Creating whiteness in California: Racialization processes, land, and policy in the context of California's Chinese Exclusion movements, 1850 to 1910

The Chinese Exclusion laws of the later nineteenth and early twentieth century were the nation's earliest border-controlling legislation. First passed in 1882 to stop immigration of people of Chinese descent, Chinese Exclusion legislation was periodically renewed in subsequent decades, and only finally eliminated from immigration policy in 1969. Public discourse around the passage and enforcement of Chinese Exclusion legislation linked ideas of naturalized racial hierarchies to legal and economic consequences, and provided both impetus and reinforcement for numerous attempts of individual and institutionalized racial discrimination. The Chinese Exclusion movements worked to create a "white" identity, defined through its linkage to entitlements, in opposition to ascribed characteristics of "the Chinese race." Long-accepted historic accounts of this process attribute the rise and progress of the Chinese Exclusion movements to white laborers, especially unemployed Irish immigrants. Examining these accounts in comparison with primary source evidence shows instead that established white politicians and businessmen played major leadership roles in creating and perpetuating anti-Chinese sentiment among whites as part of a strategy for gaining and maintaining disproportionate access to natural resources and political power.;Recent developments in anthropological theory show how archaeological evidence can speak to the complex social phenomenon of identity formation through a focus on the creation, modification, and daily uses of the built environment. This dissertation analyzes archaeological data from historic California Chinatowns of Sacramento, San Jose, Los Angeles, Riverside, and Oakland, to show how social relations and constructions of identity influenced and were influenced by the physical structure of cities and neighborhoods.;I discuss the anthropological concepts of acculturation studies and ethnic boundary maintenance, and how they have been applied in archaeological practices. I discuss instances in which archaeological investigations of historic sites associated with Chinese Americans have unconsciously perpetuated nineteenth-century racial stereotypes, or otherwise used methods that hinder effective analysis and interpretation. Developments in anthropological theory emphasize the utility of approaches that examine the actual creations of social identity through acts of daily practice created in a particular historical setting. Finally, the evaluation of extant data and theoretical insights points to directions for effective practices in Chinese American archaeology.