William Rathje began the Garbology project as an attempt to analyse the contemporary North American society and its consumption habits using the discard and rubbish of the material culture of the time. The anthropological project started in the 1970’s and was based in Tucson, Arizona and the long period that the study was carried out allowed it a possible element of continuity in its insights and conclusions. The Garbology Project used archaeological techniques to sort and quantify modern household refuse, in an attempt to explore contemporary consumer behaviour from the material residues that are left behind in trash cans and the landfill sites. The project was proposed by Rathje to give some insight on the anthropology of American food
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The potential usefulness of the landfill and garbage dump studies was seen by Rathje as being an unknown world, everything learned about it was new. This allowed Rathje to set a number of precedents and new insights with his study of human consumption behaviour with concern of garbage such as his three house hold waste syndromes which will be discussed later in the essay. His study into the North American consumerist society was to reflect everyday household refuse trends and look at possible ways to improve the discard patterns as it was thought that America was facing a “Garbage Crisis”. Peter Brown suggests, ‘The United States today is being buried in the remains of its own consumer products. We are in the throes of a garbage crisis, and informed policy decisions or solutions need to be found.’ The Garbology projects built an insight and outlined this garbage crisis that America was facing whilst scaling the mounds of landfill by simply assessing the amount of the consistent waste items. Rathje summarised the current "garbage crisis" as having concerns over the quantity and potential toxicity of refuse are embedded in landfills. However, Rathje does dismiss the idea of a serious and pressing crisis, rather suggesting that our garbage is not about to overwhelm us, thus …show more content…
Rathje, whilst cross examining the United States Department of Agriculture’s data found often that the large amount of junk food wrappers, liquor bottles and girlie magazines often flies in the face of what we tell ourselves, and what we tell others, about what we do. The project physically supplied contradictions and evidence which would otherwise be taken as reliable. Rathje and the Garbology project suggested and gave insight that there were three potential major behavioural trends in terms of household wastage and consumption. One of which he referred to as the “Lean Cuisine Syndrome”, which suggested that people may provide inaccurate consumption reports, he took especial interest in behaviour with negative connotations such as alcohol consumption. Rathje found that most people underreported their drinking by 40 to 60 percent. The Lean Cuisine Syndrome led Rathje to look in to a consequential theory he entitled as “The Surrogate Syndrome” stating, ‘if you want to know how much alcohol the residents in a household consume, do not ask the drinkers, you should rather ask the non-drinkers.’ The other and final insight in to household behavioural tendencies is seen in the
The potential usefulness of the landfill and garbage dump studies was seen by Rathje as being an unknown world, everything learned about it was new. This allowed Rathje to set a number of precedents and new insights with his study of human consumption behaviour with concern of garbage such as his three house hold waste syndromes which will be discussed later in the essay. His study into the North American consumerist society was to reflect everyday household refuse trends and look at possible ways to improve the discard patterns as it was thought that America was facing a “Garbage Crisis”. Peter Brown suggests, ‘The United States today is being buried in the remains of its own consumer products. We are in the throes of a garbage crisis, and informed policy decisions or solutions need to be found.’ The Garbology projects built an insight and outlined this garbage crisis that America was facing whilst scaling the mounds of landfill by simply assessing the amount of the consistent waste items. Rathje summarised the current "garbage crisis" as having concerns over the quantity and potential toxicity of refuse are embedded in landfills. However, Rathje does dismiss the idea of a serious and pressing crisis, rather suggesting that our garbage is not about to overwhelm us, thus …show more content…
Rathje, whilst cross examining the United States Department of Agriculture’s data found often that the large amount of junk food wrappers, liquor bottles and girlie magazines often flies in the face of what we tell ourselves, and what we tell others, about what we do. The project physically supplied contradictions and evidence which would otherwise be taken as reliable. Rathje and the Garbology project suggested and gave insight that there were three potential major behavioural trends in terms of household wastage and consumption. One of which he referred to as the “Lean Cuisine Syndrome”, which suggested that people may provide inaccurate consumption reports, he took especial interest in behaviour with negative connotations such as alcohol consumption. Rathje found that most people underreported their drinking by 40 to 60 percent. The Lean Cuisine Syndrome led Rathje to look in to a consequential theory he entitled as “The Surrogate Syndrome” stating, ‘if you want to know how much alcohol the residents in a household consume, do not ask the drinkers, you should rather ask the non-drinkers.’ The other and final insight in to household behavioural tendencies is seen in the