Monuments and Memory
Monuments and Memory
Archaeological Perspectives on Commemoration
Examining the pasts, evolving meanings, and silenced histories surrounding public monuments
This volume examines many different public monuments to increase understanding of the cultural factors that have shaped their creation, maintenance, and—in some cases—removal. The role of monuments in communities and society continues to be an important and controversial topic, and the case studies in this volume contribute to this conversation by assessing the ways such markers can be empowering or marginalizing from a wide range of perspectives.
The monuments discussed here represent historical events from the Revolutionary War through the Korean War, including the “slave auction block” formerly located on the streets of Fredericksburg, Virginia; memorials to Confederate soldiers across the South and in northern POW cemeteries; and the Pullman National Monument in Chicago for workers who participated in the 1894 Pullman strike. This volume also highlights the dearth of statues memorializing the achievements of women and minorities, especially women of color, and contributors discuss whether recent movements advocating for more inclusive histories will lead to an increase in monuments honoring people whose narratives have been suppressed.
Looking at the powerful role of monuments in conveying the memory of history to future generations, the contributors to Monuments and Memory show why it is important to address the messages of these sites and ask whose histories they may be silencing. This book demonstrates how conversations surrounding preservation and interpretation of monuments encourage community involvement.
A volume in the series Cultural Heritage Studies, edited by Katherine Hayes
Contributors: Mark Cassello | Richard F. Veit | Mark Cianciosi | Joshua Butchko | Diane Wallman | Suzanne Spencer-Wood | Sherene Baugher | Lu Ann De Cunzo | John H. Jameson | Jeffrey Smith | Hilary Green | Brant Venables | Timo Ylimaunu | Paul R. Mullins | Kerri Barile | Harold Mytum | Melissa Ziobro | M. Jay Stottman | Levi Fox | Matthew Litteral
“Through a wide-ranging consideration of memorials, this book makes important contributions to the study of materiality and remembrance. Particularly valuable are its authors’ international perspectives; their attention to articulations among power, race, and gender; and their sophisticated analyses of roles that authority, contestation, silencing, and protest play in representing collective memory through large-scale artifacts.”—Alison Bell, author of The Vital Dead: Making Meaning, Identity, and Community through Cemeteries
“This excellent array of studies highlights clashes in heritage claims and the ways in which diverse, intangible experiences confront tangible designs and the narrowing focus of material commemorations. Monuments and Memory brings invaluable perspectives of archaeologists to bear on the intricacies of spatial dynamics, place-making, materialities, and concrete manifestations of past and present experiences in varied contexts of racial, class, gender, ethnic, Indigenous, colonial, and nationalist conflicts.”—Christopher C. Fennell, author of Broken Chains and Subverted Plans: Ethnicity, Race, and Commodities
John H. Jameson, retired archaeology public interpretation lead with the United States National Park Service, is coeditor of Unlocking the Past: Celebrating Historical Archaeology in North America. Sherene Baugher is professor emeritus of anthropology and landscape architecture at Cornell University. Richard Veit is professor of anthropology and interim provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Monmouth University. Baugher and Veit are coeditors of The Archaeology of Cemeteries and Gravemarkers.
