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Gender Contradictions, Moral Coalitions, and Inequality in Prehistoric Italy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

John Robb
John Robb*
Affiliation:
Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI 48109, USA
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Abstract

This article attempts, as an experiment, to reconstruct gender ideology and social inequality in prehistoric Italy through an analysis of symbols, particularly depictions of people (e.g. figures distinguished as male or female by representations of daggers or breasts), using theoretical notions of inequality and coalition. After a theoretical introduction the paper traces the evolution of an ideology of male potency from peripheral middle-Neolithic hunting cults (with a balanced male/female gender ideology and formal ritualism) through an Eneolithic and Bronze-Age system of gender stratification (with male prestige competition), and finally into the Iron-Age ideology of military aristocracy (with a gender ideology of male hierarchy that encompassed a female hierarchy, functioning to exclude unequal classes).

Cet article essaie en tant qu'expérimentation de reconstruire l'idéologie de genres et d'inégalité sociale dans l'Italie préhistorique à travers l'analyse de symboles, en particulier la représentation d'ètres humains (i.e. figures dont la distinction mâle ou femelle est faite selon la représentation poignard ou seins), en utilisant les notions théoriques d'inégalité et de coalition. Après une introduction théorique, l'article retrace l'éolution d'une idéologie de puissance mále, des cultes de chasse du Néolithique moyen périphérique (avec une idéologie équilibrée mâle/femelle et ritualisme formel) à un système de stratification de genres Enéolithique et de l'Age du Bronze (avec une compétition de prestige mâle), et finalement à l'idéologie de l'Age du Fer de l'aristocratie militaire (avec une idéologie de hiérarchie mâle qui comprend une hiérarchie femelle fonctionnant pour exclure les classes inégales).

In diesem Artikel wird versuchsweise angestrebt, Geschlechterideologie und soziale Ungleichheit im prähistorischen Italien mittels einer Symbolanalyse zu rekonstruieren. Hierzu werden vor allem Personendarstellungen herangezogen (z. B. Figuren, welche sich durch die Representation von Dolchen oder Brüsten als männlich oder weiblich unterscheiden lassen), welche theoretische Vorstellungen von Ungleichheit und Koalition nützen. Neben einer theoretischen Einführung umfaßt der Aufsatz die Evolution einer Ideologie männlicher Potenz in peripheren mittelneolithischen Jagdkulten (mit einer ausbalancierten Mann/Frau Geschlechterideologie sowie formalen Ritualen) über ein eneolithisches und bronzezeitliches System der Geschlechterstratifikation (mit männlichem Prestigewettbewerb) bis hin zu eisenzeitlichen Ideologie der Militäraristokratie (mit der Geschlechterideologie einer männlichen Hierarchie, welche jedoch eine weibliche Hierarchie mitbeinhaltet, um weitere Klassen auszuschließen).

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of European Archaeology , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , Spring 1994 , pp. 20 - 49
Copyright
Copyright © European Association of Archaeologists 

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