Archaeologists are increasingly interested in studying the experiences of Chinese immigrants, yet this area of research is mired in long-standing interpretive models that essentialize race and identity. Showcasing the enormous amount of data available on the lives of Chinese people who migrated to North America in the nineteenth century, this volume charts new directions by providing fresh approaches to interpreting immigrant life.
In this volume, leading scholars first tackle broad questions of how best to position and understand these populations. They then delve into a variety of site-based and topical case studies, providing new approaches to themes like Chinese immigrant foodways and highlighting understudied topics including entrepreneurialism, cross-cultural interactions, and conditions in the Jim Crow South. Pushing back against old colonial-based tropes, contributors call for an awareness of the transnational relationships created through migration, engagement with broader archaeological and anthropological debates, and the expansion of research into new contexts and topics.
Contributors: Linda Bentz | Todd J. Braje | Kelly N. Fong | D. Ryan Gray | J. Ryan Kennedy | Christopher Merritt | Laura W. Ng | Virginia S. Popper | Adrian Praetzellis | Mary Praetzellis | Chelsea Rose | Douglas E. Ross | Charlotte K. Sunseri | Barbara L. Voss | Priscilla Wegars | Henry Yu
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
1. Charting a New Course for Chinese Diaspora Archaeology in North America
J. Ryan Kennedy and Chelsea rose
2. Reframing Overseas Chinese Archaeology as Archaeology of the Chinese Diaspora
Douglass E. Ross
3. Towards Engaged and Critical Archaeologies of the Chinese Diaspora
Kelly N. Fong 方少芳
4. Exposing Negative Chinese Terminology and Stereotypes
Priscilla Wegars
5. Interethnic Relationships in 19th-Century Chinatowns: New Perspectives from Archaeological Research and Missionary Women’s Writings
Barbara L. Voss
6. An Archaeology of a Chinese Laundryman in the Jim Crow South: The Sam Long Laundry, New Orleans, Louisiana
D. Ryan Gray
7. Burned: The Archaeology of House and Home in Jacksonville, Oregon’s Chinese Quarter
Chelsea Rose
8. “Let my Body Be Buried Here”: A Long View of Chinese Immigrants in the American West
Adrian Praetzellis and Mary Praetzellis
9. Towards an Historical Archaeology of the Chinese in Montana and A Transnational Lens
Christopher Merritt
10. Between South China and Southern California: the Formation of Transnational Chinese Communities
Laura W. Ng
11. Meat Economies of the Chinese-American West
Charlotte K. Sunserit
12. Bounty from the Sea: Chinese Foundations of the Commercial Shrimp, Squid, and Abalone Fisheries in California
Linda Bentz and Todd J. Braje
13. Flexible Plant Food Practices Among the 19th Century Chinese Migrants to Western North America
Virginia S. Popper
14. Multi-sited Networks: The Underlying Analytical Power of Transnational and Diasporic Approaches
Henry Yu
Index
