Abstract
Historical archaeologists have either ignored class or defined it as a category or objective entity. In this work, it is argued that viewing class as a formation provides a powerful tool for studying the past. Defining class in this way stems from a theory of internal relations that sees class as a relational, analytical concept that operates at more than one scale or level of abstraction. Two examples demonstrate the class dynamics in different social and historic contexts. The first focuses on class at the community level, while the second looks at the class structure within a single household. Only through the process of abstracting class in real historic contexts can we operationalize class as an analytical concept powerful enough to understand internal social relations.
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Wurst, L. Internalizing class in historical archaeology. Hist Arch 33, 7–21 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03374277
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03374277