Capitalism, Colonialism, and Consumerism

Abstract

In the inaugural volume of the Contributions to Global Historical Archaeology series, Charles Orser explored the existing definitions of historical archaeology and proposed that there are four “haunts” or “historical processes that underlie all historical archaeological research”—colonialism, Eurocentrism, capitalism and modernity (Orser, 1996: 22 and 57–88). With regard to the establishment of the early Australian colonies, I agree with much of what Orser proposes, in particular the importance of colonialism and capitalism. Nevertheless, I feel that the period in question was, at least, partially “pre-modern” or at least “pre-industrial” and that Eurocentrism was, in fact, a paradigm that underpinned all of the other processes. As a result, my own concept of these historical processes, at least as they apply to my own research, is framed in terms of just three processes—capitalism, colonialism and consumerism. I see these three processes as most important and I believe that they represent the underlying framework that enabled the invasion of places such as Australia, and the establishment of settlements like the Australian colonies during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In order to better understand these processes I believe it is necessary to focus on the food, drink and material culture that allowed these people to establish, maintain and transform their colonial communities and societies.

The ever-increasing circulation of new commodities and the inclusion in market-exchange circuits of every sort of goods have been important components of the reflections on what it is to be modern>.

(Sassatelli, 1997: 339)