Gender, Households, and Society Unraveling the Threads of the Past and the Present

by Robin, Cynthia; Brumfiel, Elizabeth M.

• ISBN13: 9781444334036
• ISBN10: 1444334034
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-03-15
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This volume demonstrates how archaeological data viewed through the lens of gender studies can lead researchers to question and reformulate current models of household organization, subsistence and craft production, ritual performance, and the structure of ancient states. Our central argument is that existing models of many aspects of prehistoric societies often assume the existence of rigidly binary gender systems. After three decades of feminist anthropology, few archaeologists claim that sex/gender roles and identities are fixed by the constants of human biology. And yet, a residue of assumptions from earlier views of male and female roles continues to color archaeologists' understandings of their data.

Author Biography

Cynthia Robin is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Northwestern University.  She undertakes archaeological research at small Maya sites in Belize.  Her research focuses on the everyday lives of ordinary people to illustrate how ordinary people made a difference in their societies and were note the mere pawns of history.

Elizabeth M. Brumfiel is Professor of Anthropology at Northwestern University and a past president of the American Anthropological Association.  She undertakes archaeological research at the hinterland Aztec site of Xaltocan, Mexico.  Her research focuses on the dynamics of gender, class, and factional politics in ancient Mexico and changes that accompanied Aztec expansion.

Table of Contents

Gender, Households, and Society: An Introduction

Looking Beyond Gender Hierarchy: Rethinking Gender at Teotihuacan, Mexico

Hearths, Grinding Stones, and Households: Rethinking Domestic Economy in the Andes

Breaking Down Binaries: Gender, Art, and Tools in Ancient Costa Rica

Situating Power and Locating Knowledge: A Paleoethnobotanical Perspective on Late Classic Maya Gender and Social Relations

Changing Responsibilities and Collective Action: Examining Early North African Pastoralism

Rethinking Polity Formation: A Gendered Perspective on Formative Period Household Development in the Pacific Coast Region of Guatemala

She Sells Seashells: Women and Mollusks in Huatulco, Oaxaca, Mexico

Shaken, Not Stirred: The Revolution in Archaeology

List of Contributors

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