Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T19:54:11.466Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Curation as research. A case study in orphaned and underreported archaeological collections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 November 2012

Barbara L. Voss
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

As archaeologists grapple with the international curation crisis, new attention is being given to the problem of ‘orphaned’ archaeological collections and collections that are underanalysed and underreported. The common rationale for curating such collections is to restore research potential, but such efforts are met with frustration because of the difficulties of re-establishing provenance and quantitative control for artefacts long separated from their original archaeological context. Moreover, most archaeologists view curation as a process that manages, rather than investigates, archaeological collections. To the contrary, this article argues that accessioning, inventory, cataloguing, rehousing and conservation are not simply precursors to research, but rather meaningful generative encounters between scholars and objects. Examples from the curation of the Market Street Chinatown archaeological collection illustrate how the process of curation can generate innovative research undertakings. Because archaeological research on this collection cannot proceed in a typical way, the research developed through the curation process departs from archaeological conventions to bring new perspectives on the social history of the Overseas Chinese diaspora.

Keywords

curationcollections managementOverseas Chinesediasporaimmigrationrace and ethnicity
Type
Articles
Information
Archaeological Dialogues , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , December 2012 , pp. 145 - 169
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Advisory Committee on Curation, 2003: The archaeological curation crisis. An integrated action plan for the SAA and its partners, Society for American Archaeology, http://staff.washington.edu/sdenton/saawp.pdf.Google Scholar
Allen, R., Baxter, R.S., Medin, A., Costello, J.G., Yu, C.Y. and Cleland, J., 2002: Excavation of the Woolen Mills Chinatown (CA-SCL-807H), San Jose.Google Scholar
Barker, A.W., 2003: Archaeological ethics. Museums and collections, in Zimmerman, L.J., Vitelli, K.D. and Hollowell-Zimmer, J. (eds), Ethical issues in archaeology, Walnut Creek, 71–83.Google Scholar
Byrne, S., Clarke, A., Harrison, R. and Torrence, R. (eds), 2011: Unpacking the collection. Networks of material and social agency in the museum, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Camp, S., Clevenger, E., Voss, B.L. and Williams, B., 2004: 2003–2004 Progress report, Market Street Chinatown Archaeological Project, Stanford.Google Scholar
Cato, P.S., Golden, J. and McLaren, B.S., 2003: Museum wise. Workplace words defined, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Cherry, J.F., 2011: ‘Still not digging, much’, Archaeological dialogues 18, 10–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clevenger, E.N., 2004: Reconstructing context and assessing research potential. Feature 20 from the San José Market Street Chinatown, Stanford.Google Scholar
Demoule, J.-P., 2011: ‘We still have to excavate. But not at any price’, Archaeological dialogues 18, 5–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Derks, T., and Tarlow, S., 2011: ‘The role of archaeological excavation in the 21st century’, Archaeological dialogues 18, 1–3.Google Scholar
Douglas, B., 2007: Race, class, and teeth. Dental hygiene in the Market Street Chinatown, report on file, Market Street Chinatown Archaeology Project, Stanford, http://marketstreet.stanford.edu/archives/Douglas.pdf.Google Scholar
Douglas, M., 1966: Purity and danger. An analysis of the concepts of pollution and taboo, London.Google Scholar
Edgeworth, M., 2011: ‘Excavation as a ground of archaeological knowledge’, Archaeological dialogues 18, 44–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fagan, B., 1995: ‘Archaeology's dirty secret’, Archaeology 48, 14–17.Google Scholar
Gonzalez, S.L., Modzelewski, D., Panich, L.M. and Schneider, T.D., 2006: Archaeology for the seventh generation, American Indian quarterly 30, 338–415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Great Basin Foundation for Anthropological Research, 1987: Wong Ho Leun: An American Chinatown, San Diego.Google Scholar
Greenwood, R.S., 1996: Down by the station. Los Angeles Chinatown, 1880–1933, Los Angeles.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodder, I., 1987: The meaning of discard. Ash and domestic space in Baringo, in Kent, S. (ed.), Method and theory for activity area research: An ethnoarchaeological approach, New York, 424–48.Google Scholar
Hodder, I., 2003: Archaeological reflexivity and the ‘local’ voice, Anthropological quarterly 76, 55–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holtorf, C., 2007: Archaeology is a brand. The meaning of archaoelogy in contemporary popular culture, Walnut Creek, available at www.aam-us.org/pubs/mn/MN_JF01_HomelessSpecimen.cfm.Google Scholar
Kane, M.S., 2007: Incense and candlesticks. Fire ritual in household and small scale religious practices at the Market Street Chinatown, report on file, Market Street Chinatown Archaeology Project, Stanford, http://marketstreet.stanford.edu/archives/Kane.pdf.Google Scholar
Kane, M.S., 2011: Reconstructing historical and archaeological context of an orphaned collection: Report on archival research and feature summaries for the Market Street Chinatown Archaeology Project, Technical Report No. 1 of the Market Street Chinatown Archaeology Project, Stanford.Google Scholar
Laffey, G.A., 1994: Lot histories for the Block 1 Chinatown, San Jose, California, San Jose.Google Scholar
Land, M.A., 2001: ‘The homeless specimen. Handling relinquished natural history collections’, Museum news (January–February), 60–63, 82–83.Google Scholar
Lum, R.M., 2007: Finding home again. The story of the Chinese Historical Cultural Project and its efforts to reclaim the forgotten historic Chinatowns of San Jose, California, in Chinese Historical Society of America, Branching out the banyan tree, San Francisco, 125–28.Google Scholar
Marino, E., 2004: Back from the brink. Renewing research potential, in Childs, S. (ed.), Our collective responsibility. The ethics and practice of archaeological collections stewardship, Washington, DC, 43–51.Google Scholar
Michaels, G., 2003: History of prior research on the collection, in Voss, B.L. (ed.), 2002–2003 Progress Report: Market Street Chinatown Archaeological Project, Stanford, 17–21.Google Scholar
Michaels, G., 2005: Peck-marked vessels from the San José Market Street Chinatown. A study of distribution and significance, International journal of historical archaeology 9, 123–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, H.L., 1986: Space, text, and gender, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Myers, A., 2011: Faunal bone assemblage cataloging and rehousing, in Voss, B.L. (ed.), 2008–2011 Progress Report, Market Street Chinatown Archaeological Project, Stanford, 5-1–5-3.Google Scholar
National Park Service, 2009: NPS archaeology program. Managing archaeological collections, available at www.nps.gov/archeology/collections/intro_cur_pr.htm, last accessed 13 June 2011.Google Scholar
Ndlovu, N., 2011: Why excavate? A South African perspective, Archaeological dialogues 18, 41–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nilsson, B., 2011: Archaeology and the unstoppable excavation machine. A Swedish point of view, Archaeological dialogues 18, 26–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pezzarossi, G., 2011: Glass cataloging and pilot GIS analysis, in Voss, B.L. (ed.), 2008–2011 Progress Report, Market Street Chinatown Archaeological Project, Stanford, 4-1–4-7.Google Scholar
Phaelzer, J., 2007: Driven out. The forgotten war against Chinese Americans, New York.Google Scholar
Praetzellis, A., and Costello, J., 2002: Don't keep everything. Historic artifacts discard policy, Society for California archaeology newsletter 36, 30–33.Google Scholar
Roop, W.G., 1988: Monitoring and recovery of archaeological features within the Silicon Valley Financial Center, San Rafael.Google Scholar
Roop, W.G. and Flynn, K., 1993: Archaeological features in the Fairmont Hotel Parcel, San Jose, California, Petaluma.Google Scholar
Salmon, M.H., 1976: ‘Deductive’ versus ‘inductive’ archaeology’, American antiquity 41, 376–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schacht, I., 2008: Determining research significance in archaeological collections from historic sites, Ph.D. thesis, School of History, Heritage and Society, Deakin University.Google Scholar
Schiffer, M.B., 1972: Archaeological context and systematic context, American antiquity 37, 156–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shanks, M., 1993: Style and the design of a perfume jar from an archaic Greek city state, Journal of European archaeology 1, 77–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Staski, E., and Sutro, L.D. (eds), 1991: The ethnoarchaeology of refuse disposal, Tempe (Arizona State University Anthropological Research Papers 42).Google Scholar
Sullivan, L.P., and Childs, S.T., 2003: Curating archaeological collections. From the field to the repository, Walnut Creek.Google Scholar
Theodoratus, D.J., Johnson, A.H., Trimbur, T., Paul-Dawson, T. and Hersted, C., 1981: The location of cultural resources on Block 1, San Antonio Plaza Project San Jose California. Verification and clarification of the location of cultural resources on Block 1 according to the documentary historical record, Fair Oaks.Google Scholar
Voss, B.L., 2004: The Market Street Chinatown Archaeological Project, Proceedings of the Society for California Archaeology 17, 209–12.Google Scholar
Voss, B.L., 2005: The archaeology of Overseas Chinese Communities, World archaeology 37, 424–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voss, B.L., 2008: Between the household and the world-system. Social collectivity and community agency in Overseas Chinese archaeology, Historical archaeology 42, 37–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voss, B.L., and Kane, M.S., in press: Re-establishing context for orphaned collections. A case study from the Market Street Chinatown, San Jose, California, Collections. A journal for museum and archives professionals.Google Scholar
Weismantel, M., 2011: Obstinate things, in Voss, B.L. and Casella, E.C. (eds), The archaeology of colonialism. Intimate encounters and sexual effects, Cambridge, 303–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
West, R.M., 1988: Endangered and orphaned natural history and anthropology collections in the United States and Canada, Collection forum 4, 65–74.Google Scholar
Williams, B., 2004: Opium pipe tops at the Market Street Chinese Community in San Jose, Proceedings of the Society for California Archaeology 17, 219–27.Google Scholar
Yu, C., 2001: Chinatown, San Jose, USA, San Jose.Google Scholar
Zubrow, E.B.W., 2011: Why excavate? Triaging the excavation of archaeological sites, Archaeological dialogues 18, 46–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar