Event: An Enduring Legacy of Discard: The Archaeology of Garbage

Since our humble beginnings, human’s have created and discarded unwanted objects: garbage is a human universal, and the archaeological record is brimming with it.  Indeed, the everyday human experience – the routine domestic tasks we perform, the foods we process and eat, the goods we consume – is arguably best documented with our discards.  Rarely glorified and difficult to romanticize, trash can challenge the dominant historical narrative, give voice to those without, and complicate our understandings of quotidian behavior.  But an archaeology of trash is also situated to foster unique and often impactful perspectives on the ways that consumption and discard practices – both normative and fringe – implicate a myriad of phenomena not always easily gleaned from curated possessions, including ideologies of dissent, socially performed identities, dispossession, and ecological toxicity.  Secretly aspiring to deepen your appreciation and awareness of garbage, this talk explores the curiously unpopular but promising fusion of archaeology and discard studies.

Harry and Yvonne Lenart Auditorium at the Fowler Museum, UCLA
6:00 pm, Thursday, October 11, 2018
With a reception in the Fowler Museum Courtyard to follow

RSVP by Friday, October 5, to Kelli O'Leary at koleary@support.ucla.edu

Anthony Graesch

Associate Professor of Anthropology 
Chair of the Anthropology Department
Connecticut College

This event is co-sponsored by:
Director Willeke Wendrich, UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology and The Institute for Field Research