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Subject: Late 19th-20th Century Sites
 
Sorry to pick up a stale thread from October 11th, but could not
resist.  Karl Steinen Stated that "like everyone else [he] ignored
those beer cans in the ditch."  Being influenced by the Tucson Garbage
Project and other students of contemporary material culture I have long
tried to document 'litter' I have encountered while conducting cultural
surveys.  I can therefore conclusively tell you that in Timber Sale
Surveys in 1977 on the Carson National Forest (northern New Mexico)
that Schlitz Cans outnumber Budweiser Cans and Coors Cans in a ratio on
the order of  5:2:1.  I am not sure what cultural laws, middle range
theory or descriptivist agenda this information can provide but I think
it is interesting to speculate about whether the pattern is associated
with acquisition (what was most frequently purchased), distribution
(what was most readily available), ethnicity (who was travelling the
back roads of Taos County), seasonality (tourist season instead of
hunting season), price  (Schlitz was the cheapest name brand)  or the
slob index (beer drinkers with a taste for a certain kind of beer are
the litterbugs).  Probably there is (was) a multivariate relationship.
I don't know that any nomothetic pretenses can be invoked, but as yours
truly Mark Henderson, pacifist and student of zymurgy I would be
interested in any comparative databases that may be out there.  I do
still record litter as best I can.