A multidisciplinary team from the University of North Dakota developed the concept for this collection of essays. Kristen Fellows (an anthropologist), Angela Smith (an historian), and Anna Munns (an archaeologist) worked together in Fargo, North Dakota, to record, describe, and interpret archaeological remains associated with a local vice district. To understand their own work in a larger context, they collaborated with other professionals working on similar projects and compiled 10 excellent case studies inspired by either archaeological explorations or historical interpretations of sex work in several areas of the United States between 1850 and 1920.
Their compilation goes far beyond early interpretations of brothels through their material culture and documentary research, as pioneered in the 1990s by Donna Seifert in Washington, DC, and Julia Costello in Los Angeles, California. Although this volume devotes a chapter each to similar districts in Washington, DC, Los Angeles, and Boston, most of the studies focus on the relatively smaller metropolises of Fargo, North Dakota; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Sand Point, Idaho.
The volume is neatly divided into three sections. The first one, consisting of four chapters, discusses how space, landscape, and geography (best studied by archaeologists) interconnect with the formalized law that regulated sex workers (as interpreted by historians). Of particular interest is a treatise on the depiction of so-called White slavery in the early film industry. The latter term refers to a widespread perception that innocent White women were being lured into sex work by unscrupulous madams and other procurers. The authors demonstrate a relationship between these depictions and the federal legislative reforms enacted by the Mann Act of 1910.
The second section, loosely labeled as studies in diversity, explores the lives of two Black madams and the yet poorly documented archaeological evidence of children in brothels. The two chapters on madams are well-researched biographies by historians, and they shed light on how African American women sometimes used their sex, race, and political savvy to thrive in the sex industry. The chapter on children utilizes archaeological data to suggest the presence of dependents in the households of sex workers.
The coeditors devote the final three chapters to discussions of masculinity in the brothel context. Archaeological studies of sex work in the last three decades have focused on parsing the patterns and behaviors of undocumented women as they lend understanding to gender studies. The chapters in this section instead examine the male customers of the sex workers and how their masculine identities shaped their role within the sex industry.
In the introductory chapter, the coeditors summarize previous work in the field, and they conclude with a final chapter that includes suggestions for new directions of study. They make a strong plea for more collaboration between archaeologists, historians, and anthropologists in truly interdisciplinary studies, as opposed to more traditional multidisciplinary studies that only lightly intersect. Fellows, Smith, and Munns urge academics of different disciplines to study each other's work and to present their findings in terms that anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians can find useful. This volume makes a valiant effort to meet that goal but stumbles over hurdles long associated with any kind of interdisciplinary study. A case in point is the use of the scientific-style citations (author, date, page, with a complementary set of references cited). Although this style has long been used by archaeologists to great effect, it is poorly suited for the citation of primary historical sources. As a result, the considerations of archaeological case studies and datasets appear to dominate rather than complement considerations of primary historic sources. Social historians may be less willing to engage with archaeologists when they cannot evaluate the strength of the primary data, including the use of a complete bibliography and more substantive endnotes. The chapters written by the historians (the biographies and the chapter on White slavery) are stronger from a narrative standpoint than those written by archaeologists. Likewise, readers more interested in history may be daunted by terminology readily understood by archaeologists but rarely used outside the profession. A chapter on landscape and geography in Washington, DC, for instance, befuddled even the aging historical archaeologist writing this review.
Historical sex work has long been viewed through a lens distorted by the rosy reminiscences of elderly madams and their customers as perpetuated by popular culture. A solid parsing of material culture accompanied by scrupulous attention to primary sources can indeed help modern social scientists distinguish between myth and history. This collection of essays is a solid contribution to these studies. Fellows, Smith, and Munns have furthered the effort to share data and professional viewpoints in continuing efforts to understand intersections of gender, race, social interactions, economies, politics, and reform during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the Progressive Era in US history.
