Gender and the Archaeology of Death

Burials are places where archaeologist reasonably expect gendered ideologies and practices to play out in the archaeological record. Yet only modest progress has been made in teasing out gender from these mortuary contexts. This volume presents methods for teasing out gender from the burial sites, cases of successful gender theorizing from mortuary data and comparisons made between European and American traditions in this kind of work. It covers a variety of cases, from Inuit burials in Alaska and Oneota mortuary rituals to Viking Scandinavia, Neolithic China and Iron Age Britain. Methods for identifying and analyzing gender are suggested for cultures at various levels of social complexity with or without documentary or ethnoarchaeological evidence to assist in analysis.