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ANTH 3420 Urban Archaeology OER
Archaeology is undoubtedly most famous for its exploration and discovery of “wonderful things” from the deep past in “exotic” places: Tutankhamun’s tomb! Lost Maya cities! Archaeologists are also keen sift through and ask questions of ancient garbage: What do these tools at Stonehenge suggest about Neolithic and Bronze Age social networks? These discoveries and questions are important for understanding where we came from. However, more and more archaeologists are turning their attention, their theory, and their methods to the recent past and contemporary worlds. This course explores a body of work that advances these efforts in American urban places and considers debates that make the more recent American urban world its object. The course then asks students to assess and evaluate various aspects of American urban life through exposure to a broad range of archaeological case studies.
Admins:
Week 13: Graffiti: Leaving a Mark on the Urban Landscape
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DUE THURSDAY 11/21 BEFORE CLASS
These readings explore the various ways studying graffiti can help understand contemporary, or historical landscapes. Compare and contrast these articles with at least one other article we read this semester that explores the types of information that can be gained by using archaeological method and theory in a contemporary context. What are the pros and cons to this approach?
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Ursula K. Frederick’s Revolution is the New Black: Graffiti/Art and Mark-making Practices discusses the resurgence of graffiti in contemporary Australian cities, and archaeologically observes its influence and impact it has, especially in relation to Australian rock art. Harold Mytum and Gilly Carr Prisoners of War discusses archeological insight of the living conditions of Prisoners of War using the concept of material culture. C. Fred Blake’s Graffiti and Racial Insults: The Archaeology of Ethnic Relations in Hawaii discusses a collection of graffiti located in Hawaii and their attributions; their materials and techniques, the message within the graffiti, and the content of the message.
These three documents share in common the types of information archaeologists can obtain by using archaeological method and theory in a contemporary context. Similar to Michael R Allen’s Bending the Future, which documents the event that occurred in Ferguson, Missouri, and how the incident could have better been preserved by the National Historic Preservation Act. Their studies consist of material culture that can implicate signs of change and attitude of those within a contemporary space. The information that could possibly be gained from them are the political and racial tensions that may encumber in an contemporary area, such as the context found in the graffiti located in Australia, which is mainly composed of vulgar statements.
Reflection # 13
These readings explore the various ways studying graffiti can help understand contemporary or historical landscapes. Compare and contrast these article with at least one other article we read this semester that explores the types of information that can be gained by using archaeological method and theory in a contemporary context. What are the pros and cons to this approach?
The article by Ursula Frederick compares current graffiti practices with paleo rock art found in Australia. She found that it was used then and now to mark territory of the group which made the graffiti or art. The graffitist/artist used it to convey themes and general motifs to anyone who happened to look upon it. The motif in the modern day examples was monochrome, using black with great frequency. The two modern day sites that she looked at had a large amount of graffiti made using different techniques. Large ones would be one-of-a-kind, drawn free hand using spray cans, while smaller ones would be created using stencils and thus would repeated frequently. Many of the stencils were in a style similar to that seen in paleo rock art. Of even greater significance was the inclusion of a Wandjina figure in both the stencils and the paleo rock art. The Wandjina are powerful spirit extremely important to three different native Australian groups. The prevalence of the Wandjina in the modern graffiti eventually attracted the attention of the groups who the figure actually belonged to culturally. Eventually the creation of the Wandjina figures stopped in the area’s graffiti. The illegitimate use of the Wandjina figures led to what one could say was counter-graffiti, with the word “stolen” stenciled over the Wandjina figures as well as portraits symbolizing native children, referring to Australia’s lost generation among the native people.
The second article by C. Fred Blake describes the vulgar graffiti and the insights it can give into the different racial groups in Hawaii: native Hawaiians, whites and Japanese. By analyzing the text of the graffiti, he was able to determine the racial signature of the graffitist. The graffiti tended to focus on the lack of sexual prowess and intelligence of the other Hawaiian groups. The article mentions how most graffiti is found in liminal or transitory space. From his charts, it appears that whites are drawing most of the graffiti.
The third article by Jeffery Burton and Mary Farrell is a breakdown of graffiti found at the Manzanar Japanese internment camp. The graffiti is from the World War II era, with the latest dated March 1946. While I found this article interesting, I found it a bit difficult to understand. The authors separated the information into sections and didn’t bring, in my opinion, it all back together again. Graffiti was categorized by type, including separation, testimony, and diversion, identity, resistance. The authors identified 6 types and gave examples of each type. The type that was most prevalent was testimony, where basically people were writing their names and dates to show they were there at Manzanar. The second most prevalent type was identity, where the inscriptions were written in Japanese or related to Japanese culture. The point is that you can use graffiti to track sentiment of a group over time. There was a feeling of resentment throughout the entire internment. There was also a continuing sense of group identity. The resentment and resistance peaked about halfway through the internment, shortly after the issuance of the loyalty questionnaire. The youngest graffiti found was testimony.
These articles remind me of the article, “The Scale of the Intimate,” by Barbara Voss, which concerned Chinese sexuality in San Francisco during the mid-19th to early 20th century. This week’s articles deal with graffiti, but also identity. The Voss article deals with how the Chinese saw themselves compared with how white society saw them. One of the cons of this week’s articles is that while there are plenty of examples of graffiti available, it’s much more open to interpretation than traditional historical or archaeological evidence. Since the images are basically the only thing that one has, you can’t really tell what’s happening in the community from just the graffiti images. Another problem is that it is difficult to figure out the age of the graffitist, so one can’t tell whether or not the viewpoint reflects the entire group or just a certain age range within it. Another issue is that of a lot of other data sources—it’s impossible to tell whether the viewpoints expressed by the graffitist also belong to the whole group or only to the graffitist.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.For the reading assigned this week it was split between the 4 people who were presenting, and so for this week the reading that I chose was Frederick K. Ursula’s piece entitled <i>Revolution is the New Black:Graffiti/Artand Mark-making Practices</i>, which talks about graffiti in Australia.
The first part of the article talks about how archaeologists think about graffiti. Ursula’s 2 part thesis references this being; how the archaeological approach may contribute to an understanding of contemporary graffiti and what that may communicate about social spaces, and how the Ursuala uses the. study of graffiti as an exercise for reflecting on how rock art researchers may approach evidence for past mark-making.
After the whole shebang of the history, Ursuala gets into the meat and potatoes of his findings that being two specific alleyways, one in Perth and one in Melbourne. He first talks about the site in Perth and how the contents of the graffiti are more orientened towards a national agenda. His findings in Perth are mainly fixated on the Wandjinas which are spirits from the sea and sky and are often cited as the reason for the creaction of landscapes. However these images were perverted by the masses and lost their true meaning.
The other site in Melbourne, (the stencil revolution), has more to do with art that focuses on global concerns. The art in Melbourne is much more political in nature as images of Lenin, Trotsky and Che Guevara are found everywhere.
Overall I enjoyed this article as it was interesting I just wish Ursula used more images in his work. I also wished that he didn’t wait till the end of piece to explain what rock art was.
Graffiti as with ceramics are an essential source of material evidence through which archaeologists can derive information and learn cultural ideas and identities of the past and compare them to the present. Blake (1981), Burton and Ferrel (2013), and Fredrick (2009) are in agreement that the relationship between techniques, content, and form of graffiti can be assessed by archaeologist to extract uncensored, entrenched information concerning attitudes towards political, social, ideological, and religious issues. Graffiti is a continuation of the landscape-making. Blake (1981) posits that specific rules of ethnic group relationships can be identified by classifying variations in the content of graffiti and by observing variations in their spatial distribution—the authors took their study in Hawaii. Burton and Ferrel (2013) studied graffiti from Manzanar Relocation Center and recorded how the visual cultures such as poems and militaristic slogans can be used to examine how the attitudes of the Japanese within the center changed over time, reflecting both internal camp politics and external world events. Fredrick (2009) asserts that studying graffiti using the archaeological method offers a unique possibility of identifying various facets of culture of the past and of the present and can help in assessment of archaeologist’s methodological assumptions. An analysis of ceramics using archaeological methodology by Wall (1991) derives similar results. Wall (1991) used ceramic material data to understand the factors that influenced the consumer decisions of middle-class women living in Greenwich Village in New York City in the mid-19th century.
The main disadvantage of using graffiti as with ceramics in understanding behaviors and attitudes is the complexities involved in image-making and constructions of meanings. Additionally, it easy for archaeologists to be influenced by their own experiences and biases when interpreting such artifacts hence, the results may not be actually representative.Nice work everyone-though don’t forget even if you are presenting only on one article-you are still responsible for readings them all and synthesizing.
Each article from this week gives us an understanding of how graffiti can provide us with cultural information in certain areas when viewed through an archaeological lens. When reading this week I couldn’t help but to think about my encounters with graffiti growing up in my neighborhood or in school, on the train, etc. When thinking about graffiti in general, a very clear image of those large bubble letters is what comes to mind this is something I am sure we have all seen. I always thought of it as an art form but it always had some negativity attached to it since it is technically illegal. However, when it comes to graffiti, it seems as if most people never give it much thought and tend to just give it a glance and forget about it whether it is an elaborate piece of artwork on a building or a racial slur in a bathroom stall.
This weeks articles each show us how graffiti can reveal so much about peoples views and standpoints on society, politics, and different cultures when some deeper thought and analysis id given to such a common everyday thing. This reminded me last weeks discussion on garbology. Take something that people do not give much thought such as someones personal garbage and see what it can reveal when examined more deeply. This comparison may be more suited for the type of graffiti that we may see carved into a bathroom stall or a park bench. This type of graffiti is most likely never given much thought at all and is so common that most people just get used to it. Fred Blake examines this type of graffiti and in his article he presents us with more elaborate data that he was able to collect. He also shows us graphs and statistics he gathered and compared with actual population statistics for the state of Hawaii. His studies on ethnic based graffiti correlated to the states actual population of specific ethnicities. This kind of information paired with the messages found in some of the graffiti studied can really reveal a lot about the cultural relationships in society. While these studies may not represent all members of a given community, they certainly show some possible correlations between graffiti and the state of society and if studied on a larger scale can be a useful resource.
The readings for today reminded me about the significance of art in our society, past and present. We humans have a rich history of art, ranging from cave paintings, to Da Vinci’s masterful sculptures, to graffiti. Art represents cultural meaning to an artist. Just like a book can be interpreted in multiple ways, so can graffiti. Literature, after all, is very much so an art form. Art offers a more concrete from of memory preservation, since it’s more resilient to the elements. The art of the people of Stonehenge is an example of this resilience. The stone monument braved eons of weather, war, and wear. Anything can be interpreted as art, as well. A person can see inherent beauty in mundane items lying around them. It is putting this interpretation into a physical form that constituents art. Graffiti, as in all art, can represent a plethora of things. From social issues to abstract ideas, it serves as a malleable tool for the artist. Art preservation is important, because it is part of what makes us, us. Art is the physical embodiment of all societal aspects and changes. To understand society, one has to understand art.
Graffiti and Racial Insults: The Archaeology of Ethnic Relations in Hawaii by C. Fred Blake
In this article Blake explores the graffiti in Hawaii while focusing on the ethnic/ racial aspect of the graffiti. He categorizes graffiti into 3 attributes. The first being materials and techniques used to convey the message (if there is a message), the utensils used to carve, the specific color scheme, etc. The second being the written aspects of graffiti and how it is conveyed, if there is a written theme it can vary between being poetic, a bold statement, or posing a question. The third characteristic is what the author calls “the content of the message”, within these the author breaks them down into three more variable. The “immortalizing” typical common graffiti used to mark that someone was there, second “romanticizing”, people professing their love to another and lastly blatant vulgar statements. The examples of graffiti provided are very vulgar in a sexual context and ethnically offensive.
“Life in Manzanar Where There Is a Spring Breeze”: Graffiti at a World War II Japanese American Internment Camp by Jeffery F. Burton and Mary M. Farrell
This article had a darker tone to it, it was about the use of graffiti made by the Japanese people after being placed in internment camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Around 10,000 people were interned at these camps, the camps were designed to mimic a function normal society run by the Japanese internees. They worked on the agricultural fields to produce their own food, they had hospitals, schools, post offices, and the residential area, however they were barricaded behind barbed wires, watch towers and guards. A great amount of the graffiti found at the site were dates, names, and phrases that uplifted resistance. Interestingly, 89% of graffiti was found within the camp in 1942, whereas in 1943 87% of graffiti was found outside the camp, this was due to the construction/renovation of infrastructures like water systems and agricultural adaptations.
In reading these articles, many questions came to my mind, the big one being what attributes need to be present in a piece in order to constitute as graffiti? A great portion of the graffiti mentioned in the articles seem to have a meaning, whether it be secretly screaming resistance to oppressors, clinging to identity despite possible punishment. These pieces of graffiti were almost never artistic in a sense, which made me question where does the line cross between graffiti being art or not? Does graffiti have to be “beautiful” to be considered art.
Frederick’s article “Revolution is the New Black: Graffiti/Art and Mark-making Practices”, sums up these questions quite well. Similar to Fred Blake’s article she notes that there are different styles of graffiti. Some can be writing, a painting/drawing, and to put it in the best words possible Frederick states it is “… a complex mark making phenomenon”.
Nice reflections everyone-don’t forget to read them all, and to try and submit prior to class.
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