| Class analysis has typically focused on urban, middle class households of the Eastern United States. Alternatively, the American West has often been viewed as a classless society, or has been overlooked entirely. This thesis examines how class consciousness has manifested itself in a temporary work settlement. The study focuses on a short term mining camp referred to as Hickneytown on the 1880 GLO plat for the Spruce Mountain Mining District located in Elko County, Nevada. Specific individuals could not be tied to any of the structures, hence, this study takes a community wide approach and utilizes wide scale inventory, recordation and limited excavation to address whether it is possible to detect socioeconomic levels in the archaeological record, and if so, how the residents of Hickneytown negotiated class relations. |
