Gender and Archaeology (original) (raw)
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PROGRAMME TO PRACTICE: Gender and Feminism in Archaeology (with Margaret Conkey)
Annual Review of Anthropology, 1997
In the past decade, archaeologists have given considerable attention to research on gender in the human past. In this review, we attempt to acknowledge much of this diverse and abundant work from an explicitly feminist perspective. We focus on reviewing a selection of approaches to gender that are anchored to specific theoretical standpoints. In addition, we highlight several approaches that challenge an archaeology ofgender that does not explicitly engage with the implications of this topic fbr research, practice, and interpretation. From our perspective, we suggest the value of situating gender research within an explicitly feminist framework. and we draw attention to some of the impofiant insights for archaeology from the wider field of feminist critiques of science. Last, we draw attention to the crucial implications for the practice of archaeolosv.
PROGRAMME TO PRACTICE: Gender and Feminism in Archaeology
In the past decade, archaeologists have given considerable attention to research on gender in the human past. In this review, we attempt to acknowledge much of this diverse and abundant work from an explicitly feminist perspective. We focus on reviewing a selection of approaches to gender that are anchored to specific theoretical standpoints. In addition, we highlight several approaches that challenge an archaeology ofgender that does not explicitly engage with the implications of this topic fbr research, practice, and interpretation. From our perspective, we suggest the value of situating gender research within an explicitly feminist framework. and we draw attention to some of the impofiant insights for archaeology from the wider field of feminist critiques of science. Last, we draw attention to the crucial implications for the practice of archaeolosv.
Recent Trends in Gender Studies in Archaeological Method and Theory
As a discipline rooted in humanities, archaeology has a duty to recreate past culture and society as faithfully as possible. “Role, status, ethnicity, and indeed gender […] are social constructs,” (Renfrew & Bahn, p. 223) and as such, applying binary gender roles to cultures and societies, both past and present, is applying bias that can lead to misinterpretation of the archaeological record. An awareness of the limitations of androcentric bias within the sciences, and within Western society, has led to the formation of feminist and gender study approaches to the interpretation of the archaeological record. (Darvill, p. 169) The trend of introducing feminist archaeology and gender studies as increasingly important tools in our repertoire of methods and theories for understanding the past is intrinsically tied to our present social and political climate. (Renfrew & Bahn, p. 45) From its inception in women’s suffrage movements, feminist studies have entered the academic arena through humanistic disciplines and have paved the way for gender studies to re-evaluate the way we assign gender roles through archaeological data.
Who's come a long way, baby? Masculinist approaches to a gendered archaeology.
Archaeological Dialogues 5 (1998) 91-125., 1998
How 'progressive' have archaeologists been in the progress made on gender studies during the 1990s? All archaeologists, male and female, must accept the need to theorize gender, and to rethink accordingly their traditional research priorities. Feminist theory is essential for the study of gender in archaeology because it has paid closer attention to gender as an analytical category than any other body of theory, and at the same time made important links within and between disciplines. Most male archaeologists have been recalcitrant if not loathe to focus on gender as a key concept in archaeological theory, even though writers treating 'masculinity' in the social sciences and literary theory have been active in this field for over a decade. This study discusses masculinist reactions to feminism and suggests that 'masculinist' approaches are derivative of feminist scholarship. Perhaps the most important contribution of masculinist scholarship has been to insist upon the existence of divergent, multiple masculinities, and by extension femininities, as opposed to binary oppositions or ideal types. The study of men and masculinities, of women and femininities, involves consideration of social and gender issues that should not become the exclusive domain of either women or men -the goal is an archaeology informed by feminism, one that looks critically at theories of human action and allows archaeological data to challenge existing social theory. Keywords masculinist; feminist; gender; archaeological theory; postmodernist ...many men feel that they are not in a position to engage in these issues and that only other women can do so. This exclusivity is not conducive to scholarly development; neither is failing to counter claims of a gendered superiority supported by 'scientific' archaeology that ultimately has filtered into mainstream society. An engendered rebalancing of the scales is long overdue and critically important to the trajectory of the 91 discipline. (Meskell 1995, 84) Downloaded: 16 May 2010 IP address: 130.209.6.42
FEMINIST ARCHAEOLOGY – A NECESSARY ARCHAEOLOGY
This paper is a summary analysis of the current situation in archaeology at the level of gender from its theoretical bases. It deals with the media and personal scope of patriarchy and male chauvinism in archaeology, within the academic field, both within institutions and in field work, as well as the public sample of archaeological studies. It exposes the hair-splitting differences between gender archaeology and feminist archaeology. And it shows some combative cases of feminist archaeology, from the visibility of women in the past and in archaeology, acting in the space of public and social archaeology.
Gender Archaeology: A Synthesis
Gender archaeology is the study of past societies through their material culture by closely examining the social construction of gender identities and relations. In their article, "Archaeology and the Study of Gender" Margaret Conkey and Janet Spector state that, "feminist scholars conceptualize gender as a complex system of meaning-that is, as a social category that lies at the core of how people, in particular, cultures identify who they are"(Conkey and Spector 1986:16). Certain scholars believe that gender is an important aspect of life for most people and, therefore, should be incorporated into the archaeological analysis. Conversely, gender archaeology is more of a focus of analysis than an actual theory, however, it incorporates ideas from gender and sexuality studies and other social sciences. Gender archaeology is significant because it emphasizes an