I am a graduate student seeking site reports of relevance to my
thesis. I have been researching gendered consumption patterns at the
turn of the century. To date, I have been surveying advertisements in
magazines geared toward the white middle class. I am investigating the
potential of these ads to present emic expressions of norms and ideals
linking specific goods with men and/or women. I would like to compare
the results of this survey with actual consumption behavior.
In order to accomplish this, I am looking for reports on sites in the
U.S. (falling between 1890 and 1910) where only one sex is primarily
present, either male or female. It is obviously difficult to establish
the sex of the owner of an artifact. I am therefore interested in sites
where occupants and visitors of the opposite sex were, at least in
theory, rigorously restricted. I am thinking particularly of all-male
or all-female universities, dorms, or boarding houses, but some of you
may know of other resources that could also be useful. The ads I am
collecting, as I said, are geared pretty much exclusively to the white
middle class, but it would be interesting to see whether or not the
gendered consumption activities of other groups differ from or adhere to
these norms as well.
To date, I have had great difficulty in locating the kind of site
reports that I am seeking. The Virginia SHPO possesses very few
relevant reports and travelling to other SHPO offices would be
time-consuming, expensive, and potentially just as unrewarding and
frustrating (shouldn't site reports be indexed by subject?). Internet
searches yield thousands of responses, but they seem to all refer to
digs by universities, not digs at universities. I have obtained a
couple of leads from SHA newsletters from the last couple of years, but
some of these excavations are still being written up.
So, if any of you have read a report that might be useful to me or can
direct me to someone who has excavated such a site, please let me know.
I appreciate all the help I can get!
Andrea Clark
[log in to unmask]
|