Archaeology Magazine - October 1974 - 13

discarded. The founders of the project, a number
of anthropologists at the University of Arizona,
were aware from the outset that their ambition
to study garbage was a seemingly odd and novel
one; accordingly, we sought to give the clearest
possible definition to what the study might reveal. First, we believed that assumptions about
the way material culture is related to behavior in
past civilizations can be tested in a familiar, ongoing society. Second, we felt that applying archaeological methods to such a society can produce valuable insights into that society itself.
What follows is a brief description of the project's main activities; it is my principal intention
here to outline how such work can $erve to expand the social and scientific perimeters of archaeology generally.
everyone knows, Americans live in an era
which is threatened by resource depletion and
environmental ruination, and many of today's
social-science researchers are examining urbanized society to see how social conditions relate
to resource management as it is practiced (or
mispracticed) in the contemporary household.
The information they seek is information which
is badly needed. But the results of the interview
surveys being conducted by sociologists may not
be entirely adequate ; while they provide an understanding of the beliefs people have regarding
their habits of resource management, they cannot describe satisfactorily the actual resource
management these same people practice. For
example, owing to present cultural norms, few
individuals can be expected to discuss with can-

dor such things as alcohol problems, illicit drug
use or large-scale food-waste, especially with interviewers whom they have just met and scarcely
know. Even those who are willing to be totally
frank are prone to distorted recollection, and so
the picture which emerges is a good deal less
than accurate.
A more skeptical view is needed of society's
habits of material waste, and this is the view
which archaeology has to offer. By training, archaeologists maintain a healthy lack of commitment to the accuracy of the written word- or,
as in this case, the spoken word. Since their discipline functions to corroborate or disprove historical sources through the analysis of quantifiable materials, they are readily qualified to
evaluate modern interview-survey techniques and
their results. Waste is the result of human actions
and not intentions; therefore waste materials are
a telling and honest index of a society's way of
life.
The Garbage Project already has some reason
to question conclusions derived from verballycollected data on modern habits of consumption
and waste. According to interview surveys, for
instance, significantly more vitamins are consumed in Tucson by people with intermediate
incomes than by those with lower ones. Our
original garbage data, from 1972, show exactly
the opposite: the largest quantities of vitamin
containers were discarded by those on a very
low income scale.
But the members of the Garbage Project are
not so much interested in refuting the findings
of others as in complementing them and in discovering what significance the discrepancies
have. In fact, we share a mutual interest with
our sociological colleagues in refining interviewing techniques, and we are planning a joint
venture with an interview-survey project being
directed by Dr. Dileep Bal of the University of
Arizona; his project, known as Echo (Evidence
for Community Health Organization) deals with
patterns of consumption directly related to matters of health. The intention is to record traces of
drug, alcohol, cigarette, vitamin and nutrient
consumption left in garbage from a selected
sample of neighborhoods ; after analyzing the garbage from these households for a month, we will
make a survey of their occupants using questions
designed to enable us to test the answers against
the data collected from the garbage. The objective will be to identify and quantify the weaknesses in the two methods of gathering information.
237

Archaeology Magazine - October 1974

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - October 1974