Final Thoughts: Points of Intersection and Future Directions

Historians and historical archaeologists have made significant scholarly contributions to the field of historical sex work since the 1970s. As shown in the literature review in Chapter 1, historians have systematically combed historical records in major cities and pieced together interpretations that have expanded our understanding of the working women who labored, the culture, and the evolution of the sex trade itself; archaeologists have continued with this mode of inquiry but have expanded the conversation by incorporating material culture found in and around former brothel and crib sites into their studies while also integrating anthropological theories into their interpretations. This