A Companion to Gender Prehistory

by Diane Bolger (Editor)

Overview

An authoritative guide on gender prehistory for researchers, instructors and students in anthropology, archaeology, and gender studies

• Provides the most up-to-date, comprehensive coverage of gender archaeology, with an exclusive focus on prehistory
• Offers critical overviews of developments  in the archaeology of gender over the last 30 years, as well as assessments of current trends and prospects for future research
• Focuses on recent Third Wave approaches to the study of gender in early human societies, challenging heterosexist biases, and  investigating the interfaces between gender and  status, age,  cognition, social memory, performativity, the body, and sexuality
• Features numerous regional and thematic topics authored by established specialists in the field,   with incisive coverage of gender research in prehistoric and protohistoric cultures of Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas and the Pacific

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780470655368
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	12/04/2012
Series:	Wiley Blackwell Companions to Anthropology , #10
Pages:	672
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.80(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Diane Bolger is a Research Fellow in Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. In addition to her research on gender, she specializes in the ceramics of early agricultural societies in the ancient Near East, particularly in Cyprus, where she has been involved in fieldwork since the early 1980s. Her major publications on gender include three books: Gender in Ancient Cyprus (2003), Engendering Aphrodite: Women and Society in Ancient Cyprus (2002), and Gender through Time in the Ancient Near East (2008).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations x

List of Tables xiii

Notes on Contributors xiv

Acknowledgments xxii

Introduction: Gender Prehistory - The Story So Far Diane Bolger 1

Part I Thematic Perspectives in Gender Prehistory 21

Section 1 Current Themes and Debates 21

1 Engendering Human Evolution Adrienne Zihlman 23

2 Gender, Complexity, and Power in Prehistory Scott R. Hutson Bryan K. Hanks K. Anne Pyburn 45

3 Archaeology of Embodied Subjectivities Teresa Dujnic Bulger Rosemary A. Joyce 68

4 Queer Prehistory: Bodies, Performativity, and Matter Benjamin Alberti 86

5 The Future of Gender in Prehistoric Archaeology Margaret W. Conkey 108

Section 2 Gender and Prehistoric Material Culture 121

6 Gender and Prehistoric Rock Art Kelley Hays-Gilpin 122

7 Gender and Lithic Studies in Prehistoric Archaeology Nyree Finlay 142

8 Gender, Labor, and Pottery Production in Prehistory Diane Bolger 161

9 Gender and Textile Production in Prehistory Cathy Lynne Costin 180

Section 3 Gendered Bodies and Identities in Prehistory 203

10 Personhood in Prehistory: A Feminist Archaeology in Ten Persons Yvonne Marshall 204

11 Bioarchaeological Approaches to the Gendered Body Joanna Sofaer 226

12 Figurines, Corporeality, and the Origins of the Gendered Body Douglass W. Bailey 244

13 Goddesses in Prehistory Lucy Goodison Christine Morris 265

Part II Regional Perspectives in Gender Prehistory 289

Section 4 Gender Prehistory in Africa and Asia 289

14 Gender in North African Prehistory Barbara E. Barich 291

15 Gender in the Prehistory of Sub-Saharan Africa Lyn Wadley 313

16 Gender and Archaeology in Coastal East Asia Sarah Milledge Nelson 333

17 Gender Archaeology in East Asia and Eurasia Katheryn M. Linduff Karen S. Rubinson 351

18 Gender in Southwest Asian Prehistory Diane Bolger Rita P. Wright 372

Section 5 Gender in European Prehistory 395

19 The History of Gender Archaeology in Northern Europe Marie Louise Stig Sørensen 396

20 Gender in Eastern European Prehistory John Chapman Nona Palincas 413

21 Gender and Feminism in the Prehistoric Archaeology of Southwest Europe Margarita Díaz-Andreu Sandra Montón-Subías 438

22 Gender in British Prehistory Benjamin Edwards Rachel Pope 458

23 Gender in Central Mediterranean Prehistory Ruth Whitehouse 480

24 Gender in Greek and Aegean Prehistory Louise Hitchcock Marianna Nikolaidou 502

Section 6 Gender Prehistory in the Americas and the South Pacific 526

25 Gender in the Prehistory of the Eastern United States Cheryl Classen 527

26 The Archaeology of Gender in Western North America Alice Beck Kehoe 544

27 The Archaeology of Gender in Mesoamerica: Moving Beyond Gender Complementarity Elizabeth M. Brumfiel 564

28 Gender in South American Prehistory Melissa A. Vogel Robyn E. Cutright 585

29 Gender and Archaeology in Australia, Papua New Guinea, and the South Pacific Cherrie De Leiuen 608

Index 628

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This enormous book contains it all: past studies, current theory, everyone on gender. I can’t wait to own a copy!”
- Joan Gero, American University

“The publication of A Companion to Gender Prehistory signals a new era in feminist and queer archaeology. With contributions from both established and emerging scholars throughout the world, this volume showcases the diversity and strengths of gender-focused archaeology in the study of the deep past. The authors stimulate our curiosity about the long history of gender and sexuality and chart new directions for emerging research.”
- Barbara L. Voss, Stanford University

Editorial Reviews

In short, as this volume shows us, there is no doubt that the gender perspective has been the strongest theoretical and methodological stimulus for the study of prehistory during the last decades. Adopting such a perspective provides a much more complex panorama of prehistoric societies than that which has been described to date. Such a panorama is, in turn, infinitely more stimulating.”  (European Journal of Archaeology, 1 March 2014)

“Part 2's strength is its global breadth, with most contributors offering a synthesized and regionally bounded historiography of gender studies. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.”  (Choice, 1 July 2013)

 

From the Publisher