This study considers how fundamental shifts in the relationship between religion, community, and public life are reflected in the archaeological record of four excavation sites in the Amana Colonies—a former school (1870-present), a church (1865-present), a domestic outhouse (1860s-present), and a remote farmstead (1860s-1890s). The Colonies are a collection of seven villages founded and settled by German pietists in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1932 this community voluntarily abandoned the religiously-led communal lifestyle that it had practiced in Iowa for 76 years—a fundamental alteration in community structure that became known as the Great Change. This study was initially formulated to examine material culture—specifically privy refuse—from before and after the Great Change with an eye toward identifying shifts in the kinds, amounts, or origins of material goods used and discarded by Amana citizens. Though the original questions posed by the study could not be fully addressed with the data available, the sampled sites did offer several insights into the ways that the Amana citizens used space and material culture before and after the communal period. Artifacts collected at a domestic outhouse suggest that the structure had been re-purposed for use in the disposal of food preparation waste after the Great Change. A comparison of artifact densities between the sites indicated a high intensity of use of the grounds of the church, likely reflective of the community’s organization around religious identity. Finally, an analysis of the relative frequency of three types of artifacts found in quantity at all sites (metal, glass, and ceramic) led to the conclusion that the remote farmstead likely reflects a lifeway outside the Amana norm, and may suggest the ways in which Amana material usage was shaped by communal living.

This bachelor thesis examines gender related jokes in Swedish outhouse books (dassböcker), and howwomen and men are constructed and portrayed in text and image between 2003-2020. Outhouse bookstypically consist of jokes based on stereotypes of women, men and other groups and are intended toamuse readers during visits to the outhouse or private toilet. I used critical analysis and queer theoryto examine assumptions regarding gender visible in the material. The analysis shows how Swedishouthouse books employ genusslentrianer, (unreflected and repeated gender stereotypes) in theirportrayal of women and men, constructing women as ’naturally’ responsible for unpaid labour in thehome, and reproductive work such as caring for children. Further, women and men are in the materialdepicted as opposites based on binary and essentialist assumptions about gender and gender roles, andthe material adopts a male gaze which portrays men as simple and women as (unnecessarily)complicated. The analysis makes visible normative assumptions about woman and men as cis,heterosexual, and aspiring to live in nuclear families. However, it also shows taken for granteddifferences between assumed male and female heterosexuality, constructing women as ’naturally’monogamous, while men are presumed to aspire to have multiple sex partners. Finally, in theirportrayal of gender and heteronormative gender roles, Swedish outhouse books establish men’sdiscrimination, objectification, and sexual abuse of women as not only normative gendered practices –but also as humorous.