Unmaking Waste - by Sarah Newman (Paperback)

About the Book

"In Unmaking Waste, Sarah Newman asks what happens when there are disagreements about what constitutes waste and what one should do with it, both at singular moments in time (for example, when ideas about waste collide in emerging colonial contexts) and across time (such as between those who left things behind in the past and the archaeologists who recover them). Newman examines ancient Mesoamerican understandings of waste, Euro-American perceptions of waste in New Spain, and early modern European ideals of civility and Christian understandings of good and bad, expressed metaphorically through cleanliness and filth. These differing perceptions, Newman argues, demands that we rethink centuries of assumptions imposed on other places, times, and peoples: so long as "waste" remains a category misunderstood to be common-sensical and stable, archaeological methods will prove unequal to their task. Newman instead proposes "anamorphic archaeology," an approach that emphasizes the possibility that archaeological objects have multiple physical and conceptual lives"--

Book Synopsis

Explores the concept of waste from fresh historical, cultural, and geographical perspectives.

Garbage is often assumed to be an inevitable part and problem of human existence. But when did people actually come to think of things as "trash"--as becoming worthless over time or through use, as having an end?

Unmaking Waste tackles these questions through a long-term, cross-cultural approach. Drawing on archaeological finds, historical documents, and ethnographic observations to examine Europe, the United States, and Central America from prehistory to the present, Sarah Newman traces how different ideas about waste took shape in different times and places. Newman examines what people consider to be "waste" and how they interact with it, as well as what happens when different perceptions of trash come into conflict. Conceptions of waste have shaped forms of reuse and renewal in ancient Mesoamerica, early modern ideas of civility and forced religious conversion in New Spain, and even the modern discipline of archaeology. Newman argues that centuries of assumptions imposed on other places, times, and peoples need to be rethought. This book is not only a broad reconsideration of waste; it is also a call for new forms of archaeology that do not take garbage for granted. Unmaking Waste reveals that waste is not--and never has been--an obvious or universal concept.

Review Quotes

"Newman provides an excellent historiography of how the discipline has approached and interpreted discarded materials using a northern European-based, capitalist economic paradigm. One of her main points is that research across all cultures in the present and past has been underscored by capitalism's expectations, goals, and problems. To challenge this, she turns to Mesoamerica as a space to analyze pre-European exchanges through to the present. The result is a fascinating history of material culture use, from precontact to modern times, which provides alternative models for dealing with trash."-- "Choice"

"'Trash talk' at its finest, this epic and engaging book reimagines how we should think about both the history of archaeology and our present-day pollution crisis. Destabilizing taken-for-granted assumptions about garbage, Unmaking Waste excavates multiple understandings of trash and time across centuries of Mesoamerican, European, and Euroamerican history."-- "Byron Hamann, author of The Invention of the Colonial Americas"

"Newman uses an archaeological lens to pose deep questions for our understanding of human waste management, including our very definitions of what constitutes 'waste' the result is a timely and original intervention that will resonate across disciplines and offer fresh perspectives on contemporary environmentalist movements."-- "David Wengrow, coauthor of The Dawn of Everything"

About the Author

Sarah Newman is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago.