Manifesting Power: Gender and the Interpretation of Power in Archaeology

by Tracy L. Sweely (Editor)

Overview

Power relations among humans have likely been a topic of interest since long before any historical claims to its nature were proffered. This book recognizes that power and gender may be rooted in the experience of power in western society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781134738182
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	10/02/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

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.

Table of Contents

Introduction, Tracy L. Sweely; Part 1 Exploring power through gender; Chapter 1 A resort to subtler contrivances, Alice B. Kehoe; Chapter 2 Egalitarianism, equality, and equitable power, Susan Kent; Chapter 3 Women leaders in native North American societies, Ruth Trocolli; Chapter 4 Gender, power, and heterarchy in middle-level societies, Janet E. Levy; Part 2 Ideology and the negotiation of power; Chapter 5 Writing on the face of the moon, Carolyn E. Tate; Chapter 6 The metamorphosis of Xochiquetzal, Geoffrey G. McCafferty, Sharisse D. McCafferty; Part 3 Manifesting power through material culture; Chapter 7 Artelsand identities, Katharine Woodhouse-Beyer; Chapter 8 Gender, space, people, and power at Cerén, E1 Salvador, Tracy L. Sweely; Part 4 Discussions; Chapter 9 Gendering power, Suzanne M. Spencer-Wood; Chapter 10 Rethinking gender and power, Sarah Milledge Nelson; Chapter 11 Repudiating witchcraft, K. Anne Pyburn;

Editorial Reviews

Essays confront the relationship between gender and power within prehistoric and historic societies, addressing 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 arguing that both conditions and perceptions have been quite different among people of the past. Chapters draw on data from a range of periods and areas to look at evidence for gender distinctions both from archaeological sites and from ethnographic observation, revealing that evidence frequently does not point to the existence of hierarchical gender relationships. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)

Booknews

'In all chapters, the authors' unwillingness to simply accept the frameworks that have gone before, especially those based in Western stereotypes, biases and assumptions, is their greatest contribution ... That they do not agree ... makes this volume even more useful and interesting as well as innovative.' - Kelley Hayes-Gilpin Northern Arizona University

From the Publisher