This is an aside titled 'Archeology of homelessness' dated 11/26/08
Very interesting findings in this study by a professor of anthropology and his student, a formerly homeless woman. Instead of an ethnographic study — examining factors like HIV/AIDS or job training — they used the “tools and techniques of archeology to understand the broader environment and activities of the homeless.” The researchers located a campsite frequented by the homeless. “They photographed these sites and conducted inventories of what the homeless threw away or left behind when they were away from the camp. They looked for patterns or clusters of certain types of materials such as clothing, shoes, food, cardboard laid out as furniture, or tarps providing shelter.” In addition to food cans, (creating difficulty as there were no can openers.) The researcher says, “We also found a lot of hotel-size bottles of shampoo and conditioner, deodorant and toothpaste. Only the toothpaste was used. This tells us that giving things like shampoo and conditioner to individuals without access to water doesn’t make sense. It would be better to send these kinds of things to shelters and not distribute them to people living on the streets.”
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