Materializing Inequality: The Archaeology of Tourism Laborers in Turn-of-the-Century Los Angeles

This article traces the historical marginalization of tourism workers in Southern California, a region made popular in the late 1800s for its numerous leisurely activities. Workers employed in Southern California’s hotel industry continue to face discrimination, low wages, and dangerous and environmentally hazardous work conditions, policies that originated during the development of the region’s tourism industry. Using California’s most popular tourist site from 1893 to 1936, Mount Lowe Resort and Railway, as a case study, this article examines the historical spatial, ideological, and legal factors that have contributed to the contemporary stratification of Los Angeles’ hotel laborers. It concludes with an emphasis on how archaeological and archival research can be used to help modern day tourism laborers gain the attention and benefits they so direly deserve.     

Rethinking Assemblage Analysis: New Approaches to the Archaeology of Working-Class Neighborhoods

In this paper I argue for an expansion of the role of assemblage analysis in understanding daily life in nineteenth-century working-class neighborhoods. The close and systematic examination of quality manufacture of nineteenth-century domestic goods offers a material link to consumer decision-making. This is demonstrated in a study of material culture from working-class sites in Sydney and London.