The Archaeology of Prostitution and Clandestine Pursuits

Rebecca Yamin, Donna J. Seifert

• Publisher: University Press of Florida
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780813080017, 9780813056456
• eBook ISBN: 9780813072685
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

Case studies of nineteenth-century sites from New York City to the American West



The Archaeology of Prostitution and Clandestine Pursuits synthesizes case studies from various nineteenth-century sites where material culture reveals evidence of prostitution, including a brothel in Five Points—New York City’s most notorious neighborhood—and parlor houses a few blocks from the White House and Capitol Hill. Rebecca Yamin and Donna Seifert also examine brothels in the American West—in urban Los Angeles and in frontier sites and mining camps in Sandpoint, Idaho; Prescott, Arizona; and Fargo, North Dakota. The artifact assemblages found at these sites often contradict written records, allowing archaeologists to construct a more realistic and complicated picture of daily life for working-class women involved in commercial sex.  



Recognizing the agency involved in practicing a profession that has never been considered respectable, even when it wasn’t outright illegal, Yamin and Seifert also look at the agency of other individuals who participated in illicit activities, defying society privately or even publicly. The authors demonstrate the various ways disempowered groups including immigrants, African Americans, women, and the poor wielded autonomy while constrained by cultural norms. They also consider similar, contemporary expressions of agency, with particular attention to ongoing arguments surrounding the legalization of prostitution. Juxtaposing today’s debates alongside the clandestine pursuits of the past reveals how dominant moral standards determine what individual choices are publicly permissible.   



A volume in the series the American Experience in Archaeological Perspective, edited by Michael S. Nassaney  



Publication of the paperback edition made possible by a Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Agency and the Archaeology of the Unconventional
• 2. The Archaeology of Prostitution in American Cities
• 3. Case Studies: A Brothel in New York City’s Most Notorious Neighborhood and Parlor Houses within Sight of the White House
• 4. Brothels and Prostitution in the American West
• 5. Clandestine Pursuits: Public Defiance of the Rules
• 6. Clandestine Pursuits: Private Spaces
• 7. Selling Sex and Keeping Secrets
• References Cited
• Index