Session: #444

Theme & Session Format

Theme:
4. People of the Present – Peopling the Past
Session format:
Regular session

Title & Content

Title:
CANCELLED Beyond Fertility: Women, Sexuality, and Power in Past Worlds
Content:
Sexuality remains underexplored in archaeology. While sporadic work in the 1990-2000s directed the research gaze to especially queer sexuality in the past, heterosexuality is often left unproblematized. When addressing specifically female sexuality and power, archaeological scholarship tends to centre procreation and fertility. Women are still very much defined by their role as mothers; resulting in a discourse that despite its attempts to propose a progressive reading of the archaeological record, often tends to reproduce an unproblematized understanding of female value as equated with fertility and child rearing. Is there no room for female sexuality and power beyond procreation in our archaeological narratives?

In ethnography and evolutionary anthropology, sexuality is not exclusively studied to understand procreation, but also as an intrinsic part of social relationships, pleasure, power, myth, and even jokes and banter. Human sexuality is clearly a phenomenon that is entangled with culture, experience and sociality, and extends beyond reproduction alone. We argue that it is important to highlight these aspects of female sexuality also in the deep past.

Moreover, in our contemporary world female power and female sexuality continue to be points of conflict and contestation. Organized forms of misogyny, political and otherwise, tend to take aim at female power and sexuality as entangled entities. In these movements, narratives that link female identity and sexuality more or less exclusively to procreation can become weaponized.

In this session we call for a discussion about past female sexuality that nuances conventional narratives, provides diversity and proposes a more balanced discourse. We invite papers that explore female sexuality -- or sexuality writ large -- from diverse empirical and theoretical bases, e.g. the intersection of sexuality with ritual; material culture related to sexual practice; sexuality and anthropomorphic imagery; reproductive technologies (allowing women control of their sexuality); queer and non-binary sexuality; and sexual exploitation.
Keywords:
sexuality, power, gender, women, bodies, politics
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:

Organisers

Main organiser:
Marianne Hem Eriksen (United Kingdom) 1
Co-organisers:
Liv Nilsson Stutz (Sweden) 2
Affiliations:
1. School of Archaeology & Ancient History, University of Leicester
2. Linnaeus University