Linda,
 
I, too, share your concern with the way the state of Mississippi treats late
19th-early 20th century farmsteads or rural sites.  But does it come as any
surprise?  Who, do you suppose, occupied 90% of these sites?  Just a rhetorical
question to which I'm sure you know the answer.  This observation is related to
another broader question that one of my colleagues posed to me some time ago
when I remarked at how few institutions in the American South granted Ph.D.s in
anthropology.  Keep in mind that much of the pioneering work in method and
theory in the American Southeast was perfomed by Harvard, Michigan, American
Museum of Natural History, etc.
 
Just looking to rustle some feathers (and get us thinking about how present
social relations influence the practice of investigating the past).
 
Michael Nassaney
Western Michigan University