Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, Volume 7 PDF
Preview Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, Volume 7
Advisory Board MARGARET W. CONKEY COLIN RENFREW Department of Anthropology Department of Archaeology State University of New York Cambridge University Binghamton, New York Cambridge, England DON E. DUMOND STANLEY SOUTH Department of Anthropology Institute of Archeology and University of Oregon Anthropology Eugene, Oregon University of South Carolina Columbia, South Carolina ROBERT C. DUNNELL Department of Anthropology STUART STRUEVER University of Washington Department of Anthropology Seattle, Washington Northwestern University Evanston, Illinois GEORGE J. GUMERMAN Department of Anthropology DAVID HURST THOMAS Southern Illinois University Department of Anthropology Carbondale, Illinois American Museum of Natural History WILLIAM A. LONGACRE New York, New York Department of Anthropology University of Arizona ROBERT WHALLON, JR. Tucson, Arizona Museum of Anthropology University of Michigan FRED PLOG Ann Arbor, Michigan Department of Sociology and Anthropology J. PETER WHITE New Mexico State University Department of Anthropology Las Cruces, New Mexico University of Sydney Sydney, New South Wales WILLIAM R. RATH J Ε Australia Department of Anthropology University of Arizona Tucson, Arizona Advances in ARCHAEOLOGICAL METHOD AND THEORY Volume 7 Edited by MICHAEL B. SCHIFFER Department of Anthropology University of Arizona Tucson, Arizona 1984 ACADEMIC PRESS, INC. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers Orlando San Diego San Francisco New York London Toronto Montreal Sydney Tokyo Sao Paulo COPYRIGHT © 1984, BY ACADEMIC PRESS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE REPRODUCED OR TRANSMITTED IN ANY FORM OR BY ANY MEANS, ELECTRONIC OR MECHANICAL, INCLUDING PHOTOCOPY, RECORDING, OR ANY INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM, WITHOUT PERMISSION IN WRITING FROM THE PUBLISHER. ACADEMIC PRESS, INC. Orlando, Florida 32887 United Kingdom Edition published by ACADEMIC PRESS, INC. (LONDON) LTD. 24/28 Oval Road, London NW1 7DX ISSN: 0162-8003 ISBN: 0-12-003107-8 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 84 85 86 87 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contributors Numbers in parentheses indicate the pages on which the authors' contributions begin. Christopher Carr (103), Institute for Quantitative Archaeology, Department of Anthropology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701 Margaret W. Conkey (1), Department of Anthropology, State University of New York, Binghamton, New York 13901 James I. Ebert (293), Branch of Remote Sensing, National Park Service, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87125 Gary Feinman (39), Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 Francis P. McManamon (223), Division of Cultural Resources, North Atlantic Regional Office, National Park Service, Boston, Massachusetts 02109 Jill Neitzel (39), Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287 Janet Spector (1), Departments of Anthropology and Women's Studies, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455 Daniel Wolfman (363), Arkansas Archeological Survey, Arkansas Tech University, Russellville, Arkansas 72801 ix Contents of Previous Volumes Volume 1 Optimizing Strategies for Evaluating Archaeological Significance Michael J. Moratto and Roger E. Kelly The Concept of Carrying Capacity in the Study of Culture Process Michael A. Glassow Demographic Archaeology Fekri A. Hassan Mortuary Practices and the Study of Prehistoric Social Systems Joseph A. Fainter Social Interaction and Stylistic Similarity: A Reanalysis Stephen Ρ log Inference and Evidence in Archaeology: A Discussion of the Conceptual Problems Alan P. Sullivan Independent Dating in Archaeological Analysis Jeffrey S. Dean Advances in Archaeological Seriation William H. Marquardt A Survey of Disturbance Processes in Archaeological Site Formation W. Raymond Wood and Donald Lee Johnson Decision Making in Modern Surveys Stephen Ρ log, Fred Ρ log, and Walter Wait Subject Index Volume 2 Modern Material Culture Studies William L. Rathje The Cross-Cultural Method in Archaeology Charles W. McNett, Jr. xi xii CONTENTS OF PREVIOUS VOLUMES Breaking Down the System: Recent Ecological Approaches in Archaeology Michael A. Joe him The Method and Theory of Site Catchment Analysis: A Review Donna C. Roper Three Locational Models: An Epistemological Assessment for Anthropology and Archaeology Carole L. Crumley Archaeologically, What Constitutes an Early Domestic Animal? Stanley J. Olsen On the Quantification of Vertebrate Archaeofaunas Donald K. Grayson The Role of Archaeometry in American Archaeology: Approaches to the Evaluation of the Antiquity of Homo sapiens in California R. E. Taylor and Louis Α. Ρ ay en Paleoethnobotany in American Archaeology Richard I. Ford Subject Index Volume 3 Cult Archaeology and Unscientific Method and Theory John R. Cole Evolutionary Theory and Archaeology Robert C. Dunnell The Archaeological Study of Adaptation: Theoretical and Methodological Issues Patrick V. Kirch The Use of General Ecological Principles in Archaeology Donald L. Hardesty Explanatory/Predictive Models of Hunter-Gatherer Adaptation Robert L. Bettinger An Optimum Diet Model, Coastal Variability, and Hunter-Gatherer Behavior Stephen M. Perlman Toward a General Model of Agricultural Systems Stanton W. Green Vicissitudes and Overkill: The Development of Explanations of Pleistocene Extinctions Donald K. Grayson Obsidian Hydration Dating: A Coming of Age Joseph W. Michels and Ignatius S. T. Tsong Index Volume 4 Archaeoastronomy Anthony F. Aveni Explaining the Evolution of Cultural Complexity: A Review Robert J. Wenke xiii CONTENTS OF PREVIOUS VOLUMES Archaeology, Ethnohistory, and Ethnology: Interpretive Interfaces Thomas H. Charlton Seasonality Studies Gregory G. Monks Isotopic Discrimination and Correction Factors in Radiocarbon Dating David L. Browman The Expanding Role of Surface Assemblages in Archaeological Research Dennis E. Lewarch and Michael J. O'Brien Developments and Directions in Geoarchaeology Bruce G. Gladfelter Taphonomy and Paleoecology: A Critical Review of Archaeology's Sister Disciplines Diane P. Gifford Index Volume 5 Cultural Resources Management Don D. Fowler The Study of Impacts on Archaeological Sites Leslie E. Wildesen Advances in Urban Archaeology Edward Staski Avenues of Inquiry in Historical Archaeology Kathleen Deagan Archaeological Applications of Computer Graphics J. Bart ο Arnold III Quantifying Archaeological Research G. A. Clark Ceramic Compositional Analysis in Archaeological Perspective Ronald L. Bishop, Robert L. Rands, and George R. Holley Archaeofaunas and Subsistence Studies R. Lee Lyman Nutritional Inference from Paleopathology Rebecca Huss-Ashmore, Alan H. Goodman, and George J. Armelagos Index Volume 6 The Antiquity of Man and the Development of American Archaeology David J. Meltzer Investigating the Diffusion of Stylistic Innovations Dave D. Davis Breaking Down Cultural Complexity: Inequality and Heterogeneity Randall H. McGuire XIV CONTENTS OF PREVIOUS VOLUMES Subsistence and Complex Societies: The Case of the Maya Frederick M. Wiseman The Role of Palynology in Archaeology Vaughn M. Bryant, Jr., and Richard G. Holloway Plant Opal Phytolith Analysis: Major Advances in Archaeobotanical Research Irwin Rovner The Siteless Survey: A Regional Scale Data Collection Strategy Robert C. Dunnell and William S. Dancey Regional Sampling in Archaeological Survey: The Statistical Perspective Jack D. Nance Index 1 Archaeology and the Study of Gender MARGARET W. CONKEY JANET D. SPECTOR INTRODUCTION A serious challenge to the function of archaeology in contemporary society has been raised with the assertion that a largely unrecognized rationale for archaeol- ogy is the empirical substantiation of national mythology (Leone 1973:129). This use of archaeology reinforces values of which we are not always aware. As archaeologists, we 4c4an properly be accused of being acolytes ... to our cul- ture," unaware of what we have been doing, and whom we serve (Leone 1973:132). Although Leone has offered a fundamental insight with respect to the relationship of archaeology to a national mythology, we show how archaeology similarly provides substantiation for a particular gender mythology. That is, the following review of archaeology and the study of gender should make it clear how archaeology has substantiated a set of culture-specific beliefs about the meaning of masculine and feminine, about the capabilities of men and women, about their power relations, and about their appropriate roles in society. We argue that archaeology, like other traditional disciplines viewed through the lens of feminist criticism, has been neither objective nor inclusive on the subject of gender. Furthermore, because archaeologists lack an explicit frame- 1 ADVANCES IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL Copyright © 1984 by Academic Press, Inc. METHOD AND THEORY, VOL. 7 All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. ISBN 0-12-003107-8 2 MARGARET W. CONKEY AND JANET D. SPECTOR work for conceptualizing and researching gender and—more widely—social roles, we have drawn upon a framework that is implicit and rooted in our own contemporary experience. Thus, we must formulate not only an explicit theory of human social action (see Hodder 1982a, 1982b, 1982c) but also, as part of this, an explicit framework for the archaeological study of gender. This framework must begin with theories and terms that are gender inclusive, not gender specific. As Minnich cogently argues, it is more radical than it appears to develop gender inclusive theories and terms, given that our intellectual tradition is based on a fundamental conceptual error. Man and mankind are not general, but exclusive; they are partial, and so is the scholarship about man and mankind (Minnich 1982:7). The role of archaeology in substantiating contemporary gender ideology is complicated. There is virtually no systematic work on the archaeological study of gender. There are no publications in the field with titles like "Methods for Examining Gender through the Archaeological Record"; or "Gender Arrange- ments and Site Formation Processes"; or "Gender Arrangements and the Emergence of Food Production"; or, more generally, "Gender Structures and Culture Change." We know of no archaeological work in which an author explicitly claims that we can know about gender in the past as observed through the archaeological record who then proceeds to demonstrate that knowledge, or to describe how we can know. This does not mean that archaeologists have not said anything about gender structures or gender behavior in past human life. In spite of the absence of serious methodological or theoretical discourse on the subject, the archaeological literature is not silent on the subject of gender. Rather, it is permeated with assumptions, assertions, and statements of "fact" about gender. This is a serious problem. We have two major purposes in this review of archaeology and the study of gender. First, we critically evaluate and make explicit some of the messages archaeologists convey about gender in their work. These messages exemplify how archaeology functions to provide "empirical" substantiation or justification for contemporary gender ideology. We illustrate that archaeologists, consciously or not, are propagating culturally particular ideas about gender in their interpreta- tions and reconstructions of the past. This aspect of archaeological interpretation not only undermines the plausibility of our reconstructions of the past but also has serious political and educational implications. Second, we discuss some of the recent literature on gender by feminist schol- ars within and outside anthropology. Here we suggest a variety of questions and research problems about gender that might be approached by archaeologists, even by those employing currently accepted methods of analysis. We hope that the feminist critique of archaeology will contribute new ways of thinking about what we do and what we can know about social life in the past. Most important,
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