Skeletal sex and gender in Merovingian mortuary archaeology
About: This article is published in Antiquity.The article was published on 2000-09-01. It has received 15 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Osteology.
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Book•
01 Jan 2003
TL;DR: Effros as discussed by the authors traces the history of Merovingian archaeology within its cultural and intellectual context and exposes biases and prejudices that have colored previous interpretations of these burial sites and assesses what contemporary archaeology can tell us about the Frankish kingdoms.
Abstract: Clothing, jewelry, animal remains, ceramics, coins, and weaponry are among the artifacts that have been discovered in graves in Gaul dating from the fifth to eighth century. Those who have unearthed them, from the middle ages to the present, have speculated widely on their meaning. This authoritative book makes a major contribution to the study of death and burial in late antique and early medieval society with its long overdue systematic discussion of this mortuary evidence. Tracing the history of Merovingian archaeology within its cultural and intellectual context for the first time, Effros exposes biases and prejudices that have colored previous interpretations of these burial sites and assesses what contemporary archaeology can tell us about the Frankish kingdoms. Working at the intersection of history and archaeology, and drawing from anthropology and art history, Effros emphasizes in particular the effects of historical events and intellectual movements on French and German antiquarian and archaeological studies of these grave goods. Her discussion traces the evolution of concepts of nationhood, race, and culture and shows how these concepts helped shape an understanding of the past. Effros then turns to contemporary multidisciplinary methodologies and finds that we are still limited by the types of information that can be readily gleaned from physical and written sources of Merovingian graves. For example, since material evidence found in the graves of elite families and particularly elite men is more plentiful and noteworthy, mortuary goods do not speak as directly to the conditions in which women and the poor lived. The clarity and sophistication with which Effros discusses the methods and results of European archaeology is a compelling demonstration of the impact of nationalist ideologies on a single discipline and of the struggle toward the more pluralistic vision that has developed in the post-war years.
94 citations
TL;DR: There has always been sex in bioarchaeology as mentioned in this paper, and biological sex, as a fundamental category of skeletal analysis, is dualistic, innate, and unchanging, which is a common belief among researchers.
Abstract: There has always been sex in bioarchaeology. Researchers believe that biological sex, as a fundamental category of skeletal analysis, is dualistic, innate, and unchanging. To highlight the shortcom...
68 citations
TL;DR: The problem of the "Fall of the Roman Empire" continues to excite debate among historians and archaeologists, fifteen centuries after Odoacer deposed the usurper Romulus in 476 as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: [FIRST PARAGRAPH]
The problem of the “Fall of the Roman Empire” continues to excite debate
among historians and archaeologists, fifteen centuries after Odoacer deposed
the usurper Romulus in 476. Similarly, there is an ever-growing corpus of
work on women’s history and, to some extent more recently, gender in late
antiquity and the early Middle Ages. The challenge of bringing these two
burgeoning areas of research together has, however, on the whole been
avoided.
58 citations
27 Apr 2011
43 citations
TL;DR: The authors see Iron Age Europe as a series of interactive societies with both broad similarities and sharp regional, even local, differences, moving through time and ever-changing relationships, influences, and trajectories.
Abstract: While some researchers continue to focus fruitfully on traditional issues, in recent years new perspectives, some strongly revisionist, have developed within European Iron Age archaeology, moving it from a long-static state into a rapidly changing milieu. Studies of colonialism, imperialism, and interaction have undergone sequential shifts into new territory, while topics related to sacred activity, political apparatuses, and the ruler-subject relationship have undergone substantial reworking. Perspectives absent from earlier literature have emerged: gender, age, ethnicity, and identity, and interpretations employing theories of practice, agency, landscape, and embodiment have emerged, mirroring broader disciplinary shifts. An overarching trend sees Iron Age Europe as a series of interactive societies with both broad similarities and sharp regional, even local, differences, moving through time and ever-changing relationships, influences, and trajectories. The collision of traditional and revisionist scholarship has produced debate, some heated, but has improved and invigorated the field.
33 citations
References
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TL;DR: The method described here is simple and objective enough to allow the beginning researcher to sex hip bones accurately while requiring the presence of only a small fragment of the bone.
Abstract: Preliminary investigation has indicated that the use of the ventral arc, subpubic concavity, and medial aspect of the ischio-pubic ramus as sexing criteria allows one to sex the os pubis with an accuracy in excess of 95%. The method described here is simple and objective enough to allow the beginning researcher to sex hip bones accurately while requiring the presence of only a small fragment of the bone.
1,382 citations
Journal Article•
709 citations
Book•
06 Apr 1998TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the nature of bones and teeth, the determination of age and sex, and the study of DNA from skeleton remains, including Cremated Bone.
Abstract: 1. The Nature of Bones and Teeth 2. The Nature of an Archaeological Human Bone Assemblage 3. The Determination of Age and Sex 4. Metric Variation in the Skull 5. Metric Variation in the post-Cranial Skeleton 6. Non-metric Variation 7. Bone Disease 8. Dental Disease 9. Traces of Injury on the Skeleton 10. Stable Isotope Analysis 11. The Study of DNA from Skeletal Remains 12. Cremated Bone 13. Ethics and Human Remains
490 citations
TL;DR: In a recent review of anthropological writings on sex roles, this paper pointed out that "What is clearest in the literature reviewed is the need for further investigation, and what is most impressive about this literature is the overwhelming number of specific researchable questions it has produced."
Abstract: This is an article about questions. Feminists have managed, in recent years, to impress a matter of undeniable importance on both academic and popular audiences alike. Previously blinded by bias, we have begun a "discovery" of women and have reported a good deal of data on women's lives, needs, and interests that earlier scholars ignored. Sexist traditions have, of course, made our records uneven. Now more than ever we see just how little is known about women. And the urgency experienced by current researchers is fueled by a recognition that invaluable records of women's arts, work, and politics are irretrievably lost. Our theories are-the saying goes-only as good as our data. As was suggested in a recent review of anthropological writings on sex roles, "What is clearest in the literature reviewed is the need for further investigation.... What is most impressive about this literature is the overwhelming number of specific researchable questions it has produced. Hopefully the social force which inspired anthropological interest in women's status will sustain this interest through the long second stage of research fashioned to explore these hypotheses."1 But whatever we do or do not know, my sense is that feminist thinking-in anthropology at least-faces yet a more serious problem. Many a fieldworker has spent her months in the hills with predominantly
455 citations
443 citations