abstract and table of contents for The Chinese Exclusion laws of the later nineteenth and early twentieth century were the nation's earliest border-controlling legislation. First passed in 1882 to stop immigration of people of Chinese descent, Chinese Exclusion legislation was periodically renewed in subsequent decades, and only finally eliminated from immigration policy in 1969. Long-accepted historic accounts of this process attribute the rise and progress of the Chinese Exclusion movements to white laborers, especially unemployed Irish immigrants. Examining these accounts in comparison with primary source evidence shows instead that established white politicians and businessmen played major leadership roles in creating and perpetuating anti-Chinese sentiment among whites as part of a strategy for gaining and maintaining disproportionate access to natural resources and political power. Recent developments in anthropological theory show how archaeological evidence can speak to the complex social phenomenon of identity formation through a focus on the creation, modification, and daily uses of the built environment. This dissertation analyzes archaeological data from historic California Chinatowns of Sacramento, San Jose, Los Angeles, Riverside, and Oakland, to show how social relations and constructions of identity influenced and were influenced by the physical structure of cities and neighborhoods. I discuss the anthropological concepts of acculturation studies and ethnic boundary maintenance, and how they have been applied in archaeological practices. I discuss instances in which archaeological investigations of historic sites associated with Chinese Americans have unconsciously perpetuated nineteenth-century racial stereotypes, or otherwise used methods that hinder effective analysis and interpretation. Developments in anthropological theory emphasize the utility of approaches that examine the actual creations of social identity through acts of daily practice created in a particular historical setting. Finally, the evaluation of extant data and theoretical insights points to directions for effective practices in Chinese American archaeology. Table of Contents List of Figures………………………………………..………………………iii List of Tables……………………...………………………………………....vi Acknowledgements……………………...…………………………………..vii Chapter 1 Creating Whiteness in Anthropological Theory and the Social Phenomenon of Race……5 Organization..………………….…………...…………………….18 Chapter 2 Reinvestigating the Origins of Chinese Exclusion………………22 Chapter 3 Previous Archaeological Research on Chapter 4 Previous Excavations ………………………………………143 Missed Opportunities in Compliance Archaeology.…..……145 The San Pablo Avenue Chinatown………………………….151 Creating Whiteness in Conclusion…………………………………………………..175 Chapter 5 Investigating Social Identity Formation and Developing Chinese American Archaeology…………...………......178 Acculturation, Assimilation, and Essentialism………179 Ethnic Boundary Maintenance…………………………...…191 Ethnic Boundary Maintenance versus Racial Formation Processes…...……….196 A Practice Theory Approach…………………….....………197 Practice Theory and “Creating Whiteness” in Moving away from Stereotypes in Archaeology of Chinese American Sites…………202 Developing Chinese American Archaeology.….........…...…208 Conclusion……………………………………………...…..218 Figures………...……………………………………………….…….…..…223 Tables ………………………………………………………….….…….…260 Works Cited…………………………………………....….……….………264 List of Figures Figure 2-1. Commemorative volume advertises “White Labor Prize Medal Shirts.”..223 Figure 2-2. Governor George C. Perkins declares a legal holiday for Anti-Chinese demonstration. ……………………………………..…………………224 Figure 2-3. George C. Perkins’ Senate Speech advocating Chinese Exclusion anthologized in Modern Eloquence, 1903.……………………..…….225 Figure 2-4. Head of Angel Island Immigration Station’s family commemoration of ancestor as “First white child born in Walton [ Figure 2-5. Mainstream white politician Mayor Pardee’s leadership in Anti-Chinese demonstration recorded in Oakland Daily News, March 31, 1876.…227 Figure 2-6. Nationwide labor strikes stop railroads and manufacturing throughout the nation, announce headlines from the Oakland Evening Tribune, July 25, 1877 (detail).……………………………………..………………….228 Figure 3-1. associations. (a) Key…………………………..…..………….…..………………229 (b) (c) (d) (e) Riverside Figure 4-1. Recorded historic Figure 4-2. “ Figure 4-3. Oakland Chinese businesses in Wells, Fargo, & Co. (1882) and Volume 1 of the 1889 Sanborn Fire Insurance Company map.………..……236 Figure 4-4. Detail of Figure 4-3, showing area of Eighth and Webster Streets, the location today most commonly identified as Oakland’s Chinatown.…………………………………..………………..237 Figure 4-5. The data of Figure 4-3, augmented with a sample of the Chinese Merchant Partnership files generated under the Chinese Exclusion Act.……………………………………..………………...…..238 Figure 4-6. Upper Chinatown Neighborhood in 1878 Thompson and West map.……………………………………..…………….……..239 Figure 4-7. U.S.G.S. Coastal Survey Map of 1857 for Figure 4-8. Figure 4-9. 1859 Whitcher Map detail showing Figure 4-10. Figure 4-11. 1868 Boardman Map detail showing Figure 4-12. Oakland Transcript coverage of San Pablo Avenue Chinatown, Figure 4-13. Oakland Tribune of Figure 4-14. The Fourteenth Street facade of the new City Hall, Oakland’s third, photographed from Washington Street, with rooftops of San Pablo Avenue Chinatown possibly visible…..………………….…247 Figure 4-15. Snow & Roos Bird’s Eye View of Oakland, a drawing made about 1870………………………………………..………………..248 Figure 4-16. Detail of Snow & Roos Bird’s Eye View of Oakland depicting San Pablo Avenue Chinatown area, ca. 1870...……………….….……249 Figure 4-17. Intersection of Figure 4-18. The new City Hall from Thirteenth and Franklin Streets, 1870s..……………………………………..………………..251 Figure 4-19. The residence of prominent white Oaklander, Colonel John Coffee, at Twenty-second and Market Streets………..………………..252 Figure 4-20. The Alameda Daily Argus of October 3, 1895 likewise calling for the eradication of the city’s Chinatown to make way for redevelopment increasing adjacent property values.………………………..253 Figure 4-21. The Victorian Italianate false-front at 1972 San Pablo Avenue, constructed on the site of the San Pablo Avenue Chinatown as part of an 1883 redevelopment project……………………..………………..254 Figure 4-22. Figure 4-23. City of Figure 4-24. Oakland’s fourth City Hall, constructed on the foundation of the third, shown in foreground of photo of fifth (current) City Hall, under construction..……………………………..………………..257 Figure 5-1. A method of representing archaeological data with a focus on maximizing the representation of sample characteristics and constraints………………………………..………………..258 Figure 5-2. List of Tables Table 4-1. Known historic Table 4-2. History of East-West Streets Constructed near or through the San Pablo Avenue Chinatown.……………………..………………..262 Table 4-3. San Pablo Avenue Chinatown area major property owners named on the 1868 Boardman map.……………………………………..……263
Naruta, Anna, Creating Whiteness in California: Racialization Processes, Land, and Policy in the Context of California’s Chinese Exclusion Movements, 1850 to 1910. A historical and archaeological study of the Chinatowns and early development of Sacramento, San Jose, Los Angeles, Riverside, and Oakland, PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 2006.
Committee in charge: Professors Kent Lightfoot (chair), Rosemary Joyce, and L. Ling-chi Wang
Public discourse around the passage and enforcement of Chinese Exclusion legislation linked ideas of naturalized racial hierarchies to legal and economic consequences, and provided both impetus and reinforcement for numerous attempts of individual and institutionalized racial discrimination. The Chinese Exclusion movements worked to create a "white" identity, defined through its linkage to entitlements, in opposition to ascribed characteristics of "the Chinese race."
20080330
History & archaeology of California's Chinatowns and early city development (Naruta 2006)
Abstract
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