A Tale of Garbage

Abstract

In 1973, an American archaeologist named Dr. William Rathje sought to create a method that would help his students understand the intricacies of archaeological fieldwork. Dr. Rathje recognized that his students at the University of Arizona were having a difficult time understanding cultural remains from the past (Rathje, 1979, p. 4), so his idea was to use contemporary cultural material waste as a study tool. He named this method “The Garbage Project.” Given that the project took place during 1970s and students of the time were far removed from potsherds and post holes, it made sense to articulate archaeological sites in a contemporary way. Over time, this process would come to be known as garbology, which has come to inform both past research and present-day disciplines such as economics and public policy. This paper will outline the cross-discipline benefits that archaeology brings to modern society, including how it informs us about sustainability issues and how human societies interact and identify with their waste.