Allison Brown Dr. Toohey ANTH 1300 13 February, 2020 “Other People’s Garbage” : A Film Response Opening on the California mining town of Summersville, with Archaeologist Jim Dietz, the 1980 film, “Other People’s Garbage”, offers the stories of three different archaeologists across the United States and the struggles they face not only in their research, but in society. Archaeologists often refer to garbage as the “objective body of data” for the research that archaeologists conduct in the field. What is often waste or midden can be the determining factor in a household archaeologist’s findings. What we use and throw away from day-to-day life often holds the most important clues about our society, especially to someone from the outside. For historical archaeology specifically, stratification is a focus alongside the study of middens that allows for the dating process of a state. The film focuses on three different archaeological sites, each with their own struggles. As mentioned above, the first is the mining town of Summersville in the Black Diamond Regional Park. This town was composed primarily of immigrants from Wales and Ireland (later records of people from Scotland and Italy are found) who either moved to the site from outside the United States or from a mine in Pennsylvania. The archaeologists on the site are excavating a hotel and their work is a combination of oral history and documents from the period before the central mine of the area closed in 1902. Second, the film brings us to Saint Simons, Georgia where Archaeologist Charles Fairbanks is working on excavation at the Hampton Plantation. Fairbanks explains that before he began his work in 1968, nobody had excavated Enslaved Individual’s Quarters on a plantation. From his work, he determined that the enslaved individuals at the site possessed firearms and writing utensils, interesting discoveries that challenged predetermined notions of the enslaved population at the site. Upon further research conducted orally and the finding of the journal of an outspoken abolitionist who lived on the plantation, it was revealed that some enslaved individuals in the quarters had been taught how to read and write by the abolitionist and that the firearms may have been used to scavenge for protein to supplement their less than sufficient diet provided by the plantation owners. Lastly, the film showcased the work of a different kind of archaeologist, that of construction site archaeologists. Working with a span of time from either 3 hours to 4 months these scientists work with engineers and under pressure to determine the value of an archaeological site before it is destroyed. The film focused on excavations in Cambridge, Massachusetts with the expansion of the underground transportation system and brought up other examples in the United States of this timely work. Urban Archaeology, as described by an archaeologist in the film, has a goal to “stop any unnecessary destruction”. In conclusion, “the 1980 film, “Other People’s Garbage” showcase the wide range of archaeology, and that ultimately archaeologists have different approaches to determining the answer to the same questions. Additionally, the film highlights the never-ending struggle between archaeology and political/economic reasoning, a struggle that continues today and will for the foreseeable future. References: “Other People's Garbage” 1980, Ann Peck, Claire Andrade-Watkins, Odyssey Studios