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Subject:
From:
"Kimmel, Richard H SAW" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 28 Oct 1999 08:54:23 -0400
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The comments of Weiskotten and others inspire other questions:  When we find
"concealed" materials, are they truly concealed or just incidental
disposals?  What other contexts, other than those documented through
ethnography, interviews, etc., indicate attribution of significance to an
object found in a peculiar location?  Is the Warner's Safe Kidney and Liver
Cure bottle I found wedged into the wall beneath a set of stairs an attempt
to hide the bottle from a disapproving spouse, or a belief that the bottle
has curative powers of its own, or did it fall in during repair or division
of the upper hallway into a small sewing room or large closet?  Is hoarding
behavior part of human nature?  I used to hide things away as a kid and my
kids now hide things away.  What forms the aura of symbolic significance for
my kids and me?  Is the ascription of spiritual significance and power to
objects related to an inherent, perhaps subconscious, knowledge that
possessions give power in a practical sense?  Things give power through
their technological usefulness.  Is this history or archaeology or ethnology
or psychological anthropology?

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