Race and affluence : an archaeology of African America and consumer culture / Paul R. Mullins.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mullins, Paul R., 1962-

Series:

Contributions to global historical archaeology

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African Americans--Maryland--Annapolis--Antiquities.

African Americans.

African Americans--Material culture--Maryland--Annapolis.

Consumption (Economics).

African American consumers.

History.

Ethnoarchaeology.

Economic conditions.

Social conditions.

African Americans--Material culture.

Antiquities.

Annapolis (Md.)--Antiquities.

Annapolis (Md.).

African Americans--Maryland--Annapolis--Social conditions.

African Americans--Maryland--Annapolis--Economic conditions.

Ethnoarchaeology--United States--Case studies.

African American consumers--History--Case studies.

Consumption (Economics)--United States--Case studies.

United States.

Maryland--Annapolis.

Physical Description:

xiv, 217 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Other Title:

Race + affluence

Place of Publication:

New York : Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, [1999]

Summary:

An archaeological analysis of the centrality of race and racism in American culture. Using a broad range of material, historical, and ethnographic resources from Annapolis, Maryland, during the period 1850 to 1930, the author probes distinctive African-American consumption patterns and examines how those patterns resisted the racist assumptions of the dominant culture while also attempting to demonstrate African-Americans' suitability to full citizenship privileges.

Contents:

Chapter 1. Racializing Consumer Culture 1

Racism and Consumption in Annapolis, Maryland 5

Archaeology and African-American Annapolis 8

"If We Were Black": The Politics of Naming 15

Race and Consumption 18

Chapter 2. The Politicization and Politics of African-American Consumption 19

Partisan Politics and African-American Material Politicization 22

Politicizing Consumer Culture: The Politics of Consumption, or the Consumption of Politics? 25

Material Symbolism, Social Subjectivity, and Consumer Agency 28

Complicating Social Position: Conscious Experience and Dominant Structure 35

Racialization and Subjectivity in Consumer Culture 37

Chapter 3. Material and Symbolic Racism in Consumer Space 41

Black Simulacra: Advertising Racial Difference 43

Patent Medicines and Africa-American Body Discipline 50

"I Left There an Innocent Man": Racism and White Public Space 67

Race and Racism as Constraining and Enabling 76

Chapter 4. "Producers as Well as Consumers": Market Space in African-American Annapolis 79

"What Can Be Done by the Negro": African-American Entrepreneurship 81

African-American Marketing in Jim Crow Annapolis 88

African-American Consumers and Jewish Merchants 92

Chain and Corner Stores 96

African-American Consumer Discipline 98

Chapter 5. Moralizing Work and Materialism: The Morals of African-American Labor and Consumption 99

The Work Ethic and African-American Subjectivity 101

Wage Slavery: Labor and Material Opportunity in Annapolis 103

Constructing Genteel Consumers 118

Moralizing Discourses and Social Struggle 123

Chapter 6. Modes of Consumption: African-American Consumption Tactics 127

"What a Race They Are!": Racializing Domestic Labor 129

Domestic Labor and the Movement of Goods 140

Ceramics and Communal Reciprocity 147

Tactical Mediations 153

Chapter 7. Affluent Aspiration: African-American Consumer Desire 155

"It Is Your Duty to Live Well": Democratizing Materialism 157

"To Live Is to Consume!": Consumption as Empowerment 160

National Markets and African-American Consumers 170

Racializing Thrift 175

Aspiration and African-American Consumption 182

Chapter 8. Double Consciousness, Whiteness, and Consumer Culture 185.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 191-211) and index.

ISBN:

0306460890

OCLC:

40654804