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