Case Studies

This chapter focuses on two case studies, reviewing in detail the findings of large urban projects that encountered brothel sites. The New York City project addresses the history and archaeology of a brothel in the Five Points neighborhood of Lower Manhattan. The discussion contrasts the reputation of the residents with the evidence revealed by the artifact assemblages. The discussion of Washington, D.C. parlor houses addresses the remarkable assemblage of high-class furnishings and possessions and expensive foods enjoyed in the houses in the heart of the city—houses that served the men of government and business in the nation’s capital.

Agency and the Archaeology of the Unconventional

This opening chapter lays out the authors’ approach to the study of the archaeology of prostitution and several types of clandestine activities. The materiality of these activities reveals them in the archaeological record, and analysis and interpretation of observed differences lead to a focus on agency. The discussion notes the role of the legislation in the major urban projects that exposed the sites of unconventional activities. Attention to class, gender, and race reveals aspects of agency demonstrated by unconventional behaviour.

Selling Sex and Keeping Secrets

This chapter summarizes the archaeological evidence for agency in all sorts of situations, but it treats prostitution as a “special case.” The argument that prostitutes did (and do) not have agency is discussed and arguments for and against decriminalization in the present are compared to similar arguments in the past. To an extent, decriminalizers resemble nineteenth-century regulationists and abolitionists resemble antireglementarians. The chapter discusses the anthropological problem of making value judgments, especially as it applies to prostitution and other acts of agency. Emphasis is placed on the value of anomalous finds for identifying clandestine pursuits.

Clandestine Pursuits

Prostitution and the reasons for turning to it are contrasted with other clandestine activities done for other reasons. The chapter is organized around several subjects: resistance in the nineteenth century, the Underground Railroad, and resourcefulness in the eighteenth century. Archaeological examples of nineteenth-century resistance include defiance in the workplace at factories and railroad sites and archaeological evidence of prison escape attempts and site conditions behind the walls. The difficulty of finding legitimate evidence of the Underground Railroad is discussed, archaeologically identified hiding places are described, and the potential of using archaeology to reveal the participation of otherwise unknown free black communities is considered. Evidence for eighteenth-century resourcefulness includes in-the-ground evidence of smuggling as well as the presence of illegitimately acquired artifacts and the underwater recovery of two pirate ships.

Clandestine Pursuits

This chapter focuses on intentionally hidden objects and their meaning for the individuals who hid them. The emphasis on objects illustrates the strength of archaeology to use the material record to connect to specific people in the past. Window panes with messages and/or names scratched in them are described and witch bottles and pierced and folded coins are discussed in the context of European traditions continued in the New World. Classic archaeological studies of ceramic pots, clay pipes, and caches of artifacts found on African American sites are presented as setting the standards for finding evidence of agency where agency was presumed not to exist. Archaeological evidence of agency is also found in remains relating to children, soldiers on military sites, and the homeless in modern cities.

Brothels and Prostitution in the American West

This chapter reviews studies of the archaeology of brothels and prostitution in the American West. Early studies considered the material culture of the brothel and the saloon, partner institutions in mining towns. Archaeological data from recent excavations in Sandpoint, Idaho; Prescott, Arizona; Ouray, Colorado; Aliso Street, in Los Angeles, California; and Fargo, North Dakota; provide a wealth of data on the lives of women working in brothels. The chapter concludes with a consideration of how archaeological data and women’s first-person narratives help to reveal the lives and experiences of women in brothels of the West.

The Archaeology of Prostitution in American Cities

The classic study of prostitution in cities by Dr. William Sanger is reviewed, along with Christine Stansell’s study of working women and the sale of sex in New York City. Classes of brothels and the reasons for prostitution in cities are reviewed. The discussion moves to reviewing the archaeology of brothels and considering how lives, experiences, and performance of prostitutes are reflected by artifacts.