Hi all, 
   
  Eve Terrell here from Michelle's account as she is in the field, but I'm sure she would share our own experience with trying to draw out these obscure housekeeping tidbits from oral interviews.  
   
  More than a few years ago we were TA's at a field school at a lumber ghost town. (Circa early 20th century, located "oop Nord" in Minnesota.)  A privy was never hit in all the units/tests that were excavated, but we also encountered no evidence for indoor plumbing or septics either.  
    
  There were still quite a few of the inhabitants of the town around and we conducted oral interviews about life in the town at a reunion party. So, we broached the delicate question, "What did you do? Did you have outhouses? Do you remember where they were?"  
   
  No one could recall.  Even with maps and a site visit, they were quite stymied that they couldn't remember what the facilities were.  However, no one volunteered they had, or knew of, any indoor plumbing.  A couple of folks at the end of the day were still discussing how odd this was, that they couldn't remember such a common detail.  
   
  Granted, they were all children when they lived in the town, but it seems a chilly, dark, chipmunk and spider infested outhouse should have made a rather lasting impression on their young minds. I know it did on mine. 
   
  Let's just call this a cautionary tale. 
   
  Best!
   
  Eva

Linda Derry <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
  Carol, 

One material culture aspect that immediately comes to my mind was
intriguingly covered in a paper that 
Mary Farmer did at a SCHAC conference a few years back called "Sweep it
Under the Rug" which can be viewed at SCHAC web page:
http://www.uark.edu/campus-resources/archinfo/SCHACfarmer03.pdf

If you get a chance, read this paper, because it indicates how oral history
might be able to help us interpret some observable archaeological patterns
and interpret some quirky formation processes that we might be overlooking.


Anyway, this is something that is pretty basic, but that I find endlessly
fascinating. Of course, getting people to talk about such mundane aspects
as how they swept debris out of their homes, or disposed of their trash, is
sometimes hard to do. 


Linda Derry
Site Director
Old Cahawba Archaeological Site
719 Tremont Street
Selma, AL 36701-5446
334/875-2529
[log in to unmask]



> -----Original Message-----
> From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On 
> Behalf Of Carol McDavid
> Sent: Monday, June 25, 2007 10:25 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: oral history questions in HA
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Through my work with several history organizations in 
> Houston, I am encountering a growing number of new local oral 
> history projects -- this is good news, because Houston isn't 
> a city known for caring much about history! However, none of 
> the projects I've heard of recently have included many, if 
> any, material culture questions in the lists of questions 
> asked. In fact, it doesn't seem to even occur to people to 
> ask this sort of question. 
> 
> Because of my work with these organizations, I am now in a 
> position where I might be able to suggest that a few 
> "material culture" questions be inserted into their lists of 
> questions (bearing in mind that these projects are all over 
> the map in terms of emphasis, objectives, skill/training of 
> interviewers, etc. etc.). I realize that sometimes this will 
> just mean taking their existing questions in directions they 
> might not have thought of (getting more detailed descriptions 
> of everyday activity rather than more general narratives, for 
> example).
> 
> I would like to do this outreach for a couple of reasons. 
> First, selfishly, it might help the data produced by these 
> various sorts of projects to be somewhat more useful to 
> archaeology (even as a jumping off point for additional 
> questions later). Second, I thought it might be one way to 
> open people to the idea that material culture questions (or 
> even material culture "extensions" of general questions) have 
> some relevance to history in general. It might start some 
> useful conversations....
> 
> So I'd like to pick your brains...what questions would YOU 
> recommend that I ask people to include in their more general 
> "oral history" projects? What areas of inquiry have you found 
> to be particularly productive? I am coming up with my own 
> list of course, but I keep bumping up against my own tendency 
> to focus on site specific sorts of questions, which wouldn't 
> necessarily make sense in this case. I would guess that those 
> of you who have done oral history have your favorites...would 
> you share them? Off list if you prefer...I'd be happy collate 
> replies and report back to the list if that's of interest.
> 
> I realize that this question isn't as simple as it might 
> appear on the surface, and that it may be impossible to 
> discuss this sort of thing except in the context of a 
> specific situation or project...but I thought I'd ask it anyway!
> 
> A related question to this would be...do you have favorite 
> sources that address the HOW of doing oral history for 
> historical archaeology purposes? I am having another look at 
> the literature of course, but most of the stuff I've found 
> doesn't say much about the specific questions asked, and 
> that's what I am looking for now.
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> Carol
> 
> **************************************
> Carol McDavid, Ph.D.
> Project Director, Public Archaeology, Yates Community 
> Archaeology Project Adjunct Asst. Professor, University of 
> Houston 1638 Branard Houston, TX 77006 www.webarchaeology.com 
> www.publicarchaeology.org=
>