Archaeology of Women
Code: 106866 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Archaeology | OB | 3 |
Contact
- Name:
- Cristina Rihuete Herrada
- Email:
- cristina.rihuete@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
None.
Objectives and Contextualisation
The main goals of the course are:
(1) to analyze androcentric biases in archaeological theory & practice
(2) getting acquainted with the main alternatives posed by feminist social theory & activism
(3) to delve in the diversity of human experience from a gender standpoint
(4) to show the interdisciplinary nature of gender studies in archaeology through a wide array of case studies
(5) focusing on new methodologies and analytical procedures which are nowadays available for a gender-sensitive archaeology
Learning Outcomes
- CM13 (Competence) Innovatively apply the theoretical and methodological procedures of archaeology to society's demands by assuming inclusive perspectives in terms of cultural diversity and gender.
- CM14 (Competence) Recognise the ethical and social implications of the different approaches and procedures of archaeology to adapt the analysis to the requirements of democratic values and practices.
- CM15 (Competence) Propose a theoretical and methodological conceptualisation of archaeology that is consistent with perspectives of the past from cultural and gender diversity, inclusion and non-sexism.
- KM25 (Knowledge) Recognise the main androcentric and Eurocentric biases in archaeological accounts and propose alternatives through inclusive analyses that incorporate relevant issues related to women and environmental, historical, and cultural diversity.
- SM25 (Skill) Infer specific hypotheses about past societies from material remains, displaying the ability to interpret empirical evidence in the light of analogical reasoning and from a gender perspective.
Content
The contents of the course are organised in the three major blocks.
The first one is a general introduction to gender perspective and deals with the conception of women in Western society as well as the path and plurality of feminism and its impact in History, Humanities and Social Sciences.
The second is devoted to key concepts in feminist critique applied to archaeological practice and representations of the past: sexism, androcentrism, gender, patriarchy, family, sexuality, ethics of care and work/labour.
The third block delves into the wide array of topics that have been studied with a gender perspective starting with the first alternatives to androcentric explanations on the origins of humanity and sexual division of labour. This section includes many case studies from all over the world and different time periods that have to do with funerary practices, settlement & territory analysis, social and economic interpretation of material remains, symbolism and biomolecular archaeology (paloediet, kinship and biological relatedness).
The syllabus will cover the following topics:
1. Feminist activism and social theory in historical perspective and its impact in the research with a gender perspective.
2. Androcentrism.
3. Sex and Gender.
4. Women archaeology, gender archaeology, feminist archaeology, queer archaeology and transfeminist archaeology.
5. Critique and methodological alternatives to androcentrism and gender stereotypes in archaeology
6. Patriarchy, matriarchy and matricentric/ginecentric societies.
7. Body, kinship and ancestry: palaeogenetics and mobility stories.
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Teoria | 40 | 1.6 | CM13, CM14, CM15, KM25, SM25, CM13 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Tuition, essays, reviews and discussions | 20 | 0.8 | CM13, CM14, CM15, KM25, SM25, CM13 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Homework and studying for tests | 30 | 1.2 | CM13, CM14, CM15, KM25, SM25, CM13 |
Class-room activities
- Lectures with ICT support
- Debate and work in groups. Collective evaluation of texts and video documentaries. Single/collective presentations and round evaluations.
Monitored activities
- Scheduled meetings for the discussion of specific doubts and topic contents.
- Guidance and counselling on specific doubts and topics.
Autonomous activities
- Individual study, text-reading, bibliography and documentary search.
- Written essays & oral presentations
Notice: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses through questionnaires.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active involvement in discussions and workshops | 15 | 10 | 0.4 | CM13, CM14, CM15, KM25 |
| Tests | 85 | 50 | 2 | CM13, CM14, CM15, KM25, SM25 |
Screening tests typology
- Written tests
- Essays
- Oral presentations
- Involvement in discussions
Evaluation blocks
There will be a continuous assessment of the course through three different block, each one of them having a specific weight in the final grade:
1. Class-room activities will be evaluated by written tests & essays
2. Monitored activities will be evaluated through oral presentations and involvement in discussions
3. Autonomous activities will be evaluated through essays
Evaluation timetable
The student will be informed about the specific contents and deadlines of the different evaluation blocks right at the beginning of the course and also via moodle.
Requirements to pass the course
- Meeting all deadlines
- The final score should be ≥ 5 in a 0-10 scale.
- Not meeting one or more deadlines will deserve an "unassessable" final grade.
- Any irregularity committed in a particular evaluation block (copy, plagiarism) will deserve a 0 score in that specific block.
Re-evaluation
Re-evaluation will be granted to anybody delivering in time all evaluation blocks.
It will be a written test on the full content of the course. Date and place will be determined by the faculty. The maximum score will be 5,0.
Bibliography
[in bold type: reading recommended]
(1) RESEARCH WITH A GENDER PERSPECTIVE: concepts and contributions of feminist theory and epistemology
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Braidotti, Rosi (2004), Feminismo, diferencia sexual y subjetividad nómade. Gedisa, Barcelona [veure capítols 4 i 6 com a bibliografía rellevant del tema 3].
Braidotti, Rosi (2022), Feminismo posthumano. Gedisa, Barcelona
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Butler, Judith (2004), Undoing Gender. Routledge, New York [traducción al castellano en Paidós, Barcelona, 2004, Deshacer el género].
Davis, Ángela (2022 [1981]), Mujeres, raza y clase, Akal, Madrid.
Despentes, Virginie (2018), Teoría King Kong. Literatura Random House, Barcelona.
Fausto-Sterling, Anne (2000), Sexing the Body. Gender politics and the construction of sexuality. Basic Books, New York [traducción al castellano en Melusina, Sta. Cruz de Tenerife, 2006, Cuerpos sexuados. La política de género y la construcción de la sexualidad].
Faye, Shon (2021), Trans. Un alegato por un mundo más justo y más libre. Blackie Books, Barcelona.
Federici, Silvia (2018), Revolución en punto cero. Trabajo doméstico, reproducción y luchas feministas. Col. Mapas, Traficantes de Sueños, Madrid. https://www.traficantes.net/libros/revoluci%C3%B3n-en-punto-cero
Firestone, Sulamith (1973), The Dialectic of sex. Johnathan-Cape, London [traducción al castellano en Kairós, Barcelona, 1976, La dialéctica del sexo]
Galindo, María (2021), Feminismo Bastardo. 2ª edición, Mujeres Creando, La Paz.
Haraway, Donna (1995), Ciencia, cyborgs y mujeres. Cátedra, Col. Feminismos. Madrid. [original de 1991 Simians, Cyborgs and Women; https://monoskop.org/images/f/f3/Haraway_Donna_J_Simians_Cyborgs_and_Women_The_Reinvention_of_Nature.pdf]
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Moreno, Amparo (1986), El arquetipo viril protagonista de la historia. Ejercicios de lectura no androcéntrica.La Sal, Barcelona.
Pateman, Carole (1988), The Sexual Contract. Polity Press, Cambridge [traducción al castellano en Antrhopos, Barcelona, 1975, El contrato sexual ]
Rich, Adrienne (1980), “Compulsory heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence”, Signs, 5-4: 631-660.
Rich, Adrienne (2019) [original de 1976], Nacemos de mujer. La maternidad como experiencia e institución. Traficantes de Sueños, Madrid.
Rubin, Gayle (1986), “El tráfico de mujeres: notas sobre la “economia política” del sexo”, Nueva antropología, VIII (30), pàgs. 95-145.
Varela, Nuria (2019), Feminismo 4.0. La cuarta ola. Ediciones B, Barcelona.
Vergès, Françoise (2022), Un feminismo descolonial. Traficantes de Sueños, Madrid. Disponible en https://traficantes.net/libros/un-feminismo-descolonial
Wollstonecraft, Mary (1792, 2005), Vindicación de los derechos de la mujer. Istmo, Col. Fundamentos, Madrid.
(2) GENDER PERSPECTIVE IN ARCHAEOLOGY. Theory, methods and applications.
AAVV, (2006), Les dones en la Prehistòria. Museu de Prehistòria de València, Diputació de València.
Adovasio, James; Soffer, Olga; Page, Jake (2007), The Invisible Sex. Uncovering the true roles of Women in Prehistory. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, California [traducción al castellano en Lumen, Barcelona, 2008, El sexo invisible: el verdadero rol de las mujeres en la prehistoria].
Arnold, Bettina y Wicker, Nancy L. (eds.) (2001), Gender and the Archaeology of Death. Altamira Press, Walnut Creek.
Berrocal, Mª Carmen (2009), “Feminismo, teoría y práctica de una arqueología científica”, Trabajos de Prehistoria, 66 (2), pàgs. 25-43.
Bertelsen, Reidar; Lillehammer, Arnvid; Naess, Jenny-Rita (eds.) (1987 [1979]), Were They All Men?. An Examination of Sex Roles in Prehistoric Society, AmS-Varia, Museo Arqueológico de Satavanger, Satavanger.
Bolger, Diane (ed.) (2013), A Companion to Gender Prehistory. Col. Blackwell Companions to Anthropology, Wiley-Blackwell
Brück, Joanna (2021), “Ancient DNA, kinship and relational identities in Bronze Age Britain”, Antiquity, 95 (379): 228-237; https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2020.216
Cintas Peña, Marta (2020), La desigualdad de genero en la prehistòria ibérica. Una aproximación multi-variable. BAR International Series 2990, Oxford [tesis doctoral original de 2018 disponible en https://idus.us.es/handle/11441/77665
Cintas-Peña, Marta, Garrido Pena, Rafarl, Herrero-Corral, Ana M.; Flores, R.; Waterman, Anna J.; Díaz-Zorita, Marta; Díaz del Río, Pedro; Peate, David W. (2023), “Isotopic Evidence for Mobility in the Copper and Bronze Age Cemetery of Humanejos (Parla, Madrid): a Diachronic Approach Using Biological and Archaeological Variables”, Journal of Archaeological Method & Theory, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-023-09633-6
Colomer, Eulàlia; González, Paloma; Montón, Sandra; Picazo, Marina (comp.) (1999), Arqueología y teoría feminista. Estudios sobre mujeres y cultura material en arqueología. Icaria-Antrazyt, Barcelona.
Coltofean-Arizancu, Laura; Gaydarska, Bisserka; Matić, Uroš (2021), Gender stereotypes in archaeology. A short reflection in image and text. Sidestonepress, descàrrega gratuïta en línia https:// https://www.sidestone.com/books/gender-stereotypes-in-archaeology
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Coto, Maria; Delgado, Lara; López, Lourdes, Martín, Jesús; Pastor, Ana; Ruiz, Apen; Yubero, María (2020), Informe sobre el acoso sexual en arqueología (España). Barcelona, Granada y Madrid. DOI: 10.5281 /zenodo.3662763. https://zenodo.org/record/3662763#.YMCuZ27tZ0s
Davis-Kimball, Jeannine (2002), Warrior women. An archaeologist’s search for history’s hidden heroins. Warner Books, New York.
Díaz-Andreu, Margarita i Sørensen, Mary Louise Stig (1998), Excavating Women. A History of Women in European Archaeology. Routledge, London.
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Eller, Cynthia (2000), The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why an Invented Past Won’t Give Women a Future. Beacon Press, Boston.
Eisler, Riane (2021), El cáliz y la espada. De las diosas a los dioses. Culturas pre-patriarcales. Capitán Swing, Madrid [original en ingles de 1987].
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Escoriza, Trinidad; González, Andrea; Castro, Pedro (2015), “Representaciones figurativas, mujeres y arqueología”, Menga, 6, pàgs. 17-32.
Esparza, Ángel; Palomo-Díez, Sara; Velasco-Vázquez, Javier; Delibes, Germán; Arrroy-Pardo, Eduardo; Salazar García, Domingo (2017), “Familiar kinship? Palaeogenetic and isotopic evidence from a triple burial of the Cogotas archaeological culture (Bronze Age, Iberian Peninsula)”, Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 36(3), pàgs. 223-242.
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Software
Standard
Groups and Languages
Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 1 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 1 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |