Cleanliness is Next to Godliness

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>For more than 30 years archaeologists have recorded and studied the colonial past of Parramatta the second-oldest European settlement in New South Wales. Archaeological investigations provide a wealth of information that contributes to the interpretation of the landscape the history of the town's development and our understanding of the people who lived there. </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Cleanliness is Next to Godliness</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> uses archaeological assemblages generated by these investigations as the basis for exploring what these mainly British settlers and their descendants held as societal beliefs principles and norms (termed Victorian values) which emerged concerning cleanliness and health-related issues.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Dr E. Jeanne Harris explores the ways in which the colonial population of New South Wales was heavily influenced by Victorian values which encouraged good health practices through a clean lifestyle. Eight residential sites were chosen for examination based on the following four criteria:</span></p><p></p><ul><li><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>sealed rubbish deposits</span></li><li><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>a long 19th-century date range</span></li><li><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>a cross-section of social classes</span></li><li><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>identified resident(s) associated with the location and deposits.</span></li></ul><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Synthesising these findings </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Cleanliness is Next to Godliness</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> analyses the evidence for social reforms that promoted both public health initiatives and personal health practices providing insight into the everyday lives of those who lived in Parramatta in the 19th century. </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Cleanliness is Next to Godliness</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> is the first scholarly work that presents the archaeology of Victorian social conventions as evidence of something more than respectability manifested as socio-economic status manners and etiquette.</span></p><p></p>