THIS EVENT WILL NOW BE HELD MAY 5TH
Barb Voss: "Material culture and gendered difference in the archaeology of the Chinese diaspora"
In the 19th century, many Chinese migrants formed split households, with adult men migrating overseas while their mothers, sisters, wives, and children of all genders remained in the home village. Comparative analysis of artifacts from Chinese diaspora sites in the American West with those recovered from home villages in Guangdong Province provides new perspectives about the material dimensions of transnational households and communities. This talk focuses on one artifact type – porcelain rice bowls decorated in Double Happiness motifs – to trace the symbolic and material production of gendered difference between home villages and diaspora settlements.
Barb Voss is Associate Professor of Anthropology.