GENDER AND SOCIAL COMPLEXITY IN PREHISTORIC AND PROTOHISTORIC CYPRUS

• Published in: The Development of Pre-State Communities in the Ancient Near East Vol. 2; p. 156
• Main Author: Diane Bolger
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: United States Oxbow Books 30.04.2010; Oxbow Books, Limited
• Subjects: Alloys; Applied arts; Applied sciences; Archaeological paradigms; Archaeology; Architecture; Arts; Bronze age; Bronzes; Burial monuments; Burial structures; Copper alloys; Decorative arts; Funerary architecture; Gender construction; Gender identity; Gender roles; Gender studies; Iron alloys; Materials science; Metallurgy; Middle & Near Eastern archaeology; Pottery; Prehistoric archaeology; Social sciences; Steels; Three age system; Tombs
• ISBN: 184217407X; 9781842174074

All narratives of the past are gendered, whether consciously or not. Without explicitly considering gender, however, we are more likely to base our interpretations of past societies upon unmediated assumptions reflecting modern western beliefs and practices. Not only does this distort our understanding of men’s and women’s roles and relations in the remote past, but it legitimises their normative status in contemporary society. The present paper is dedicated to Eddie Peltenburg’s long-standing interest in the social, political and economic development of early societies in the ancient Near East, particularly in Cyprus, as well as his concern with interpreting archaeological evidence