Anthracite memories: semantic tagging and coal mining oral histories

ABSTRACT

Oral histories are a critical source of information about lived experiences of past events. They have been analysed both for their form – linguistically as texts, performances, and expressive accounts – and their content for understanding historic events and personal experiences. Here we focus on sentiment analysis approaches frequently applied to big data research questions, but less often utilised by anthropologists working with oral histories. Oral histories collected half a century ago in the anthracite mining communities of northeastern Pennsylvania are examined by considering methodological and historical questions. This project explores how oral history and data science might be productively combined to understand these now historic communities’ everyday lives and working conditions. Bakhtin’s (1981) concept of chronotope helps us understand the memory of these anthracite coal mining communities’ daily life and working conditions.

KEYWORDS:

• Text mining
• oral history
• chronotope
• mining communities
• labour history

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Madeline Brown

Madeline Brown is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her work focuses on human-environment interactions with an interest in digital and mixed-methods research.

Paul Shackel

Paul A. Shackel is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Maryland, College Park. His research projects focus on the role of archaeology in civic engagement and heritage activities related to race and labor.