Exporting culture: Archaeology and the nineteenth-century British Empire

Comparison of Australia with other postcolonial nations provides a means for analyzing the material culture of 19th-century British colonization. Developments in Australia paralleled those in Canada, South Africa, and New Zealand. As a result of changes in politics, industry, knowledge, culture, and society, migrants at this time differed significantly form those of earlier periods of British colonization. Comparison between colonial outposts provides a means for better understanding this emerging culture of British imperialism. Rather than reflecting the adoption fo archaic physical forms, this pattern drew on the many complex strands of class, industrialization, urbanization, and mass consumption that informed contemporary British society. A globally aware perspective on British culture raises new questions for archaeologists in the United States, Britain, and the countries of the former British Empire.