The Archaeology of the Homed and the Unhomed

Choice Outstanding Academic Title

The first comprehensive discussion of the historical

archaeology of homelessness

In a

time when the idea of home has become central to living the American dream, The Archaeology of the Homed and the Unhomed

brings to the forefront the concept of homelessness. The book points out that

homelessness remains underexplored in historical archaeology, a fact which may

reflect societal biases and marginalization, and it provides the field’s first

comprehensive discussion of the subject.

Daniel

Sayers argues that the unhomed and the home have been inherently interconnected

in the real world across the past several centuries. Sayers builds a conceptual

model that focuses on this dynamic and uses it to generate new insights into

pre‒Civil War communities

of Maroons and Indigenous Americans, Great Depression‒era hobo

communities, and Midwest farmsteads. In doing so, he highlights the social

complexities, ambiguities, and significance of the home and the unhomed in the

archaeological record. Using a variety of data sources including documentary

records and material culture and drawing on extensive fieldwork, Sayers

illuminates how homelessness is created, reproduced, and disparaged by the

dominant culture.

The

book also emphasizes the importance of applied archaeology. Through these

studies, Sayers contends that activist archaeologists have a role—and

responsibility—to share their knowledge to help policy makers and stakeholders

understand the unhomed, homelessness, and the American experience in this area.

A volume

in the series the American Experience in Archaeological Perspective, edited by

Michael S. Nassaney and Krysta Ryzewski