Introduction: Archaeological Labor in Historical Contexts

Sam Holley-Kline; Allison Mickel

doi:10.5334/bha-726

Abstract

In this Introduction, we present a special issue on Histories of Labor in Archaeology. We begin by reviewing past work on archaeological labor and advocating for a broad definition of the term. Contributors to this issue address, among other themes, divisions of labor, worker specialization, and new methodologies for the study of archaeological labor across time and space. We then introduce each of the ten contributions, which address varieties of labor involved in the archaeological process from Türkiye, Germany, Palestine, Egypt, Mexico, Guatemala, and the United States, from the nineteenth century through the 1990s. We conclude by arguing for the study of work in the past as a means of imagining labor solidarity in archaeology for the future.

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Introduction: Archaeological Labor in Historical Contexts

Abstract

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