Ancient bodies, ancient lives: sex, gender, and archaeology

Abstract

An accessible, though tightly argued book, which shows the importance of an open mind when dealing with the archaeology of sex and gender. All too often, Rosemary Joyce claims, reconstructions of sex and sexual identity have been shaped by perceptions that a heterosexual model with defined gender roles is the norm and that practice which differs from this is deviant. Instead she argues for much more diverse conceptions of gender and sex in ancient societies, with different stages in the life-cycle corresponding to different roles, and with much more blurring of any boundary between ideas of male and female within these roles. To demonstrate these points Joyce draws on a large range of archaeological sources, from skeletal analysis to artefacts and artistic representation, and from Palaeolithic Europe to Wharram Percy, via Iron Age Central Asia, and in particular her own specialism of Classic Maya society.