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7: Social and cultural patterns from an archaeological perspective ARCHAEOLOGICAL evidence can shed light on various social and cultural patterns of the past. In general, it has been said that the following cultural activities represent ascending levels of difficulty in reconstructing behavior from material remains: technological activities; economic and subsistence patterns; social and political patterns; and the most difficult , religious and belief systems (Hawkes 1954). In general, this model is probably true given the nature of archaeological evidence and the factors of preservation. In the case of reconstructing prehistoric human behavior, the archaeologist is essentially left with the material residue alone, although ethnographic parallels and analogies can widen the scope of inferences. When the archaeologist works within the period of written records, however, the material evidence can be interpreted with the historical data as a framework (Adams 1977; Deetz 1977; Noel Hume 1969; South 1977; Weitzman 1976). In the case of Buxton, historic photographs, plat maps, census data, published information from such sources as economic geological reports and commercial gazetteers, newspapers , and oral communications from the community's former residents assist the archaeologist in interpreting the material residues remaining at the townsite. By the same token, the archaeological evidence acts as a crosscheck against the historical data and can fill in the gaps that exist in the available archival and oral historical sources. These examples will serve to illustrate the interdisciplinary nature of the present project's goal of understanding the former Buxton community: 1. Photographic evidence and oral historical information indicate the general location of the former White House Hotel and the previous residential complex of the mine superintendent, neither of which show on the 1919 plat map of the town. With these data as a guide, the archaeologists were able to pinpoint the location of these structures and evaluate the nature of the extant remains via reconnaissance survey and subsurface excavation techniques. 2. Similarly,the cemetery is not shown on the 1919 plat maps, and photographs of the cemetery area at the time Buxton was an urban settlement have not yet been obtained, if indeed these ever existed. The location of the cemetery, of course, is known to many former Buxton resi165 EXPLORING BURIED BUXTON dents and to others still living in the vicinity of the abandoned town. On this basis the archaeologists were able not only to verify the present extent of the cemetery by surface reconnaissance but also to record material evidence ultimately relating to mortuary patterns, kinship relationships, sodality affiliations, occupational statuses, and religious symbolism associated with the inhabitants of the former community. 3. A final example of the interrelationship of archival data, oral historical information, and the material residues obtained by archaeology consists of identifying the particular products purchased and used in the daily lives of former Buxton residents . Apparently no extant records document the range of specific products available at the stores in Buxton, although there are general references in issues of the Iowa State Bystander and in the reminiscences of the town's previous inhabitants . Similarly, living informants recall and describe generally such domestic activities as canning foods, serving meals, taking baths, and washing clothes. To a large degree the material remains collected and observed by the archaeologists can specify the types of jars and crocks former Buxton residents used in preserving foodstuffs, the kinds of china tableware and eating utensils that graced their dinner tables, and the forms of equipment they used for housekeeping, laundering , and maintaining personal hygiene. These are, as James Deetz (1977) puts it, "the small things forgotten," bits and pieces of the past that can help objectify written documents and human memories of bygone years. MAKING IT. THE BUSINESS, COMMERCIAL, AND OCCUPATIONAL ENTERPRISE As a company town of the Consolidation Coal Company, Buxton was dominated by the mining and transportation industries. A perusal of information from the Iowa State Bystander, former Buxton residents, and other sources indicates that many business and commercial facilities in Buxton were owned and/or managed by the company , its officers, and their relatives. The magnitude of the Monroe Mercantile Company store was indeed noteworthy , being hailed by the Iowa State Bystander (6 December 1907) as "perhaps the greatest commercial enterprise in all Iowa." The "company store," however, did not completely monopolize Buxton's economic system. Other businesses are known from advertisements and references in various newspapers. While few, if any, complete issues of Buxton newspapers have been preserved, a single page from the Buxton Gazette edition of 2 July 1908,here reproduced...

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