Shannon Lee Dawdy
Biographic Data
| ID | 95157 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Shannon Lee Dawdy |
| GIVEN NAMES | Shannon Lee |
| FAMILY NAME | Dawdy |
| SIGNATURE | DAWDY S L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Chicago |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 39 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 536 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 39 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 12 |
Insatiable City
Towards a political ecology of piracy in the Age of Sail
Talking Trash and the Politics of Disregard
One of my favourite photos of my son is him as an over-tired, dishevelled and very disgruntled five-year-old. He stands, holding out two globs of unidentifiable rusted metal, and looks at the camera (at me), with an accusing, penetrating glare (Fig. 1). As a distracted, overextended parent trying to run an archaeological field project (the Rising Sun Hotel in New Orleans), I had sent him to play in the dirt—the back dirt of our discard pile. I th…
Patina
Shannon Lee Dawdy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2016. xv and 195 pp., photos, diagrams, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $82.50 cloth (ISBN 9780226351056), $27.50 paper (ISBN
Zombies and a Decaying American Ontology
What would it mean to take zombies seriously? Cultural savants have noted the rise of the zombie in American popular culture in the twenty-first century. And many scholars have found the zombie useful as a lumbering, empty-headed metaphor that could signify just about anything. The zombie might look like a loved ovne, but their flesh is rotting and their individualism has tragically withered away. Before I came to zombology, I was already fascina…
Curated Decay
The abject ruins of Marxism
Profane archaeology and the existential dialectics of the city
What does it mean to view the landscape dialectically? I here experiment with an approach inspired by Benjamin, the intent of which is to expand our understanding of dialectics beyond the structural Marxism that dominates urban geography. I seek to temper macro-level analyses of political economies with a recognition of micro-level processes of both active matter and human consciousness that can shape, constrain, or undo. In fact, the evidence of…
Patina
Ethnicity in the Urban Landscape
French Colonial Louisiana
This chapter provides a brief review of the archaeology of French colonial Louisiana, covering the period of nominal French control over the Lower Mississippi Valley and Gulf Coast between 1699 and 1768. The authors situate major archaeological findings from Lower Louisiana within a framework that questions the territorial and material sovereignty of empire. It is not simply that ‘the French’ failed to execute a master plan, but rather that colon…
Archaeology of Southern Urban Landscapes
The rapid growth and development of urban areas in the South have resulted in an increase in the number of urban archaeology projects required by federal and state agencies. These projects provide opportunities not only to investigate marginal areas between the town and countryside but also to recover information long buried beneath the earliest urban structures. Such projects have also created a need for a one-volume update on archaeology as it …
The Archaeology of Illegal and Illicit Economies
In the past 25 years, an interest in "informal economies" has grown across the social sciences, encompassing economic activities not (successfully) regulated by government. Archaeology has paralleled this interest primarily through studies of household and craft production; much of this work presumes rather than proves state control over quotidian exchanges. The smaller number of works on the riskier endeavors of piracy, smuggling, and prostituti…
Towards a General Theory of Piracy
The current appetite in popular culture for the "pirates of the Caribbean" is paralleled by what appears to be a worldwide outbreak of intellectual piracy. What, if anything, links the classic Caribbean pirate to these latter-day phenomena? We argue that compelling parallels exist between the early modern conditions that produced Blackbeard and today's world of virtual monopolies. Out of this comparison, we attempt an anthropological definition o…
Sexualizing Space
Introduction In 1879, Lafcadio Hearn described New Orleans (Figure 16.1) from the point of view of the Devil who had come to the southern city on a weekend break from a winter working in Chicago. The Devil was paying a visit to an old lover. He wrote, “the Devil could not suppress a sigh of regret as he gazed with far-reaching eyes along the old-fashioned streets of the city, whose gables were bronzed by the first yellow glow of sunrise. ‘Ah!’ he…
The Archaeology of Colonialism
This volume examines human sexuality as an intrinsic element in the interpretation of complex colonial societies. While archaeological studies of the historic past have explored the dynamics of European colonialism, such work has largely ignored broader issues of sexuality, embodiment, commemoration, reproduction and sensuality. Recently, however, scholars have begun to recognize these issues as essential components of colonization and imperialis…
A Wild Taste
Using new archaeological data and colonial narratives, I reconstruct the menu of French colonial Louisiana with the aim of showing how the sensual and social experience of eating relates to the political rationalities of colonialism. In Louisiana, food practices enunciated a hierarchy of taste that positively valued Native American foods while showing how easily they could be "civilized" by French cooking practices. Cooking and eating were fundam…
Clockpunk Anthropology and the Ruins of Modernity
This essay identifies the potential of an emerging archaeological turn for anthropology-and for archaeology itself. I argue that despite the critiques of the past two decades, the temporality of modernity and a belief in its exceptionalism still structure much of anthropological thought, as exemplified in the division of archaeology and ethnography and in the subfield of historical archaeology and its dystopic treatment of modern urban ruins. But…
Building the Davil's Empire
Journal Article Building the Devil's Empire: French Colonial New Orleans. By Shannon Lee Dawdy. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. xxii, 320 pp. $35.00, ISBN 978-0-226-13841-1.) Get access John T. McGrath John T. McGrath Boston UniversityBoston, Massachusetts Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 96, Issue 1, June 2009, Pages 185–186, https://doi.org/10.2307/27694751…
Doomsday confessions
I want to thank the commentators for their thoughtful and diverse responses. I was originally worried that my intentionally provocative sally was going to either scratch a bundle of raw nerves or go over like a wet firecracker. Instead, the replies were all over a very interesting global map (with perhaps a few reactions at either extreme). To quote Mark Pluciennik, one could say of the total array of responses that 'where archaeologies might fit…
Millennial archaeology. Locating the discipline in the age of insecurity
This discussion article responds to a forum question posed by the editors of Archaeological dialogues: 'is archaeology useful?' My response initially moves backward from the question, considering whether archaeology ought to be useful, how it has been useful in the past, and the millennial overtones of the question in our present climate of crisis. I critique the primary way in which archaeology attempts to be useful, as a dowsing rod for heritag…
Building the Devil's Empire
Excavating the Present, Vindicating the Dead
Beneath the Rising Sun
Building the Devil's Empire
Clockpunk Anthropology and the Ruins of Modernity
This essay identifies the potential of an emerging archaeological turn for anthropology-and for archaeology itself. I argue that despite the critiques of the past two decades, the temporality of modernity and a belief in its exceptionalism still structure much of anthropological thought, as exemplified in the division of archaeology and ethnography and in the subfield of historical archaeology and its dystopic treatment of modern urban ruins. But…
Patina
Millennial archaeology. Locating the discipline in the age of insecurity
This discussion article responds to a forum question posed by the editors of Archaeological dialogues: 'is archaeology useful?' My response initially moves backward from the question, considering whether archaeology ought to be useful, how it has been useful in the past, and the millennial overtones of the question in our present climate of crisis. I critique the primary way in which archaeology attempts to be useful, as a dowsing rod for heritag…
Understanding cultural change through the vernacular
The Taphonomy of Disaster and the (Re)Formation of New Orleans
Using observations from recent participation in post-Katrina recovery efforts in New Orleans, I make the case in this article that taphonomic processes such as trash removal, deposition, earthmoving, and demolition are a primary medium through which individuals and communities reconstitute themselves following a disaster. Taphonomy, or the formation of the archaeological record, does not simply reflect social processes, it is a social process. Th…
The Archaeology of Illegal and Illicit Economies
In the past 25 years, an interest in "informal economies" has grown across the social sciences, encompassing economic activities not (successfully) regulated by government. Archaeology has paralleled this interest primarily through studies of household and craft production; much of this work presumes rather than proves state control over quotidian exchanges. The smaller number of works on the riskier endeavors of piracy, smuggling, and prostituti…
Building the Devil's Empire
A Wild Taste
Using new archaeological data and colonial narratives, I reconstruct the menu of French colonial Louisiana with the aim of showing how the sensual and social experience of eating relates to the political rationalities of colonialism. In Louisiana, food practices enunciated a hierarchy of taste that positively valued Native American foods while showing how easily they could be "civilized" by French cooking practices. Cooking and eating were fundam…
Archaeology of Southern Urban Landscapes
The rapid growth and development of urban areas in the South have resulted in an increase in the number of urban archaeology projects required by federal and state agencies. These projects provide opportunities not only to investigate marginal areas between the town and countryside but also to recover information long buried beneath the earliest urban structures. Such projects have also created a need for a one-volume update on archaeology as it …
Beneath the Rising Sun
Dialogues in Cuban Archaeology
P]rovides a forum for principal Cuban and American archaeologists to update the current state of Cuban archaeological research --from rock art and potsherds to mortuary practices and historical renovation --thereby filling in the information gap created by political separation.Each group of researchers brings significant new resources to the effort, including strong conservation regulations, innovative studies of lithic and shell assemblages, and…
Profane archaeology and the existential dialectics of the city
What does it mean to view the landscape dialectically? I here experiment with an approach inspired by Benjamin, the intent of which is to expand our understanding of dialectics beyond the structural Marxism that dominates urban geography. I seek to temper macro-level analyses of political economies with a recognition of micro-level processes of both active matter and human consciousness that can shape, constrain, or undo. In fact, the evidence of…
Thinker-tinkers, race and the archaeological critique of modernity
A new sub-field in the archaeology of race has been emerging among historical archaeologists based in the US and South Africa. A review of this literature, put into play with some thoughts from Ralph Ellison and Franz Fanon, provides several 'object lessons' about the state of archaeological theory and practice, and the difficulties inherent in framing a material study of race. The literature exemplifies how archaeology is fast becoming an anachr…
Towards a General Theory of Piracy
The current appetite in popular culture for the "pirates of the Caribbean" is paralleled by what appears to be a worldwide outbreak of intellectual piracy. What, if anything, links the classic Caribbean pirate to these latter-day phenomena? We argue that compelling parallels exist between the early modern conditions that produced Blackbeard and today's world of virtual monopolies. Out of this comparison, we attempt an anthropological definition o…
Creating Freedom
La Comida Mambisa
Describes how Cuba developed a countrywide system of food meaning and production in the mid-19th c. that became a national, and eventually "nationalist", cuisine during Cuba's revolutionary moments. Author explains how the centrality of food within Cuban national identity was strongly related with the valency associated with the subsistence farming on small family farms ("sitios"), producing these native foods and Caribbean ingredients, e.g. cass…
Towards a political ecology of piracy in the Age of Sail
Zombies and a Decaying American Ontology
What would it mean to take zombies seriously? Cultural savants have noted the rise of the zombie in American popular culture in the twenty-first century. And many scholars have found the zombie useful as a lumbering, empty-headed metaphor that could signify just about anything. The zombie might look like a loved ovne, but their flesh is rotting and their individualism has tragically withered away. Before I came to zombology, I was already fascina…
Excavating the Present, Vindicating the Dead
La Nouvelle-Orléans auxviiiesiècle
Cet article étudie les flux économiques et sociaux à la Nouvelle-Orléans auxviiiesiècle. Il a pour objectif de démontrer que les thèses de Braudel sur l'influence des courants maritimes et la force d'attraction du capitalisme peuvent être étendues à la ' Méditerranée du Nouveau monde' qu'était la région comprise entre le Mississippi et les Caraïbes. Les Amérindiens voyageaient et commerçaient dans la région depuis fort longtemps, ce qui a influen…
Archaeology of southern urban landscapes
Understanding cultural change through the vernacular
Creating Freedom
La Comida Mambisa
Describes how Cuba developed a countrywide system of food meaning and production in the mid-19th c. that became a national, and eventually "nationalist", cuisine during Cuba's revolutionary moments. Author explains how the centrality of food within Cuban national identity was strongly related with the valency associated with the subsistence farming on small family farms ("sitios"), producing these native foods and Caribbean ingredients, e.g. cass…
Archaeology and Colonialism
Thinker-tinkers, race and the archaeological critique of modernity
A new sub-field in the archaeology of race has been emerging among historical archaeologists based in the US and South Africa. A review of this literature, put into play with some thoughts from Ralph Ellison and Franz Fanon, provides several 'object lessons' about the state of archaeological theory and practice, and the difficulties inherent in framing a material study of race. The literature exemplifies how archaeology is fast becoming an anachr…
Proper Caresses and Prudent Distance
Discipline and the Other Body
The Burden of Louis Congo and the Evolution of Savagery in Colonial Louisiana
Proper Caresses and Prudent Distance
The Taphonomy of Disaster and the (Re)Formation of New Orleans
Using observations from recent participation in post-Katrina recovery efforts in New Orleans, I make the case in this article that taphonomic processes such as trash removal, deposition, earthmoving, and demolition are a primary medium through which individuals and communities reconstitute themselves following a disaster. Taphonomy, or the formation of the archaeological record, does not simply reflect social processes, it is a social process. Th…
Dialogues in Cuban Archaeology
P]rovides a forum for principal Cuban and American archaeologists to update the current state of Cuban archaeological research --from rock art and potsherds to mortuary practices and historical renovation --thereby filling in the information gap created by political separation.Each group of researchers brings significant new resources to the effort, including strong conservation regulations, innovative studies of lithic and shell assemblages, and…
Critical junctions
La Nouvelle-Orléans auxviiiesiècle
Cet article étudie les flux économiques et sociaux à la Nouvelle-Orléans auxviiiesiècle. Il a pour objectif de démontrer que les thèses de Braudel sur l'influence des courants maritimes et la force d'attraction du capitalisme peuvent être étendues à la ' Méditerranée du Nouveau monde' qu'était la région comprise entre le Mississippi et les Caraïbes. Les Amérindiens voyageaient et commerçaient dans la région depuis fort longtemps, ce qui a influen…
Building the Devil's Empire
Excavating the Present, Vindicating the Dead
Beneath the Rising Sun
Building the Devil's Empire
Building the Davil's Empire
Journal Article Building the Devil's Empire: French Colonial New Orleans. By Shannon Lee Dawdy. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. xxii, 320 pp. $35.00, ISBN 978-0-226-13841-1.) Get access John T. McGrath John T. McGrath Boston UniversityBoston, Massachusetts Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 96, Issue 1, June 2009, Pages 185–186, https://doi.org/10.2307/27694751…
Doomsday confessions
I want to thank the commentators for their thoughtful and diverse responses. I was originally worried that my intentionally provocative sally was going to either scratch a bundle of raw nerves or go over like a wet firecracker. Instead, the replies were all over a very interesting global map (with perhaps a few reactions at either extreme). To quote Mark Pluciennik, one could say of the total array of responses that 'where archaeologies might fit…
Millennial archaeology. Locating the discipline in the age of insecurity
This discussion article responds to a forum question posed by the editors of Archaeological dialogues: 'is archaeology useful?' My response initially moves backward from the question, considering whether archaeology ought to be useful, how it has been useful in the past, and the millennial overtones of the question in our present climate of crisis. I critique the primary way in which archaeology attempts to be useful, as a dowsing rod for heritag…
A Wild Taste
Using new archaeological data and colonial narratives, I reconstruct the menu of French colonial Louisiana with the aim of showing how the sensual and social experience of eating relates to the political rationalities of colonialism. In Louisiana, food practices enunciated a hierarchy of taste that positively valued Native American foods while showing how easily they could be "civilized" by French cooking practices. Cooking and eating were fundam…
Clockpunk Anthropology and the Ruins of Modernity
This essay identifies the potential of an emerging archaeological turn for anthropology-and for archaeology itself. I argue that despite the critiques of the past two decades, the temporality of modernity and a belief in its exceptionalism still structure much of anthropological thought, as exemplified in the division of archaeology and ethnography and in the subfield of historical archaeology and its dystopic treatment of modern urban ruins. But…
Sexualizing Space
Introduction In 1879, Lafcadio Hearn described New Orleans (Figure 16.1) from the point of view of the Devil who had come to the southern city on a weekend break from a winter working in Chicago. The Devil was paying a visit to an old lover. He wrote, “the Devil could not suppress a sigh of regret as he gazed with far-reaching eyes along the old-fashioned streets of the city, whose gables were bronzed by the first yellow glow of sunrise. ‘Ah!’ he…
The Archaeology of Colonialism
This volume examines human sexuality as an intrinsic element in the interpretation of complex colonial societies. While archaeological studies of the historic past have explored the dynamics of European colonialism, such work has largely ignored broader issues of sexuality, embodiment, commemoration, reproduction and sensuality. Recently, however, scholars have begun to recognize these issues as essential components of colonization and imperialis…
History (25 works) · Sociology (18 works) · History (17 works) · Archaeology (16 works) · Art (12 works) · Anthropology (11 works) · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies (11 works) · Political science (11 works) · Geography (10 works) · Law (9 works)