Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T12:13:08.770Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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
Get access

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 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alföldy, G., 1986. The Social History of Rome. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Allen, M., 1984. Elders, chiefs and Big Men: authority, legitimation and political evolution in Melanesia. American Ethnologist 11: 20–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ambrosi, A., 1972. Corpus delle statue-stele lunigianesi. (Collana Storica della Liguria Orientale, vol. 6). Bordighera: Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri.Google Scholar
Ambrosi, A, 1988. Statue-stele lunigianesi. Genova; Sagep.Google Scholar
Anati, E., 1960. La grande roche de Naquane. Paris: (Archive de l'Institut de Paleontologie Humaine, vol 31).Google Scholar
Anati, E., 1974. Le figurazioni di pugnali della Valcamonica. Preistoria Alpina 10: 113–36.Google Scholar
Anati, E., 1976. Evolution and Style in Camunian Rock Art. Capo di Ponte: Edizioni del Centro.Google Scholar
Anati, E., 1977. Post-Paleolithic stylistic changes in rock art as illustrated by the Valca-monica cycle. In Ucko, P. (ed.), Form in Indigeneous Art. Canberra; Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.Google Scholar
Anati, E, 1981. Le statue-stele di Lunigiana. Milano: Jaca Book.Google Scholar
Anati, E., 1985. The question of fertility cults. In Bonnanno, A. (ed.). Archaeology and Fertility Cult in the Ancient Mediterranean: 2–16. Amsterdam: Gruner.Google Scholar
Bagolini, B., 1981. Il Neolitico e l'Età del Rame: ricerca a Spilamberto-S. Cesano 1977–1980.Google Scholar
Barfield, L, 1981. Patterns of n. Italian trade, 5000–2000 B.C. In Barker, G. and Hodges, Richard (eds), Archeology and Italian Society. 27–51. Oxford: British Archeological Reports (Int. Ser. 102).Google Scholar
Barfield, L., 1982. The Chalcolithic of northern Italy in the context of third millennium Europe: questions of basic theory. In Best, J. and Vries, N. de (eds). Interaction and acculturation in the Mediterranean: 19–32. Amsterdam: Gruner.Google Scholar
Barfieid, L., 1986. Chalcolithic burials in northern Italy: problems of social interpretation. Dialoghi di Archeologia 3: 241–8.Google Scholar
Barker, G., 1971. The first metallurgy in Italy in light of metal analysis from the Pigorini Museum. Bullettino di Paletnologia Italiana 80: 183–212.Google Scholar
Barker, G., 1981. Landscape and Society: prehistoric central Italy. New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Bartoloni, G., 1988. A few comments on the social position of women in the protohistoric coastal areas of western Italy made on the basis of a study of funerary goods. Rivista di Antropologia 66: 317–36.Google Scholar
Bell, R., 1974. Fate and Honor, Family and Village: demographic and cultural change in rural Italy since 1800. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Bergonzi, G. and Eles Masi, P. von, 1988. Archeological and anthropological evidence from the Iron Age necropolis at Montericco, Imola (Emilia Romagna, Italy). Rivista di Antropologia 66: 337–48.Google Scholar
Biancafiore, F., 1965. I nuovi dipinti preistorici della Lucania. Rivista di Antropologia 52: 103–9.Google Scholar
Bietti-Sestieri, Anna Maria, 1981. Economy and society in Italy between the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age. In Hodges, Richard and Barker, G. (eds), Archeology and Italian Society: 133–55. Oxford: British Archeological Reports (Int. Ser. 102).Google Scholar
Bietti-Sestieri, Anna Maria, 1985. The Iron Age cemetery of Osteria dell'Osa (Rome): evidence of social change in Lazio in the 8th century B.C. In Malone, C and Stoddart, Simon (eds), Papers in Italian Archaeology IV: the Cambridge conference·. 111–44. Oxford: British Archeological Reports (Int. Ser. 245).Google Scholar
Bietti-Sestieri, Anna Maria, 1985. Contact, exchange and conflict in the Italian Bronze Age: the Myceneans on the Tyrhennian coast and islands. In Malone, C. and Stoddart, Simon (eds). Papers in Italian Archaeology IV: the Cambridge conference·. 305–37. Oxford: British Archeological Reports (Int Ser. 245).Google Scholar
Bietti-Sestieri, Anna Maria, 1988. The Mycenean connection and its impact on central Mediterranean society. Dialoghi di Archeologia 1: 23–52.Google Scholar
Bietti-Sestieri, Anna Maria, 1993. The Iron Age Community of Osteria dell'Osa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Black-Michaud, J., 1986. Sheep and Land: the economics of power in a tribal society. New York Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bloch, Maurice, 1985. Cognition and ideology. In Fardon, R. (ed.), Power and Knowledge: 21–48. Edinburgh: Scottish University Press.Google Scholar
Bloch, Maurice and Parry, J. (eds), 1982. Death and the Regeneration of Life. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Blok, R., 1974. The Mafia of a Sicilian village, 1860–1960: a study of violent peasant entrepreneurs. New York’ Harper.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre, 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. New York Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Brandes, S., 1980. Metaphors of Masculinity: sex and status in Andalusian folklore. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Brown, K., 1990. Rank and labor mobilization in the southeastern Italian Neolithic. Paper delivered to the 4th Conference on Italian Archeology. Queen Mary and Westfield Colleges, London.Google Scholar
Cazzella, Alberto and Moscoloni, M., 1985. Dislivelli culturali nel Mediterraneo centro-orientale fra terzo e secondo millennio a.C. In Liverani, M., Palmieri, A., and Peroni, R. (eds), Studi di paletnologia in onore di Salvatore M. Puglisi: 216–39. Rome: Universitá di Roma.Google Scholar
Chapman, Robert, 1981. The emergence of formal disposal areas and the ‘problem’ of megalithic tombs in prehistoric Europe. In Robert, Chapman, Ian, Kinnes, and Randsborg, Klavs (eds), The Archeology of Death: 71–81. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cipolloni Sampó, M., 1986. Le tombe di Toppo Daguzzo (Basilicata nord-orientale): considerazioni sulle comunità della media età del Bronzo nel sud-est italia. In Maressì, M., Tusa, S. and Vagnetti, L. (eds), Traffici micinei nel Mediterraneo. Taranto: Istituto per la storia e l'archeologia della Magna Grecia.Google Scholar
Collier, J. and Rosaldo, M., 1981. Politics and gender in simple societies. In Ortner, S. and Whitehead, H. (eds), Sexual Meanings: 275–329. New York; Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Conkey, Margaret and Gero, Joan, 1991. Tensions, pluralities and engendering archeology: an introduction to women and prehistory. In Conkey, Margaret and Gero, Joan (eds). Engendering Archeology. 3–30. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Conkey, Margaret and Williams, S., 1991. Original narratives: the political economy of gender in archeology. In Leonardo, M. di (eds), Gender at the Crossroads of Knowledge: feminist anthropology in the postmodern era: 102–39. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Conti, C, 1972. Corpus delle incisioni rupestri di Monte Bego: fasc. 1, zona 1. regione dei Laghi Lunghi. Bordighera: Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri.Google Scholar
Cristofani, M., 1974. Società e istitutioni nell'Italia preromana. In Pallottino, M. (ed.), Popoli e civiltà dell'Italia antica 7: 53–112. Roma: Biblioteca della Storia Patria.Google Scholar
Cucchiari, S., 1981. The gender revolution and the transition from bisexual horde to patrilocal band: the origins of gender hierarchy. In Ortner, S. and Whitehead, H. (ed.). Sexual Meanings: 31–79. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Davis, J., 1969. Honor and politics in Pisticci. Proceedings of the Royal Anthropological Institute 1969: 69–81.Google Scholar
De Lumley, H., Fonvielle, M., and Abelanet, J., 1976. Vallée des Merveilles. In Guilaine, J. (ed), La préhistoire française·. 2:222–36. Paris: Editions du CNRS.Google Scholar
Di Leonardo, M., 1991. Gender, culture and political economy: feminist anthropology in historical perspective. In Di Leonardo, M. (ed.), Gender at the Crossroads of Knowledge: feminist anthropology in the postmodern era: 1–50. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Ehrenberg, Margaret, 1989. Women in Prehistory. Norman; University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Fornaciari, G. and Germaná, F., 1992. Trapanazioni, craniotome e traume cranici in Italia dalla preistoria all'età moderna.Google Scholar
Fried, Morton H., 1987. The Evolution of Political Society. New York Random House.Google Scholar
Giddens, Anthony, 1979. Central Problems in Social Theory: action, structure and contradiction in social analysis. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Giddens, Anthony, 1984. The Constitution of Society. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Gilman, A., 1981. The development of social stratification in Bronze Age Europe. Current Anthropology 22: 1–23.Google Scholar
Gilmore, D., 1990. Manhood in the Making: cultural concepts of masculinity. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Gilmore, D., 1990. Men and women in southern Spain: ‘Domestic Power’ revisited. American Anthropologist 92: 953–70.Google Scholar
Gimbutas, Marija, 1991. The Civilization of the Goddess: the world of Old Europe. San Francisco: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Godelier, Maurice, 1982. Social hiérarchies among the Baruya of New Guinea. In Strathern, Andrew (ed.). Inequality in New Guinea Highlands Societies: 3–34. New York Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Graziosi, P., 1974. L'arte preistorica in Italia. Firenze: Sansoni.Google Scholar
Graziosi, P., 1980. Le pitture preistoriche della grotta di Porto Badisco. Firenze: Sansoni.Google Scholar
Grifoni Cremonesi, R., 1986. Alcuni dati relativi a fenomeni funerari con implicazioni culturali nella preistoria e problemi di interpretazione. Dialoghi di Archeologia 4: 265–70.Google Scholar
Guidi, A., 1985. An application of the rank-size rule to protohistoric settlements in the middle Tyrhennian area. In Malone, C. and Stoddart, Simon (eds), Papers in Italian Archeology IV: the Cambridge conference 3: 217–42. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports (Int. Ser. 245).Google Scholar
Hatch, E., 1989. Theories of social honor. American Anthropologist 91: 341–53.Google Scholar
Hayden, B., 1985. Old Europe: sacred matriarchy or complementary opposition? In Bonnanno, A. (ed.), Archeology and Fertility Cult in the Ancient Mediterranean: 17–30. Amsterdam: Gruner.Google Scholar
Hodder, Ian, 1990. The Domestication of Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Holloway, R., 1974. Buccino. Rome: de Luca.Google Scholar
Jarman, M. and Webley, D., 1975. Settlement and land use in Capitanata, Italy. In Higgs, E. (ed.), Palaeoeconomy. 177–231. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kelly, Ray, 1976. Witchcraft and sexual relations: an investigation in the social and semantic implications of the structure of belief. In Brown, P. and Buchbinder, G. (eds), Man and Woman in the New Guinea Highlands: 36–53. Washington: American Anthropological Assocation.Google Scholar
Kelly, Ray, 1980. Etoro Social Structure: a study in structural contradiction. Ann Arbor University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Kelly, Ray, 1993. Constructing Inequality: the Fabrication of a Hierarchy of Virtue among the Etoro. Ann Arbor University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Littleton, C., 1982. The New Comparative Mythology: an anthropological assessment of the works of Georges Dumezil, 3rd. ed. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Malone, C, 1985. Pots, prestige and ritual in Neolithic southern Italy. In Malone, C. and Stoddart, Simon (eds), Papers in Italian Archaeology IV: the Cambridge conference 2: 118–51. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports (Int Ser. 245).Google Scholar
Moore, Henrietta, 1991. Epilogue. In Conkey, Margaret and Gero, Joan (eds), Engendering Archeology. 407–11. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Morter, J. and Robb, John, 1993. Space, gender and architecture in the southern Italian Neolithic. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting, American Anthropological Association, Washington.Google Scholar
Mukhopadhyay, C. and Higgins, P., 1988. Anthropological studies of women's status revisited. Annual Review of Anthropology 17: 461–95.Google Scholar
Nava, M., 1980. Stele daunie. Firenze: Sansoni.Google Scholar
Ortiz, A., ed., 1983. Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 10: Southwest. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Ortner, S., 1973. On key symbols. American Anthropologist 75: 1338–46.Google Scholar
Ortner, S. and Whitehead, H., 1981. Introduction: accounting for sexual meanings. In Ortner, S. and Whitehead, H. (eds), Sexual Meanings. 1–28. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Padovana, P., 1977. Le stele villanoviani di Bologna. Capo di Ponte: Edizioni del Centro.Google Scholar
Pallottino, M. 1991. A History of Earliest Italy. Ann Arbor University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Paynter, Robert, 1987. The archeology of equality and inequality. Annual Review of Anthropology 18: 69–99.Google Scholar
Peristiany, J. ed., 1966. Honor and Shame: the values of Mediterranean society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Peroni, R., 1971. From Bronze Age to Iron Age: economic, historical and social considerations. In Ridgway, D. and Ridgway, F. (eds), Italy before the Romans: 7–30. New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Polglase, C, 1992. Obsidian reduction at two Italian Neolithic sites. Paper presented at the Society for American Archeology meetings, Pittsburgh PA.Google Scholar
Poole, F., 1981. Transforming ‘natural’ woman: female ritual leaders and gender ideology among Bimin-Kuskusmin. In Ortner, S. and Whitehead, H. (eds), Sexual Meanings: 116–65. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Priuli, A, 1985. Incisioni rupestri della Valcamonica. Torino.Google Scholar
Priuli, A., 1988. Incisioni rupestri di Monte Bego. Torino.Google Scholar
Rappaport, R, 1979. Ecology, Meaning and Religion. Richmond, CA: North Point Press.Google Scholar
Renfrew, A. Colin and Whitehouse, Ruth, 1974. The Copper Age of peninsular Italy. Papers of the British School at Athens 69: 277–84.Google Scholar
Robb, John 1994. Burial and social reproduction in Neolithic southern Italy. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology in press.Google Scholar
Rowlands, Michael, 1984 Conceptualizing the European Bronze and early Iron Age. In Bintliff, John (ed.), European Social Evolution: archeological perspectives: 147–56. Bradford: Bradford University Press.Google Scholar
Rowlands, Michael, 1985. Exclusionary tactics in the logic of collective dynamics. Critique of Anthropology 5: 47–69.Google Scholar
Sahlins, Marshall, 1981. Historical Metaphors and Mythical Realities. Ann Arbor University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Shanks, Michael and Tilley, Christopher, 1988. Social Theory and Archaeology. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Shennan, Stephen, 1986. Interaction and change in third millennium BC western and central Europe. In Renfrew, A. Colin and Cherry, John (eds), Peer Polity Interaction and Socio-political Change: 137–48. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Shennan, Stephen, 1987. Trends in the study of later European prehistory. Annual Review of Anthropology 16: 365–82.Google Scholar
Sherratt, Andrew, 1981. Plough and pastoralism: aspects of the secondary products revolution. In Hodder, Ian, Isaac, G. and Hammond, N. (eds). Pattern of the Past: studies in honor of David Clarke: 261–305. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sherratt, Andrew, 1984. Social evolution: Europe in the later Neolithic and Copper Ages. In Bintliff, John (ed.), European Social Evolution: archeological perspectives: 123–34. Bradford: Bradford University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, T., 1987. Mycenean Trade and Interaction in the West Central Mediterranean, 1600–1000 B.C. Oxford: British Archeological Reports (Int. Series 371).Google Scholar
Strathern, Andrew (ed.), 1982, Inequality in New Guinea Highlands Societies. New York Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Strathern, Marilyn, 1981. Self-interest and the social good: some implications of Hagen gender imagery. In Ortner, S. and Whitehead, H. (eds). Sexual Meanings·. 166–91. New York Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Therborn, G., 1980. The Ideology of Power and the Power of Ideology. London: NLB.Google Scholar
Tibiletti, G., 1974. Considerazioni sulle popolazioni della Italia preromana. In Pallottino, M. (ed.), Popoli e civiltà dell'Italia antica 7: 15–50. Roma: Biblioteca della Storia Patria.Google Scholar
Tinè, S., and Isetti, E., 1982. Culto neolitico delle acque e recenti scavi nella Grotta Scaloria. Bullettino di Paletnologia Italiana 82: 31–70.Google Scholar
Torelli, M., 1986. History, land and people. In Bonfante, L. (ed.), Etruscan Life and Afterlife·. 47–65. Detroit Wayne State University Press.Google Scholar
Tringham, Ruth, 1991. Households with faces: the challenge of gender in prehistoric architectural remains. In Gero, Joan and Conkey, Margaret (eds), Engendering Archeology·. 93–131. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Whttehead, H., 1987. Fertility and exchange in New Guinea. In Collier, J. and Yanagisako, S. (eds). Gender and Kinship: essays toward a unified theory. 244–67. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, Ruth, 1973. The earliest towns in peninsular Italy. In Colin Renfrew, A. (ed.), The Explanation of Cultural Change: models in prehistory: 617–24. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, Ruth, 1990. Caves and cult in Neolithic southern Italy. London: Journal of the Accordia Research Center 1: 19–37.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, Ruth, 1992. Underground Religion. London: Accordia Research Center.Google Scholar
Williams, S., 1987. An ‘archae-logy’ of Turkana beads. In Hodder, Ian (ed.). The Archeology of Contextual Meanings: 31–38. New York Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Winn, S. and Shimabuku, D., 1988. The Heritage of Two Subsistance Strategies: preliminary report on the excavations at the Grotta Scaloria, Southeastern Italy, 1978. Halifax, Nova Scotia: St Mary's University.Google Scholar