Year of Award
2021
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Type
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Name
Anthropology
Department or School/College
Department of Anthropology
Committee Chair
Kelly J. Dixon
Commitee Members
Kyle Volk, Anna Prentiss, Mary Murphy, Ellen Baumler
Keywords
Alcohol Prohibition, Gender Studies, International Smuggling, Montana, Smuggling Routes, Transportation Networks
Publisher
University of Montana
Abstract
The following exploration of National Alcohol Prohibition in the United States employs an interdisciplinary approach to understand the impetus of the large-scale defiance of liquor laws and to identify the physical manifestations of the social process of mass resistance in the archaeological record. Historical documentation, newspaper publications, oral histories, landscape analysis of road development in Montana, and an archaeological survey of a mountain homestead site where manufacturer of illicit alcohol took place are used to contextualize the Prohibition Era from the perspective of the offender. The research goals of this work are varied and include documentation of the archaeological footprint of prolonged alcohol production and transport as well as highlighting the social pressures driving the lawlessness that characterized the era, including a case study on female offenders. The results of this investigation determined that liquor law infractions were primarily driven by socio-economic and environmental factors rather than a wave of immorality.
Recommended Citation
Casias, Kelli Michele, "A Moral Influenza: An Historical Archaeological Investigation of the Prohibition Era in the United States 1920-1933" (2021). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 11906.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/11906
© Copyright 2021 Kelli Michele Casias