The Happiest of Finds: William L. Rathje's Influence on the Field of Discard Studies

Abstract

The study of waste has many roots. For more than half a century, anthropologists, historians, and policy analysts have attempted to understand what, how, and why societies dispose of materials deemed worthless or hazardous. Historical approaches to discard studies include analyses of the creation of industrial wastes, the development of infrastructures such as landfills and wastewater treatment facilities, and the emergence of formal and informal recycling systems (Melosi 2005; Tarr 1996). Anthropologists, including Mary Douglas (1966), have considered cultural constructions of waste. Sociologists and economists have assessed consumption and disposal patterns (Bullard 2000; Strasser 1999; Thompson 1979). William L. Rathje, who died in 2012, made a unique and enduring contribution to the interdisciplinary study of waste by focusing on the materiality of discards. Rathje applied his archaeological training in unearthing the material culture of prehistoric societies to provide new perspectives on industrial societies, perspectives that have proved influential on the broad field of discard studies. Rathje completed his doctorate in anthropology from Harvard University in 1971, submitting a dissertation on Lowland Classic Maya socio-political organization (Rathje 1971). He subsequently continued to study Mesoamerican societies. In 1973, he was a co-director of the Cozumel Archaeological Project, sponsored by the National Geographic Society (Sabloff and Rathje 1975). As Rathje completed his degree, interest in contemporary garbage was on the rise. Environmental concern about waste in the 1960s had led to the passage of a series of federal and state laws intended to curb garbage and pollution. A few aficionados began attempting to use discarded materials to interpret contemporary life. By the end of 1970, A. J. Weberman had begun calling his attempts to decipher Bob Dylan’s lyrics through the songwriter’s Greenwich Village trash “garbology.” Any value Weberman gained from analyzing Dylan’s old coffee grounds and his young son’s dirty diapers was limited to fantasies; however Weberman’s scrounging brought to light the possibility that studying garbage might illuminate our lives. Not long after Weberman began snooping through Dylan’s garbage, Rathje applied his more rigorous methods to modern garbage, but with the goal of ethnoarchaeology, Vol. 7 No. 2, October, 2015, 173–178