Manifesting power : gender and the interpretation of power in archaeology / edited by Tracy L. Sweely.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Sweely, Tracy L., 1966-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social archaeology.

Ethnoarchaeology.

Power (Social sciences).

Sex role.

Sexual division of labor.

Indian women--Social conditions.

Indian women.

Women, Prehistoric--Social conditions.

Women, Prehistoric.

Social conditions.

Physical Description:

xii, 210 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 1999.

Summary:

"Manifesting Power" confronts the relationship between gender and power within prehistoric and historic societies. It addresses the extent to which our reconceptions 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 includes nine innovative 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 in general. They argue that the evidence often does not point to the existence of hierarchical gender relationships, and explore the forms of power available to women among the Maya and Aztec, and in prehistoric Denmark, Alaska, and the southeastern United States.

Contents:

Part I Exploring power through gender 15

1 A resort to subtler contrivances / Alice B. Kehoe 17

2 Egalitarianism, equality, and equitable power / Susan Kent 30

3 Women leaders in native North American societies: invisible women of power / Ruth Trocolli 49

4 Gender, power, and heterarchy in middle-level societies / Janet E. Levy 62

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 / Carolyn E. Tate 81

6 The metamorphosis of Xochiquetzal: a window on womanhood in pre- and post-conquest Mexico / Geoffrey G. McCafferty, Sharisse D. McCafferty 103

Part III Manifesting power through material culture 127

7 Artels and identities: gender, power, and Russian America / Katharine Woodhouse-Beyer 129

8 Gender, space, people, and power at Ceren, El Salvador / Tracy L. Sweely 155

9 Gendering power / Suzanne M. Spencer-Wood 175

10 Rethinking gender and power / Sarah Milledge Nelson 184

11 Repudiating witchcraft / K. Anne Pyburn 190.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0415171792

0415197449

OCLC:

39706906