Was the perception of gender categories in prehistoric society different to present-day mainstream social norms?
By Dr. Jan Turek
Archaeologist, Czech Institute of Egyptology
Charles University (Prague)
Introduction
A reconsideration of some previous archaeological interpretations of gender may offer much more variability and freedom to our current understanding of gender identity. The perception of gender in archaeological interpretations commonly reflects our current social reality. In the Western Christian worldview, the traditional gender categories of men and women were based on biology and presume the primacy of reproduction in human societies. Alternative social roles were judged as deviations by the biased majority. The extremely difficult position of homosexuals in 20th-century Western society was caused mainly by the lack of an appropriate and commonly recognised gender category that could accommodate them. Not surprisingly, the concept of transsexualism developed in cultures that only recognised and valued two gender categories, based on biological sex. Tribes in North America and Siberia had gender categories ready for such cases. We should change our approach to the interpretation of past societies, because our current gender categories do not always correspond to those of a former reality.
Gender Concepts and Paradigms in Archaeological Theory
The perception of gender in former societies is very closely tied with present-day socio-political circumstances (Bolger 2013; Crass 2001; Hofmann 2009). The current cultural and social norms shape not only the way we organise our present-day gender relations and identities, but also how we perceive the gender reality of ancient civilisations. However, because changes in archaeologists’ understanding of gender identities in the past parallel changes within their own society, the social development of Western society naturally raises questions about gender identities in the past. With the growing respect towards human rights – including those of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community – and the overall liberalisation of the perception of gender identities, archaeologists are discussing questions that they never asked before, such as: Was the perception of gender categories in prehistoric society different to present-day mainstream social norms?
Gender is expressing the wide range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity, and differentiating between them. The psychologist and sexolo-gist John Money introduced the terminological distinction between biological sex and gender as a role in 1955 (Money 1955). Money’s meaning of the word gender, however, did not become widespread until the 1970s, when mainly feminist theory comprised the concept of a distinction between biological sex and the social construct of gender. Since then, the distinction has been systematically followed in certain contexts of the social sciences. In the past three decades, gender issues have become an integral part of social archaeology.
The paradigm of processual archaeology perceived gender in an objective and conceptual context. The individuality of past peoples was not the main focus of the processual archaeology. Rather, the interpretation of culture and social norms was mainly focused on social tradition, and change in social tradition was mainly seen as a process of adaptation to the changing natural environment. Post-processual archaeology claims that, for the most part, since theories of cultural change cannot be independently verified experimentally, what is considered ‘true’ is simply what seems the most reasonable to archaeologists as a whole. Since archaeologists are not perfectly objective, the conclusions they reach will always be influenced by personal biases (Trigger 1989, 379). Post-processual archaeologists state that personal biases inevitably affect the very questions archaeologists ask – and direct them to the conclusions they are predisposed to believe. What is an important post-processual contribution towards the gender debate, is the emphasis on the role of individuals and personhood in the changing of social norms?
In this article, I am going to present different perceptions of gender in the seemingly geographically distant contexts of the Middle East, in the form of ancient Egyptian and modern case studies, and central Europe, in the form of the Copper Age communities of the third millennium BCE. In both cases, we can see the employment of material culture in gender symbolism as an attribute of gender identities, and in both cases we may observe that the obvious structures that are seemingly clearly defined in fact represent a much more complex social reality.
The Social Position of Women in the Middle East – Past and Present
Women in ancient Egypt had a status that significantly contrasts with the status of most women in the region today (Pehal 2011). In many aspects of art, religion, and propaganda, the social dominance of men over women was explicitly demonstrated. When a woman was depicted in a funerary context, it was mostly in a position subordinate to that of the male. However, it seems that this emphasis on the male worldview does not necessarily represent the social position of women in everyday life in ancient Egypt. There were female pharaohs, but they were represented using the male imagery that is traditionally connected with the office. One of the earliest examples, whose status has long been debated, is Khentkaus I (Pehal 2011). She was the daughter of King Menkaure and the wife of King Shepseskaf (last king of the 4th Dynasty, who ruled 2510-2502 BCE), and she bore two future kings of the 5th Dynasty (Veserkaf and Sahure) – and there is new evidence supporting the possibility that she herself also ruled Egypt. One of her successors of the same name played a similar role: Queen Khentkaus II (Bárta et al. 2018, 50-52), with a cobra as symbol of her rule over Lower Egypt (see Fig. 1). Because she was the wife of a king (King Neferirkare, 2446-2426 BCE), after his death, she, as mother of the future kings Raneferef and Niuserre, became their regent and ruled Egypt.
What was the social position of women in everyday relations of ancient Egypt? Here we can observe some examples. Already since the Old Kingdom, on the death of her husband, the woman inherited two thirds of their communal property. The other one third was divided among their children, followed by the brothers and sisters of the deceased (Pehal 2011). Daughters were obliged to look after their parents, while for sons it was a voluntary choice. However, it was a matter of prestige for a son to build his mother’s tomb, attached to the main family mastaba tomb. This was even more emphasised in the case of the royal family and the structure of their burial rites. Only once a prince had become king did he build a tomb for his mother, because her status increased as the mother of a king.
The principles of male-female relations are also reflected in ancient Egyptian mythology. Female deities used to play a role as companions helping the masculine gods (Pehal 2011). At the same time, we have to bear in mind that the female deities also include a fiercely destructive and devious aspect surpassing the power of male gods.
Women in ancient Egypt participated in social power in ways that is unknown in most historical and contemporary societies (Mark 2016). Although at least since the beginning of dynastic period men and women in ancient Egypt had distinct powers in society, there was no rigid barrier preventing those who wanted to deviate from this pattern. In some respects, Egyptian society recognised women as equal to men, but emphasising an essential complementarity, especially in terms of motherhood. This respect is expressed clearly in ancient Egyptian theology and morality. In the social norms of ancient Egypt, women occasionally had the opportunity to rule the country and have the same basic human rights as men. This was the case until the rise of Islamic monotheism, which dramatically changed the position of women in society (Tyldesley 1995).
In this context, I would like to share my personal experience from present-day Egypt. Part of the co-operation with and supervision by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities involves hosting trainees on our excavations. They are usually archaeology and heritage students or recent graduates. As the majority of them were women, I thought this might be a case of the common pattern in Egypt of boys studying engineering, law, or medicine and girls studying art and social sciences, as they are expected to be financially dependent on their husbands. However, daughters from middle-class Egyptian families study archaeology and related subjects not only because they want to be employed in the heritage or academic spheres, but as I gathered from discussions with my Egyptian colleagues this is mainly to boost their chances of marrying into a well-positioned family. As homemakers, they would be looking after their family and would not need to seek a job. I sincerely apologise to everyone in Egypt who is studying archaeology with the intention to develop their skills and conduct research, but currently the first scenario seems to me to be more common.
Still, there are exceptions in the Middle East, such as the exclusive position of married women in historical Persian society (19th and 20th Century), who can share some of the family wealth and start their own business, independent on their husband’s finances (Leila Papoli-Yazdi, personal communication 2016). In this context, it is interesting to note the extraordinary life story of Anousheh Ansari (Fig. 2; Ansari and Hickam 2010). She was born in 1966 in the Iranian city of Mashhad and immigrated to America. After settling down in Texas, Anousheh built a computer technology firm from the ground up, which eventually realised a net worth of $750 million and ultimately allowed her to achieve her childhood dream of spaceflight. In 2006, she become the fourth-ever commercial spaceflight participant, the first self-funded woman, and the first-ever Muslim woman to fly into space. After her return to Earth, Anousheh Ansari started The Ansari Foundation, a quickly growing non-profit organisation that supports social entrepreneurship, and that is especially committed to ensuring the freedom of women around the world and supporting female entrepreneurs (Ansari and Hickam 2010). I believe Ansari’s story, despite of the American business opportunity, shows how deep the tradition of Iranian women’s emancipation reaches. Especially after the Islamic revolution in 1979, the role of women was seemingly diminished. However, that is only a superficial expression of control over women’s rights; deep inside, Iranian women are strong and powerful.
The Gender Structure of Copper Age Burials
During the third millennium BCE, some regions of Europe shared elements of material culture and burial rites. Vast areas of central, northern, and Eastern Europe shared in the Corded Ware/Single Grave culture (2900-2500 cal BCE; for a definition, see Beckerman 2015). The Bell Beaker phenomenon (2500-2300/2200 cal BCE; for a definition and synthesis, see Turek 2006), which followed it, also extended into southern and Western Europe. Both of these archaeological cultures exhibit a degree of uniformity in their material culture, as demonstrated by a specific range of symbolic prestige goods found mainly in funerary contexts. The principles of the Corded Ware and Bell Beaker burial rites arise from the same symbolic system, probably reflecting a similar social and economic background for these Late Eneolithic communities.
Corded Ware cemeteries in central Europe include primarily single flexed inhumations (Buchvaldek 1967). In the Corded Ware period, female burials were usually placed on the left side, with the head oriented to the east. For male burials, the typical orientation was to the west, with the body placed on the right side. As a result of this practice, the burials of both sexes face south. This orientation may have been symbolically related to the location of some cemeteries in the landscape. A common location of Corded Ware cemeteries is on the edge of terraces or slopes, most of which face south-east. Bell Beaker cemeteries occurred in similar locations, but with a preference for north-east slopes (Turek 1996). Although the locations of these cemeteries may reflect some ritual commitment to the direction of the sunrise, the sheltered location of nearby habitation sites may also have been important. Possible evidence for a solar cult may be inferred from the shell disc amulets with motifs of double crosses or concentric circles (known from several Corded Ware cemeteries in Bohemia, cf. Buchvaldek 1967), presumed symbols of the solar wheel. The same motif also appears on some of the bone/antler/amber V-perforated buttons of the subsequent Bell Beaker period (known from several Bell Beaker cemeteries in Bohemia, cf. Turek 2006). The Bell Beaker females were buried on their right side, head oriented to the south, and males on their left side, head oriented to the north (Havel 1978; Turek 2006). Therefore, people buried in the Beaker period were facing east.
The position of the arms appears to have been highly symbolic within the Corded Ware burial rite (Turek 1990), even though this placement was not specific to gender and age groups or the amount of grave goods. The positioning of the arms was also important in the Bell Beaker period, even though the number of varieties decreased (Havel 1978). As such, the positioning of the arms may well relate to an alternative social category/identity, but we have been unable, given our limited knowledge, to establish the meaning behind this placement of the upper limbs.
Male and female burials appear to be accompanied by different ‘gendered’ artefacts (Buchvaldek 1967; Turek 1990). Female burials include necklaces made of perforated animal teeth (such as wolf, dog, wild cat, and fox teeth in Corded Ware burials), as well as imitation teeth made from bone. Necklaces were also made from small, perforated, circular discs of freshwater shell. Another artefact appearing in female graves is the aforementioned shell ‘solar’ disc symbol. The pottery assemblage commonly found in female burials consists of ovoid pots and this is also the case of female burials in the subsequent Bell Beaker period. Male burial assemblages include weapons symbolic of social power, such as battle axes, maceheads, or axes. In later Bell Beaker burials, these weapons were replaced by copper daggers and archery equipment. The Corded Ware funerary pottery attributed to males consists of beakers that have been decorated with a cord impression or the so-called herring bone motif. In both periods, the funerary ceramics were different from those found in domestic settlement contexts.
Beakers are not exclusively male artefacts, even though the majority of them were found in the graves of Corded Ware men. In Bohemia and Moravia, beakers make up 19 per cent of the pottery assemblages found within Corded Ware male graves and only 5 percent of those in female graves (Turek 1987, 38). A similar observation was made by J. Havel (1978, Fig. 5) in the case of the Bell Beaker cemeteries in Bohemia and Moravia, where 20 percent of decorated beakers were associated with men and 11 per cent with women. It is important to note that ‘gendered’ artefacts need not reflect the social status of the dead alone, because, in some cases, they may serve as symbolic representations of the relations between the deceased and other members of the community. That is, some artefacts may represent the mourners and their relationship with the dead. A beaker or copper dagger in a Bell Beaker female grave, for example, may be a symbolic gift from a father or husband, rather than an artefact used by the deceased in day-to-day practice. Brodie (1997, 300-301) observed:
ʻUpon the occasion of burial it might have been the domestic duty of female relatives to provide the deceased with a serving of food and drink, together sometimes with their ceramic container [whereas] male relatives would be expected to provide weapons, ornaments or tools’.
Corded Ware and Bell Beaker funerary practices seem to be a symbolic reflection of the division of labour within the family and a reflection of the different social status of men, women, and children. The individuality expressed within the context of a single burial is indicative of an individual’s association with a particular social category, rather than a celebration of someone’s special skills or the status achieved during their lifetime. The composition of the Corded Ware funeral assemblages seems to be quite uniform, as is the average number of items included in the grave. Thus, in Bohemia and Moravia, the average number of artefacts in the graves of adult males is 3.7, whereas in the graves of adult females, it is 3.4 and in children’s graves, 2.7 (Turek 1990).
The symbolic expression of male and female status in burial rites probably reflects different the social roles for each sex within society. The evidence for the Corded Ware burial rite may also be considered to be a reflection of social diversification among members of a society, including children.
Gender Differentiation among Child Burials
Despite the perceived invisibility of children in the archaeological record (cf. Sofaer-Derevenski 1996) analysis of Corded Ware and Bell Beaker burial rites in Bohemia and Moravia (Havel 1978; Neustupný 1973; Turek 1987; 1990) has provided evidence that may help to evaluate the position of children within Late Eneolithic society (Turek 2000). It seems very likely that the main feature of the Corded Ware and Bell Beaker burial rites, which is the symbolic differentiation of male and female, even applied to child burials. The sexual dimorphism of sub-adult skeletal remains is not sufficiently developed to enable us to determine their sex. However, the position of the body in the grave, the head orientation, and the ‘gendered’ grave goods seem to reflect the same system of sexual distinction observed among adult burials. Taking into account the high mortality rate expected in the age category infans I (0-6 months; cf. Neustupný 1983), which is well documented for pre-industrial societies, there is a relative lack of archaeological evidence for burials of these children. Within the Bohemian Corded Ware cemeteries, only four burials of this age category have been recorded (Vikletice, Okr. Chomutov, Czech Republic; Buch-valdek 1967). One was a new-born child probably buried together with its mother (Blšany, Okr. Louny, Czech Republic; Hnízdová and Šimůnek 1955, 579, Fig. 256). The majority of the youngest children were thus probably disposed of in alterna-tive ways, as documented by various ethnographic studies, such as those conducted among the Dajaga and Nandi tribes in Kenya (Häusler 1966; Holý 1956). It may also be that children under a certain age were not fully accepted as members of a community and therefore did not have the right to a proper funeral. The situation changes in the age category infans II (six months to five years), where, from the age of two years, there is an increase in the number of child burials. Before the age of two, children are particularly vulnerable to dehydration due to infection, as indicated by the mortality pattern in developing countries today. At this age, vital life changes happen as the child begins to communicate verbally, to walk unaided, and to eat solid food as a supplement to breast milk. In some primitive societies, it is also believed that children below a certain age (usually two years) have no soul (cf. Häusler 1966). This perception justifies, for example, infanticide or the use of similar non-ritual methods for the disposal of children’s remains. In some groups (e.g. the Dajaga people of Kenya; Holý 1966), children are named only after this critical period, when their chance of survival increases.
The pottery assemblages included in child burials during the Corded Ware period seem to reflect their age, as some of the pots are miniature versions of the real-size common vessels. Similar observations were made in the context of Bronze Age child burials in Ireland (so-called ‘pygmy cups’; Donnabháin and Brindley 1989). The examination of Bell Beaker cup volumes from north-western Bohemia provided evidence of a possible utilitarian division according to use (type of drink?) or user (Turek 1998, 108-109 Fig. 5). However, it is important to put these data into the context of the age and sex category of the persons buried with those cups, such as was done with the British and Irish beakers (Case 1995; Brodie 1998, Fig. 2). Unfortunately, the majority of the cups from north-western Bohemia lack contextual data due to the early date of their discovery. It appears that Corded Ware child burials in Bohemia and Moravia were more often accompanied by bowls (one in four child burials) than those of adults (one in thirteen burials). However, this may reflect the practical use of bowls for the consumption of food by individuals in the respective age categories.
Differential survival of one sex over another is caused by uneven parental investment given the socio-economic conditions of the parents or the entire community, as was documented, for example, among the Mukogodo, a pastoral tribe in Kenya with a lower socio-economic status relative to neighbouring groups (Cronk 1989). Because girls have a better chance of marrying out of the tribe, they have a greater reproductive potential for the Mukogodo community. Therefore, Mukogodo girls receive better medical care than boys.
In order to examine the possible preference of one sex (or gender?) over another in the context of Corded Ware and Bell Beaker burials, I have compared the number of children buried in male and female positions given the symbolism associated with burial orientation. The number of Corded Ware girls and boys buried in Bohemia and Moravia is almost equal, with 21 girls (42.9 percent) and 19 boys (38.8 percent), not counting the nine child burials in non-diagnostic positions (n = 49 burials in total). There is a similar record for Bell Beaker child burials in Bohemia, where 24 of the 27 children were buried in diagnostic positions, with 13 (54 percent) identified as male and 11 (46 percent) as female (Turek 1987; 1990). Similarly, there is an almost equal number of child burials in female and male positions in a Corded Ware cemetery in central Germany (Siemen 1992, 231). This record challenges any assumptions that sex-biased infanticide existed in the Late Eneolithic period in central Europe. A similar balance seems to exist in the number of grave goods found within male and female child burials in Bohemian and Moravian Corded Ware cemeteries (girls seems to be slightly richer). This raises the question: Is there any evidence of differential social status of certain children within Late Eneolithic burial rites?
Excavations have revealed that stone tools or weapons accompany some of the children’s burials, especially those with a male orientation. In the context of children’s graves, these artefacts clearly were of symbolic importance and may have well have been anticipating their social roles as adults. In Bohemian and Moravian Corded Ware burials, the bodies of very young boys (six months to six years old) are accompanied by hammer axes or maceheads (see Fig. 3; e.g. Líbeznice, Okr. Prague-East, Czech Republic; Turek 2011). In Moravia, for example, there is the burial of a five-year-old child from Dětkovice (Okr. Prostějov, Czech Republic) with a hammer-axe. In Bohemia, grave 130/63 from Vikletice, the burial of a six-year-old child, included a macehead, whereas grave 47/64, containing the skeleton of a child in the infans II category, was accompanied by a battle axe (Buchvaldek and Koutecký 1970, 52-53). A similar pattern has been identified the Corded Ware period in central Germany (Siemen 1989). The pattern for the Moravian Bell Beaker burials appears to be very similar. For example, the grave of a 9- to 10-year-old boy (?) accompanied by a copper dagger, gold and copper spirals. and amber beads was present at Lechovice (Okr. Znojmo, Czech Republic; Turek 1990), whereas the cremated remains of a child (burial 53/80-II) from Radovesice (Okr. Teplice, Czech Republic; Turek 2006) were found with flint arrowheads, a stone wristguard, a bow-shaped amulet, and V-perforated buttons.
Child burials accompanied by objects that may be interpreted as symbols of wealth and social status do not necessarily reflect prehistoric social relations simply because these children died so young. Because other male child burials do not include such symbolic artefacts, it can be assumed that this group of sub-adult male burials may represent socially favoured individuals of some sort. They may have been firstborn sons and thus potential heirs of social status and wealth within a family or a community. Similar observations were made by Susan Shennan (1975) at the cemetery of the Nitra culture at Branč (Okr. Nitra, Slovakia), where a small group of sub-adult women was buried with rich copper necklaces and other jewellery. On the other hand, the majority of girls’ burials on this site were accompanied by ordinary artefacts. On the basis of this evidence, Shennan inferred the existence of a system of ascribed hereditary wealth. In fact, this evidence may indicate the initial stages in the development of social differentiation that persisted in Bronze Age communities. Such social differentiation may have been a result of progressive changes in the system of agriculture and food production, namely, the introduction of ploughing implements and teams, and the secondary products revolution (Neustupný 1967; Sherratt 1981).
Ancient DNA and Gender Identities
The order of gender identities was perhaps even more complex. The DNA analysis of 53 child burials from the largest Bell Beaker cemetery in Moravia – Hoštice-I (Okr. Prostějov, Czech Republic) – produced some amazing data (Vaňharová 2011, 104-120; 195-196). Containing 155 graves, the cemetery is exceptionally large in the context of Moravia and Bohemia (Matějíčková et al. 2012) and can be compared only with even larger Bell Beaker-Csepel Group cemeteries at Budakalász (Kom. Pest, Hungary) and Szigetszentmiklós (Kom. Pest, Hungary), in the area of present-day Budapest (Turek 2006). DNA sexing was successful in 21 individuals. Out of 14 burials with male gender position and/or grave goods, 12 were biologically male and two were biological female (Vaňharová 2011, 116 Table 17). This may be evidence of two girls who were supposed to be brought up as boys. Such crossing in position vs. sex (by bone analysis) is already a known pattern in third millennium BCE burial customs (Turek 2006), but the DNA analysis results for the burials with female gender attributes are very surprising. Out of seven children buried in the female position, only one was actually biological female (a juvenile, aged 15-20) and six were in fact male (two of whom were also juvenile, aged 15-19/20 years). So, that means that four boys (aged 3-4, 7, 8-12, and 15 years) had been buried in the female position. It is important to note that there are gender clues not only in the positioning and orientation of bodies in those graves, but also in the presence of gendered artefacts, such as V-perforated bone buttons (at least one exemplar).
These results, though surprising, are perhaps in line with some earlier observations on the demographic unbalance caused by missing female burials in the Bohemian and central German Bell Beaker group (Turek 2002). This would mean that most of the young girls were not buried in the communal cemetery (at Hoštice I there is not a single DNA-sexed case of a sub-juvenile female) and that a considerable number of boys (one third of the total amount of successfully DNA-sexed individuals) were buried in the female fashion. The masculine attributes seem to be downplayed in the burial customs. It is currently hard to establish whether these individuals were supposed to be brought up as women or whether, instead, they had not yet acquired the right to act as men, unlike some other male sub-adult boys, perhaps members of families with ascribed hereditary warrior status. It almost seems that some young boys were socially considered to be girls, perhaps until they had undergone a ceremonial rite of passage or social initiation of some kind.
This observation should not be that surprising to us if we think of the position of very young boys in some traditional societies. Before rite of passage rituals (that were perhaps organized in certain boy’s age) boys were treated as no-gender child individuals or as girls. It is interesting to look at some early 20th-century family photos albums where boy toddlers are dressed in girls’ dresses, which was in fact unisex clothing for children of that age (such as the future British King Edward VIII as a toddler [Fig. 4], after Turek 2016). Only later on did boys start to wear male-gendered clothes and were treated accordingly by their family.
The Beaker ‘Amazons’
I would like to emphasise the small collection of Bell Beaker female burials accompanied by artefacts normally connected with men, namely, three female burials equipped with an archer’s stone wristguards, artefacts usually present in men’s graves. One such female ‘archer’ comes from the Moravian grave 12/34 at Šlapanice II (Okr. Brno-venkov, Czech Republic; see Dvořák and Hájek 1990, 10 pl. 16), which includes a rich burial assemblage of seven vessels, including two decorated bell beakers, four V-perforated buttons, and a copper awl. Another female archer was discovered in grave III at Prague-Vršovice, Bohemia, while the third case comes from an isolated burial chamber (no. 77/99; see Figs. 5 and 6) at Tišice (Okr. Mělník, Czech Republic; Turek 2002). The latter burial was accompanied by two stone wristguards, an amber bead, a copper awl and dagger, and six vessels, including four decorated bell beakers. Significantly, most of the daggers found in female graves are miniature versions (37-94 mm) of those associated with male burials. These miniature daggers may have been used in other ways than the full-size artefacts or their function may have been purely symbolic. I believe that these exceptional cases of ‘rich’ female burials belong to a socially preferred elite group within these populations.
The mixed-gender assemblages seem to be characteristic of the ‘rich’ female burials with decorated beakers and burial chambers surrounded by a circular ditch. I presume that the relationship between decorated beakers, the internal construction of the grave, and the package of prestigious goods is more likely to be a reflection of a social distinction than a chronological difference. In addition, the blending of male- and female-gendered assemblages in the ‘rich’ graves seems to reflect this social differentiation. We should bear in mind that not every item in the burial assemblage must indicate the social status of the deceased. Instead, such ‘gendered’ artefacts could be a symbolic demonstration of the relations between the deceased and other members of the community. In this context, it is important to note that the wristguards in grave 77/99 at Tišice were detached from the body, one being located near the western wall of the burial chamber and the other being laid on the left forearm with the inside facing up (post-depositional movement?). Such placement could reflect the actions of other community members during the funerary ritual in order to emphasise the social status of the deceased and to reinforce community identity. Under these circumstances, the male-gendered artefacts may have been ‘delegated’ to women (or, rarely, the other way around) to reinforce social norms, social relations, and rules of differentiation. As such, the female burials with archery equipment represent members of a social elite, possibly female warriors or the ‘Bell Beaker Amazons’.
Beaker ‘Berdache’?
In some cases, such as grave 60/1964 at Vikletice, which contains the body of a man aged 55-60 years, there are elderly men buried with body orientation and grave goods typical of female burials, suggesting that some elderly men switched their gender to female. Roland Wiermann (1998) compared this evidence to the norms of some Siberian and North American tribes. Based on the presence of such a gender category among the Chukchee, Koryak, and Yakut in Siberia and the Mohave and Navaho in North America, Wiermann assigns the term berdache (two-spirits) to such women-men. Some aged men may have decided to ‘retire’ as women for symbolic and practical reasons. Such old men would symbolically give up their masculine attributes and social power while at the same time abandoning the practical need to compete with other male members of their community. In this way, his new gender status set them free of certain social obligations and competition. One finds evidence of similar role changes in the spatial clustering of graves by age and gender within some Copper Age funerary areas (cf. also Matić 2012; Sprenger 1995).
Gender Identities
Reconsidering Gender Perspectives on Past Societies
Most of the archaeological discussions on gender traditionally deal with the concept based on biological sex. This is, however, in many respects a misleading approach. Among some native communities in Siberia and North America, there are more than just two gender categories, with most groups recognising three or four genders, such as man, woman-man, woman, man-woman (Lang 1996, 183-196). The Chukchi in Siberia recognise as many as seven gender categories apart from man and woman (Lang 1996). Such categories are not evidence of institutionalised homosexuality – that is, the gender ‘switch’ is usually not a result of sexual orientation but, rather, of occupational preferences and personality traits. Among the Ojibwa in north-eastern America, for example, one daughter may be raised as boy, a practice also common among the Kaska in Alaska and the Inuit in Canada (Lang 1996). Such practices usually occur in regions where subsistence activities focussed on hunting, a typical male activity in the normal division of labour. Among the Mohave, a woman-man is called Alyha (see Fig. 7) and a man-woman is referred to as hwame (see Fig. 8).
The men who changed their identity usually dressed as women and changed their hairstyle and tattooing pattern (Lang 1996). They also act as women, adopting their manners and gestures, even adjusting their voices accordingly. Further, they take on women’s jobs, such as spinning and weaving blankets and raising children in extended families. Some even pretend to have menstrual cycles together with other women. Men-women, on the other hand, deny female physiological functions. They never menstruate, they hide their breasts, and they may marry a woman or remain single. They also use weapons and take up men’s tasks, including fighting. In certain cultures, people can even mix the culturally defined roles.
Understanding Gender Concepts of Prehistoric Societies
The perception of gender in archaeological interpretations commonly reflects our current social reality. In our Western Christian worldview, the traditional gender categories of men and women are based on biology and presume the primacy of reproduction in human societies. Alternative social roles were judged as deviations by the biased majority. The extremely difficult position of homosexuals in 20th-century Western society was caused mainly by the lack of an appropriate and commonly recognised gender category. Not surprisingly, the concept of transsexualism developed in cultures that only recognised and valued two gender categories based on biological sex. The tribes in North America and Siberia had gender categories ready for such cases. In Western Christian society, religious norms instigated a social neglect of homosexuals mainly due to the absence of appropriate gender categories. As archaeologists, we should change our approach to the interpretation of past societies, because our gender categories do not always correspond to those of a former reality.
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Chapter 2.2 (205-220) from Gender Transformations in Prehistoric and Archaic Societies, edited by Julia Katharina Koch and Wiebke Kirleis (Sidestone Press, 01.07.2020), published by OAPEN under the terms of an Open Access license.
