ANTH 165 Garbage Project DUE: T 3/16 in hard copy

Dr. Fontana will provide you with an anonymous garbage inventory. The assignment is
for you & your partner to write a 1-2 page “findings report” that provides a detailed
archaeological interpretation concerning the person/persons who generated the
inventory.

To do this, you should attempt to answer the following questions:

1. Is this the list of an individual, or numerous people? How do you know?

 If numerous, can you tell how many (roommate(s) vs whole family)?

2. Does the producer(s) live in a dorm, apartment, or a house? How do you know?

3. What kind of eating/drinking habits does the producer(s) have? How do you
know?
 Examples: eating out vs home cooking; cook from scratch vs. easy-to-
prep meals; General/overall dietary habits; Food issues (special diet, food
avoidances, etc)

4. Which gender(s) produced this inventory? How do you know?

5. What is the ethnicity of the producer(s)? How do you know?

6. What is the economic status of the producer(s)? How do you know?

7. What else can you determine about the producer(s) as a person & their lifestyle
based on what is contained &/or missing from the garbage inventory?
 hobbies/activities; “vices”; etc.

Your report should contain your interpretations as well as detail your reasoning &
evidence to support your interpretations. If you & your partner cannot agree on an
interpretation, feel free to include both of your ideas (be sure to designate whose
interpretation is whose). If there isn’t enough evidence to solidly support your
interpretations, you may include some speculations about the producer(s) as well, but
these speculations should be clearly identified as such & should discuss what evidence
lead you to said speculation. You MUST address all 7 questions…if a question
cannot be answered based on the evidence presented in the inventory list, you
should say there’s insufficient evidence to comment on that question, instead of
ignoring the question.

RUBRIC: You will be graded on: 1) the quality of your interpretations; 2) how well
supported your interpretations are; & 3) whether you missed any sources of information
for interpretation.

Please use the OUTLINE on the next page to structure your report.
 Garbage Findings Report Partner #1:
Partner #2:

Discuss each of the following categories in the order listed below…you may use the
provided categories as section headers.

1. List of an individual, or numerous people? How do you know?

2. Dorm/apartment/house? How do you know?

3. Eating/drinking habits? How do you know?

4. Gender(s)? How do you know?

5. Ethnicity? How do you know?

6. Economic status? How do you know?

7. Miscellaneous (hobbies/activities, vices, etc)