Lives Once Lived: ethnography and sense of place in the abandoned and isolated spaces of North America

Abstract

This dissertation examines the ways in which abandoned and sparsely populated spaces can begin to offer up their hidden, alternative histories through the process of ethnographic inquiry. My research explains how it is possible to engage with peripheral and often marginalized North American cultures through the anthropological study of affect, space and materiality. Here, I have endeavoured to construct a rich narrative of space, place and human geography that sees the ghost towns of the North American prairies and the isolated fishing communities of Grand Bruit, Newfoundland and Matinicus, Maine as dynamic texts that can be read as both alternative historical inscriptions and as anthropological phenomena that describe a unique aspect of unseen culture. Far from being empty spaces, these locations present deeply engaging deposits of local history and alternate world views. However, if left undocumented, I believe that these spaces will soon be erased from the dominant narratives of culture and historicity, swept away by the winds of resource depletion and rural-to-urban migration. In what follows, I present an opportunity for the reader to join me in unpacking and analysing these rarely understood and oft-neglected histories that are intrinsic to contemporary North American culture and identity.