Patina

New Orleans has a reputation as one of America’s few "antique cities.” The importance of patina, or the look of age, is evident in historic preservation efforts, pervasive antique collecting, and the celebration of cultural traditions from Mardi Gras to jazz to creole cuisine. While the patina aesthetic supports provincial sentimentality and heritage tourism, it also, in archaeologist Shannon Dawdy’s estimation, holds the keys to understanding the sociology of urban dwelling in New Orleans. In Patina: A Profane Archaeology, Dawdy traces how New Orleans became "antique” and shows how souvenirs, gardens, heirlooms, and ruins bind the city across divisions of race and class. In the process she shows how nostalgia for a bygone era helps the city’s residents imagine better futures amid the countless stresses of late neoliberal capitalism.