Burials are places where archaeologists reasonably expect gendered ideologies and practices to play out in the archaeological record. Yet only modest progress has been made in teasing out gender from these mortuary contexts. In this volume, methods for doing so are presented, cases of successful gender theorizing from mortuary data presented, and comparisons made between European and Americanist traditions in this kind of work. Cases are broad in temporal and geographic scope—from Inuit burials in Alaska and Oneota mortuary rituals to Viking Scandinavia, Neolithic China and Iron Age Britain. Methods for identifying and analyzing gender are suggested for cultures at various levels of social complexity with or without documentary or ethnoarchaeological evidence to assist in the analysis. A volume of great interest for those attempting to develop an archaeology of gender.Visit Bettina Arnold's web page
Bettina Arnold teaches anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and Nancy L. Wicker is in the Art Department at Minnesota State University, Mankato.
Table of Contents
Part 1 Introduction Part 2 Gender Ideology and Mortuary Analysis Chapter 3 1. Killing the Female? Archaeological Narratives of Infanticide Chapter 4 2. Life, Death, and the Longhouse: A Gendered View of Oneota Social Organization Chapter 5 3. Gender Studies in Chinese Neolithic Archaeology Part 6 Gender and Power Chapter 7 4. Visible Women Made Invisible: Interpreting Varangian Women in Old Russia Chapter 8 5. The Position of Iron Age Scandinavian Women: Evidence from Graves and Rune Stones Part 9 Gender Roles and the Ambiguity of Signification Chapter 10 6. Gender and Mortuary Analysis: What Can Grave Goods Really Tell Us? Chapter 11 7. Sharing the Load: Gender and Task Division at the Windover Site Chapter 12 8. Grave Goods Do Not a Gender Make: A Case Study from Singen am Hohentwiel, Germany Part 13 Weapons, Women, Warriors Chapter 14 9. Decoding the Gender Bias: Inferences of Atlatls in Female Mortuary Contexts Chapter 15 10. Warfare and Gender in the Northern Plains: 'steological Evidence of Trauma Reconsidered
