Hello, I am co-organizing a session on the constraints of supply and distribution on consumer choices and individual expression for the 2013 CNEHA meetings, which will be held in November in Newark, Delaware. (http://cneha.org/conference.html) We are looking for a few additional papers for the session. We hope to have the session finalized by April 1. Please contact Lori Lee ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) or Sara Rivers-Cofield ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) for additional information.

Best,

Lori Lee



Session Proposal:

How did that get here? Manufacturing, Marketing, and Moving Things Around



Co-organizers: Sara Rivers-Cofield and Lori Lee


This session will explore consumer choices and the constraints that supply and manufacturing may have imposed on individual expression. Studies that address the supply and distribution of artifacts before they ended up in the archaeological record are important for the recovery of meaning. Was an object custom ordered or brought from overseas? Was it mass produced and dumped into colonial markets where people had to take whatever came off the latest boat? Was it made locally by someone who would rather do for themselves than rely on outside producers? By asking such questions about an artifact’s source, researchers may determine whether that artifact represents initiative and choice or passive acceptance of “off-the-rack” goods. Such distinctions will enhance larger studies of wealth, class, and consumption in the archaeological record.