Unmaking Waste: New Histories of Old Things

Format: Hardback
Length: 296 pages
Publication date: 26 May 2023
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press

Garbage is frequently regarded as an inescapable component and issue of human existence. However, when did people begin to perceive things as "trash," as having a finite lifespan or devaluing over time due to usage?

Unmaking Waste addresses these issues through a long-term, cross-cultural perspective. By drawing on archaeological discoveries, historical records, and ethnographic observations to examine Europe, the United States, and Central America from prehistory to the present, Sarah Newman traces how distinct notions about waste emerged in different eras and locations. Newman explores what individuals perceive as "waste" and how they engage with it, as well as what transpires when different perceptions of trash collide. Conceptions of waste have influenced forms of reuse and regeneration in ancient Mesoamerica, early modern notions of civility and forced religious conversion in New Spain, and even the modern discipline of archaeology. Newman contends that centuries of assumptions imposed on other places, times, and peoples necessitate reevaluation. This book goes beyond a broad reconsideration of waste and serves as a call for new archaeological approaches that do not take garbage for granted.

Unmaking Waste demonstrates that waste is not—and has never been—a self-evident or universal concept.

Dimension: 229 x 152 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780226826370