Garbage may seem to be nothing of
value, but in reality garbage can provide a wealth of information about society
as a whole. In past times, garbage was
not as valuable of a resource however.
Ever since the American culture became a society of disposers, garbage
dumps have grown larger and given researchers more to look at.
Archaeologists
at the University of Arizona discovered that they could learn a lot about
modern society based on what people throw away.
Through investigations of landfills, scientists have been able to make
conclusions about society as a whole, but through analyzing garbage collected
from specific communities, garbologists have been able to discover things about
difference classes. For example, garbage
from lower income neighborhoods had more education and cleaning supplies than
richer neighborhoods. This conclusion
would not have been evident without the use of garbology.
Garbology is
only a very recent science, is this due to emerging techniques or the fact that
societies today consumer (and throw away) more than every before?
Wow! I guess in the richer neighborhoods the households hire cleaners to arrive packing their own supplies, clean, and leave?
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