An interesting discussion on Industrial Archaeology. If any of you are
interested in joining this list, I can send you info about it.
Chuck Ellenbaum
College of DuPage
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Date: Sat, 16 Nov 1996 08:29:07 -0500
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Subject: Theoretical Basis for IA (very long)
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At the suggestion of several of our industrial archaeology list colleagues,
I would like to kick off discussion with this piece on the theoretical
basis of industrial archaeology. This piece is lifted from a diatribe I use
in the boilerplate for my reports. It is designed to discomfit stuffy
reviewers.
Industrial arch=E6ology, as distinct from the historical arch=E6ology of
industrial sites, is a distinct and robust discipline.
In the United States, our Park Service is committed to industrial
arch=E6ology. In western Pennsylvania, the Service coordinated the
nine-county "America's Industrial Heritage Project." Half the steering
committee were self-identified industrial arch=E6ologists.
Industrial arch=E6ology is one of the last arch=E6ological subdisciplines in
America where amateurism is an essential component. An example of the
amateur-professional synergy is a recent 296-page comprehensive survey of
iron, charcoal, and lime industry sites published by the Vermont
Arch=E6ological Society in cooperation with the state preservation agency.
By training and inclination, industrial arch=E6ologists are likely to focus
on a process and the relationship of physical and social environment to the
accomplishment of the process. Thus an industrial arch=E6ologist will define
his subject in terms derived from verbs, such as bridge-building,
gunpowder-making, canning, or timber-sawing. Traditionally-oriented
arch=E6ologists, on the other hand, are more likely to begin their inquiry b=
y
defining data in terms of nouns describing things (artifacts), rather than
by reference to ongoing processes.
Industrial arch=E6ology frequently obtains insights through analysis of
standing industrial artifacts or workplaces, settings, and even from
industrial processes still being practiced.
Since technology is a major instrument of social change, an industrial
arch=E6ologist must divide his attention between technology and the human
environment. On one hand, he needs the expertise of a historian or
practitioner of technology, while depending upon his or her own training to
provide cultural context. Because such diverse expertise seldom resides in
the same person, industrial arch=E6ology seldom is a solo effort by a single
discipline.
Theodore Z. Penn of Old Sturbridge Village defined the objectives of
industrial arch=E6ology in a 1978 essay, quoting Webster's dictionary as his
authority:
"Archeology is defined as 'The scientific study of the material remains of
past human life and human activities.' This definition establishes that
artifacts are the primary source of archeological knowledge and it draws no
arbitrary distinction between objects found above or beneath the ground.
Industrial archeology, then, can be interpreted as the scientific study of
the material remains of past human industrial life and activities,
regardless of whether the physical materials are standing intact on their
original site or lying buried in ruins. Thus, the primary concern of
industrial archeology is with the material culture of industry in the past
as a unique source of information about human behavior."
Differences in emphasis between the arch=E6ological approaches are evident b=
y
comparing two recent studies in Delaware sponsored by the Department of
Transportation. Canneries at Flemings Landing and at the village of Lebanon
were investigated simultaneously in connection with bridge replacement
projects by teams with different archaeological approaches, producing
startlingly different results.
The Lebanon (Delaware) data recovery was a typical industrial arch=E6ology
project that concentrated on processes and the larger context of change in
the canning industry. Collaborators included a tinsmith, to interpret craft
remains, and an amateur local historian of the canning industry, to provide
a specialist view of local industrial history.
The report on Flemings Landing contained no mention of industrial processes
and cited no sources on the history or technology of the canning industry.
While both methodologies have their strengths, it is difficult to justify
investigating an industrial site without reference to the technology being
studied. The Flemings Landing case was not atypical of opportunities lost
by archaeologists who fail to employ the peculiar methodologies of
industrial archaeology.
=46ormal study of industrial arch=E6ology in America traces its separate
origins to a meeting in 1967 at the Smithsonian Institution, attended by
about 30 historic-preservation and museum professionals as well as a few
"dirt" arch=E6ologists. Guest of honor was Kenneth Hudson, whose handbook on
the subject recently had been published by the Council for British
Arch=E6ology.
At that meeting, Hudson introduced the idea of above-ground arch=E6ology as =
a
recording technique. While it was then a novel idea to Americans, the
arch=E6ology of above-grade artifacts has a long and respectable history in
British arch=E6ology. To an industrial arch=E6ologist, sites need not be
buried, or even inactive, to be proper subjects for arch=E6ological study.
Industrial arch=E6ologists apply arch=E6ological documentation methods more
frequently to above-ground features than to buried ones.
The British term, "Industrial Arch=E6ology," brought immediate negative
reaction from a few traditional "dirt" arch=E6ologists working on American
industrial sites, who rejected an arch=E6ological subdiscipline that include=
d
the participation of technological historians (Foley 1968), in positions
where they might color arch=E6ological interpretation (Foley 1969).
The interdisciplinary nature of industrial arch=E6ology clearly has been
distasteful to some American arch=E6ological purists, then and now.
Industrial arch=E6ology relies heavily upon amateur (or at least
non-arch=E6ological professional) participation. To the industrial
arch=E6ologist, enthusiasts and craft practitioners are valuable
collaborators, since they frequently possess detailed subject-matter
knowledge or skills essential to understanding the evidence.
The opposition even went so far as to assert that arch=E6ological data can b=
e
valid only if it has been "exhumed" (Foley 1968). In response, an
industrial arch=E6ologist pointed out that it is more efficient to record a
building while it is still standing, or a declining industry while it is
still practiced, than to wait until the human and material evidence had
been buried (Vogel 1969). Some traditional arch=E6ologists, even if they are
sympathetic to the IA point of view, are wont to point out that the
industrial subdiscipline sometimes fails (or declines) to reach theoretical
heights achieved by other subdisciplines (Schuyler 1975).
Some in the field are working to formalize its diffuse academic roots. A
graduate industrial arch=E6ology program at Michigan Tech "emphasizes a trul=
y
interdisciplinary approach and fuses the individual perspectives of
arch=E6ology, history of technology and anthropology."
_______
|___|__\__=3D=3D A waist is a
| _ | | --] <DARWIN>< terrible thing
=3D(O)-----(O)=3D " " to mind!
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
Ned Heite, town crank and contract archaeologist, Camden, Delaware
=20
|
