Sexuality: ancient North America

Abstract

Archaeologists have pursued several key avenues of inquiry in their study of sexuality in ancient North America, including sexual identities, sexual representations, sexuality and cosmology, and the human life course. Because ancient North American contexts lack written records, archaeologists often use ethnographic analogies to reconstruct past sexual and gendered identities and practices. Studies of sexual identity encompass themes of sexual orientation as well as of gender identification; the two‐spirit (berdache, or third and fourth gender) figures prominently in these discussions. Sexual representations, for example phallic and vulvar images, or depictions of the body and of sexual acts, are broadly represented in ancient North American pottery, rock art, and figurines. Cosmological beliefs have served as an interpretative basis for objects or depictions that may not be considered overtly sexual, but likely were tied to sexual beliefs and practices. Most of the life course is centered on puberty, fertility, childbirth, and nursing.