The contributors to this volume investigate intimate economies arising from and reinforcing close social bonds. Although some authors explicitly study economic sexual exchange, most contributors adopt a broader definition of intimacy, drawing emotion, kinship ties, the exchange of ideas, and social support networks into the economic arena. Although recognizing that intimate economies worked with and through global capitalism in the recent past, contributors encourage archaeologists to engage with the ways in which people connected through small-scale, relational transactions that supported their individual and group identities.
Reflecting the field's growing recognition that modernity is grounded in historical continuities as well as change, chapters by James Nyman, Sami Lakomäki and colleagues, Marika Hyttinen and colleagues, Allison Manfra McGovern, Diana DiPaolo Loren, and Eleanor Conlin Casella connect premodern belief systems, kinship, social networks, and patterns of mobility to modern world practices. Nyman, Matthew Reilly, Kirk French, and Casella examine twentieth-century sites, underscoring the increased attention to our most recent past by a growing number of scholars. Six studies that consider the intimate economies of northern Scandinavia, the Caribbean, Antarctica, and Ireland illustrate the global reach of historical archaeology. Authors of the remaining seven chapters examine sites in the United States, ranging from coastal Maine to Louisiana.
Several contributors address Indigenous responses to colonialism. Nyman's discussion of Wabenaki baskets and McGovern's exploration of Montaukett whaling families share the theme of survivance, highlighting deeply rooted and persistent practices fundamental to each group's continuity. Loren applies embodiment theory to interpret how the Tunica of Louisiana incorporated glass trade beads into adornment practices. The sensual properties of imported beads shaped new Tunica concepts of selfhood grounded in earlier traditions of bead use. Lakomäki and colleagues explore relationships centered on the important, albeit informal, exchange of alcohol between Sámi hunters and herders of Arctic Europe as well as Swedish colonial agents. The authors argue that reciprocity and gifting shaped the early modern landscape more than Swedish hegemony.
Within-group economic interactions are an important theme of the volume. Beverly Straube describes an unrealized monetary scheme for the early Jamestown settlement in Virginia. Coins retired from official circulation in Ireland in 1607, transported to Virginia, and discarded at the site in 1610 provide strong evidence of their intended use as token money. Although never put into play, the scheme was designed to validate the contributions of laborers using a familiar method of remuneration in an unfamiliar world. Melisa Salerno and colleagues investigate the global and intimate economies of seal hunting in Antarctica. At sea, sealers operated within a hierarchical, capitalist system that reproduced class distinctions. Ashore, however, they entered into an economy based on reciprocity and sharing that arose out of the enforced intimacy of the camps. Jade Luiz explores a more extreme example of parallel worlds of alienation and integration within the context of a New England brothel. She analyzes both the commercial face of prostitution and more emotionally intimate after-hours exchanges, where women formed family bonds and close friendships.
Heather Gibson and Kenneth Kelly, Kevin Fogle, and Reilly focus on intimate economies of plantations. Their studies consider the importance of extra-plantation social and economic production and exchange networks along with their effects on subaltern people during and following the era of slavery. French describes his preliminary work documenting moonshine stills in western North Carolina. He argues that illegal production sites can be used to trace the emergence of intimate networks between producers and consumers.
Intimate exchanges were not limited to the living. Hyttinen and colleagues explore historical pitch production, kinship, gender, and memory on a Finnish island. Premodern beliefs in the magical nature of fire influenced island life even as industries transitioned to capitalism. Women served as guardians and conveyors of esoteric knowledge and historical memory, protecting the community from the dangers inherent in pitch burning. Their memory work was integral to the island's economic success. Casella traces the history of holy Irish wells from the Iron Age to the present. Intimate economies of wells include the exchange of miraculous cures for devotional rituals that involve movement, marking, and votive offerings. Through generations of repetition and accumulations of offerings, these actions reinforced community and identity.
As this review was awaiting publication, we were saddened to learn of the passing of Mary Beaudry, a foundational figure in the field of historical archaeology. This book was the tenth for which she served as editor or coeditor during her long and distinguished career. Her short preface provides a history and justification for the efforts that lay the groundwork for the volume. In the concluding chapter, she highlights themes that are woven throughout the book and that are hallmarks of her own scholarship—the importance of focusing on and illuminating the experiences of people in the past, the utility of household-scale analyses and a global reach, the impact of intimate economies in the development of the early modern world, and the continued influence of shadow and intimate economies today.
This volume honors her legacy, making a strong case for the archaeological study of the intimate alongside the global. As the current pandemic highlights tensions at the intersection of global capitalism and intimate exchanges, this book is a timely reminder that economic strategies built on small-scale, local, interpersonal, and emotional ties have existed side-by-side with capitalism for centuries. Intimate economies allow people to get by—and even to thrive—in challenging times.
