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The Archaeology of American Trash
Beach artifacts reveal the material culture of disposable America
One of my favorite parts of the day is taking my dog to the beach and watching her race up and down the tide line, barking at the seabirds and waves with the unbridled enthusiasm of a creature who has yet to be disappointed by human civilization. It is exhilarating to watch her. For a little while, the world seems perfectly ordered.
Lately, however, the King Tides have been wreaking havoc along the shoreline, advancing and retreating with the sort of indifference to human affairs that I find increasingly admirable. As the water rises and recedes, it rearranges the landscape and deposits the material remains of our daily lives. And what a collection of artifacts it is.
Trained as a cultural anthropologist, I examine these deposits with academic curiosity. My daily beach walks have become informal field investigations into the material culture of America’s late-stage capitalism, where conspicuous consumption meets conspicuous contempt for our common spaces.
The artifacts left behind reveal an American culture in which the production and consumption of disposable goods are normalized, while responsibility for their afterlife appears increasingly negligible.
