Archaeologists in the Brothel: "Sin City," Historical Archaeology and Prostitution

The essays in this volume contribute to recent historical analysis that rescues prostitution from the literature of deviancy and crime. Prostitutes are not considered "fallen women" but, rather, females who made rational and sometimes desperate choices when confronted with limited possibilities. Furthermore, we now know more not only about the prostitutes themselves (something painfully lacking in the American literature before 1980) but also about the culture and material conditions in which they lived and worked.