Manifesting Power: Gender and the Interpretation of Power in Archaeology

225 Pages·1999·2.04 MB·English

by  Tracy L. Sweely

Manifesting Power
Manifesting Power confronts the relationship between gender and power within
prehistoric and historic societies. It addresses the extent to which our
preconceptions of the nature of power, and of relations between the sexes, are
rooted in our own experience of Western society, and argues that both conditions
and perceptions may have been quite different among peoples of the past.
This collection comprises eleven innovative, diverse chapters which draw on
data from a range of periods and areas. By looking at the evidence for gender
distinctions both from archaeological sites and from ethnographic observation,
the contributors explore what these distinctions can reveal about power
relationships more generally. They reveal that the evidence frequently does not
point to the existence of hierarchical gender relationships, and explore forms of
power which seem to have been exercised by prehistoric women among the Maya
and Aztec, and those of the Southeastern United States, Denmark and Alaska.
Manifesting Power will be of great interest to students of archaeology,
anthropology, power, and gender studies.
Tracy L.Sweely has conducted research in archaeology and anthropology at the
University of Colorado at Boulder. She continues to study social phenomena
and currently works in cultural resources management.

Manifesting Power

Gender and the interpretation of power in
archaeology
Edited by Tracy L.Sweely
London and New York
First published 1999
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
© 1999 Selection and editorial matter, Tracy L.Sweely; individual chapters,
the contributors
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Manifesting power: gender and the interpretation of power in
archaeology/edited by Tracy Sweely.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-415-17179-2.—ISBN 0-415-19744-9 (pbk.)
1. Social archaeology. 2. Ethnoarchaeology. 3. Power (Social
sciences) 4. Sex role. 5. Sexual division of labor. 6. Indian
women—Social conditions. 7. Women, Prehistoric—Social conditions.
I. Sweely, Tracy, 1966– .
CC72.4.M36 1999
305.42′097–dc21 98–39602
CIP
ISBN 0-203-16521-7 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-25961-0 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-17179-2 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-19744-9 (pbk)
To all the powerful women, wholly in the struggle to
be powerfully, not the least of whom is my mom

Contents
List of figures ix
List of contributors xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction 1
TRACY L.SWEELY
PART I
Exploring power through gender 15
1 A resort to subtler contrivances 17
ALICE B.KEHOE
2 Egalitarianism, equality, and equitable power 30
SUSAN KENT
3 Women leaders in native North American societies: invisible
women of power 49
RUTH TROCOLLI
4 Gender, power, and heterarchy in middle-level societies 62
JANET E.LEVY
PART II
Ideology and the negotiation of power 79
5 Writing on the face of the moon: women’s products, archetypes,
and power in ancient Maya civilization 81
CAROLYN E.TATE
vii
viii Contents
6 The metamorphosis of Xochiquetzal: a window on womanhood
in pre-and post-conquest Mexico 103
GEOFFREY G.McCAFFERTY AND SHARISSE D.McCAFFERTY
PART III
Manifesting power through material culture 127
7 Artels and identities: gender, power, and Russian America 129
KATHARINE WOODHOUSE-BEYER
8 Gender, space, people, and power at Cerén, El Salvador 155
TRACY L.SWEELY
PART IV
Discussions 173
9 Gendering power 175
SUZANNE M.SPENCER-WOOD
10 Rethinking gender and power 184
SARAH MILLEDGE NELSON
11 Repudiating witchcraft 190
K.ANNE PYBURN
Index 198
Figures
4.1 Bronze razor from Denmark 67
4.2 Shell gorget from the Hixon site, Tennessee 71
5.1 A Maya couple honor the moon over Lake Atitlán with offerings 82
5.2 Vase in Codex style: palace scene with beheading 86
5.3 An old woman and her assistants conduct a ritual for a
deer-eared man 88
5.4 Yaxchilan, Lintel 25 90
5.5 Yaxchilan, Lintel 24 91
5.6 The Oval Palace Tablet, Palenque 96
5.7 A queen impersonates the Maize Deity as she conducts a
sacrificial ritual 97
5.8 Naranjo Stela 24 98
6.1 Xochiquetzal with quetzal headdress and twin feathered plumes 104
6.2 Xochiquetzal with twin feathered plumes and elaborately
embroidered huipil 107
6.3 Aztec noblewomen conversing 108
6.4 Xochiquetzal with twin plumes and elaborate facial decoration 108
6.5 Xochiquetzal as goddess of love and as patroness of harlots 109
6.6 Xochiquetzal seated in front of flowering Tree of Life in
Tamoanchan 110
6.7 Mature woman weaving on backstrap loom 111
6.8 Gifts presented at bathing ceremony as symbols of female identity 112
6.9 Woman teaching daughter to weave 113
6.10 Woman selling capes in the marketplace 113
6.11 Aztec maidens from the temple school 114
6.12 Aztec ahuianime 115
6.13 Temple matron arranging match between man and ahuianime 116
6.14 Goddess Cihuacoatl holding weaving batten 119
6.15 Cihuateteo (deified woman) 120
7.1 Afognak River and site location 137
7.2 Afognak artel (1996) 138
7.3 Afognak artel, Structure 2, “Supervisor’s House” 139
ix