| In this thesis I examine the issue of gender in archaeology: How can gender as a category of analysis be applied to the study of ancient Maya mortuary practice?;The first half of my thesis outlines the problems that earlier archaeological theory encountered because of its adherence to 'science', and because of its oversight with regards to questions of gender.;The second half of my thesis endeavours to rethink archaeological method by using gender as an archaeological category of analysis. I examine grave goods from two archaeological sites: Altun Ha and Lamanai, Belize, to explore whether or not gender is reflected in grave goods. I challenge a common positivist argument that draws a simple correlation between the amount of artifacts, types of artifacts and gender and status. This argument implies that the greater the number of grave goods, the higher the status. This can be true, but where precious textiles, for example, are buried with women, we would have no record, so that status as reflected in quantity of goods would be weighted towards recovery of imperishables. In addition, I examine whether the extensive burial evidence I have shows a simple correlation between objects always found with females. My work does not show such a strong correlation, suggesting that gender roles are not as clear cut as archaeologists assume. Positivist studies that correlate numbers to a social category like 'status' therefore are inaccurate and I contend that we need to go beyond this correlation and look at other ways of understanding gender relationships. I suggest that we employ a more interdisciplinary approach to our research method in our examination of gender representation. (Abstract shortened by UMI.). |
