresses disciplinary activities surrounding health and the human body, as observed in the built environment, medical artifacts, disposal patterns of industrial waste, incidence of intestinal parasites, and unequal access to healthcare. The third ensemble of power relations is heterarcical and entwined with non-economic capital (social, symbolic, and cultural). Individuals and groups drew upon different forms of capital to bolster social status and express identity both within and apart from the corporate hierarchy. The goal in combining these diverse ideas is to explore the plurality of power relationships in past industrial contexts and to assert their relevance in the anthropology of capitalism. .
Description based upon print version of record.
The Plurality of Power: An Archaeology of Industrial Capitalism; Acknowledgments; Contents; Chapter 1: The Plurality of Power in Industrial Capitalism: A Case Study of Fayette, Michigan; Introduction; The Company Town of Fayette; The Plurality of Power; Summary; Chapter 2: Working Communities and the Victorian-American Company Town; Introduction; Working Communities and Industrial Capitalism; The Reorganization of Work; Technologically Centered Communities, Company Towns, and Paternalism; Fayette, Michigan: An Iron Town in the Gilded Age; Nineteenth-Century Iron Production
The Cultural Geography of American Iron TownsAmerican Communities in the Gilded Age; Research at Fayette; Histories, Park Management Plans, and Archival Resources; Analysis of Landscape and Built Environment; Archaeological Research; Town Road System; Racetrack/Baseball Field; Slag Beach; Residential Excavations; Comparative Excavations of Class-Based Neighborhoods; Summary; Chapter 3: Critically Reading Power, Landscapes, Documents, and Artifacts in Industrialized Society; Introduction; Theorizing Power; Structural Power, Class, and Hegemony; Power, the Individual, and the Body
Status, Noneconomic Capital, and IdentityRelated Theories of Power; Theorizing Documents, Built Environment, and Consumerism; Critically Reading Historical Documents; Critically Reading Landscapes and Built Environments; Critically Reading Consumerism Through Historical Artifacts; Summary; Chapter 4: Paternalism, Resistance, and Hegemony; Introduction; Corporate Paternalism; Paternalism in Services and Benefits; Paternalism in the Landscape: Green Engineering; Hegemony and Resistance; The Summers and Berlanguette Incident, 20 July 1880; Summary; Chapter 5: The Class System; Introduction
Class and the Built EnvironmentAssessing Class-Based Neighborhoods; Upper-, Middle-, and Working-Class Housing; Class and Consumerism; Faunal Remains; Edible Fruits; Glass Bottles and Jars; Ceramics; Summary; Chapter 6: Biopower: Discipline, Symbolic Violence, and the Privilege of Hygiene; Introduction; Health, Biopolitics, and the Privilege of Hygiene; Living Conditions and Exposure to Waste; Incidence of Human Intestinal Parasites; Medicines and Medical Paraphernalia; Bodily Discipline, Panopticism, and Symbolic Violence; Legislative Documents
Disciplinary Institutions, Panopticism, and SurveillanceSymbolic Violence and the Freedom of Daily Improvisation; Summary; Chapter 7: Social Status and Intersectional Identities: Consumer Behavior, Gender, and Immigration; Introduction; Consumer Behavior; Dining Practices, Genteel Play, and Social Status; Excerpt from the Novel A Pasteboard Crown: A Story of the New York Stage (Morris 1902:58-60); Victorian Health Practices and Medical Fetishism; Advertisement for Okell's Original Mona Bouquet, 1884; Gender Identity and Power; Working Women and Men; Women's Work at Fayette
Men's Work at Fayette
Includes bibliographical references and index.
How do people experience power within capitalist societies? Research presented here explicitly addresses the notion of pluralistic power, which encompasses both productive and oppressive forms of power and acknowledges that nuanced and multifaceted power relations can exist in combination with binary dynamics such as domination and resistance. This volume addresses growing interests in linking past and present power relationships engendered by capitalism and in conducting historical archaeology as anthropology. The Plurality of Power: An Archaeology of Industrial Capitalism explores the subtle distribution of power within American industrial capitalism through a case study of a company town. Issues surrounding power and agency are explored in regard to three heuristic categories of power. In the first category, the company imposed a system of structural, class-based power that is most visible in hierarchical differences in pay and housing, as well as consumer behavior. A second category addresses disciplinary activities surrounding health and the human body, as observed in the built environment, medical artifacts, disposal patterns of industrial waste, incidence of intestinal parasites, and unequal access to healthcare. The third ensemble of power relations is heterarcical and entwined with non-economic capital (social, symbolic, and cultural). Individuals and groups drew upon different forms of capital to bolster social status and express identity both within and apart from the corporate hierarchy. The goal in combining these diverse ideas is to explore the plurality of power relationships in past industrial contexts and to assert their relevance in the anthropology of capitalism. .
Archaeology.
Regional planning.
Urban planning.
Environmental health.
Archaeology.
Landscape/Regional and Urban Planning.
Environmental Health.
Contributions to Global Historical Archaeology