Mid-twentieth-century archaeologists postulated that, unlike earthlodges, the traditional forms of domestic architecture among the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara (MHA), rectangular cabins were non-Indigenous, Euro-American spaces, so ownership and dominion over the household followed Western patriarchal norms. This argument is based on the assumption that cabins are proof of assimilation, and therefore, patrilineal replaced Native matrilineal ownership. However, Native American culture is not rigid, and change is not indicative of assimilation. Using artifacts found in cabins, conversations with contemporary tribal members, and historical ethnographies, I identify gendered activity areas within cabins that resemble what is expected from a “traditional” Native household. I argue that patrilineal ownership is unlikely and problematic in its denial of MHA cultural fluidity, and it is highly plausible that cabins, like earthlodges, were women-owned and managed. They were Native spaces, where the presence of Native women can be seen archaeologically, and should be considered as such.

This paper presents a reanalysis of Site 9DA89, a historic trash midden excavated during 1970s MARTA rail line construction in Atlanta, Georgia. Dating from the late 1800s to early 1900s, the site provides a rare material record of domestic life in a rapidly urbanizing neighborhood during the post-reconstruction period. Drawing on over 20,000 artifacts, archival records, and prior student analyses, this study applies a gender archaeology framework to interrogate how women negotiated identity, domesticity, and social change at the turn of the 20th century. By recognizing that ideological performance and resistance are embedded within daily household consumption and practices, this research challenges the often monolithic narratives of Victorian femininity and highlights the intersectionality of race, class, and gender. The project underscores the value of legacy collections and historic archaeology in capturing the multivocal texture of everyday life and expands our understanding of women’s agency in shaping Southern urban landscapes.

The extractive industries of the early 20^th century West are traditionally understood through the experiences of men who ran companies and provided labor. Oregon’s early timber industry is no exception. However, in the early 20^th century, some companies began to explicitly hire men with families, bringing women and children into new roles at lumber camps. Though this appears like an effort to be more inclusive or accommodating, in reality it was a cost-saving measure that eliminated the expense of caring for single men living in communal bunkhouses and eating shared meals in mess halls. The Baker White Pine Mill case study provides a window into the lives of the women and families who performed the unpaid and unacknowledged labor of supporting a male workforce through their cooking, cleaning, mending, and household management. The hallmarks of performative middle-class domesticity were central to this homemaking, even in the remote Eastern Oregon woods.

The Ilha dos Inocentes (Island of the Innocents) is located on the Tapajós River, close to Fordlândia, a company town built in the Brazilian Amazon by The Ford Motor Company in 1927. The Island, or “the islands”, are often referred to as a place of carousing, prostitution, and even violence, serving as a point of escape for the company's workers – married or single men – to flee, even if temporarily, the strict rules imposed by Ford. Interviews conducted with residents and studied in context with period maps, satellite images, spatial relations and documents from a court case, revealed that the landscape of the Ilha dos Inocentes was more complex. The data suggest that “the islands” may have been more densely occupied, revealing relationships not limited only to sexual exchanges, drinking and criminality, but ties more closely articulated with Ford’s enterprise than has been widely recounted.