Bioarchaeological studies of mortuary contexts have traditionally analyzed the relationship between osteologically sexed skeletons and material culture, transcribing gender onto objects and skeletal remains via statistical correlates of grave good patterns (Hollimon 2011; Sofaer 2006a). Numerous key studies have examined gender via mortuary processes in various regions of the world for example: Mesoamerica (Ardren 2002; Bell 2002; Gillespie 2001; González Cruz 2004; Joyce 1999, 2000b, 2002), the Near East (Guerrero et al. 2009; Keswani 2004; Nordström 1996; Savage 2000); Europe (Aranda et al. 2009; Arnold 1991, 2001, 2002; Becker 2000; Effros 2000; Fisher 1995; Graslund 2001; Härke 1997; Knüsel 2002, Lucy 1997; O'Shea 1995, 1996), East Asia (Bacus 2007; Higham 2002; Jiao 2001; Linduff 2008), Eurasia (Berseneva 2008; Davis-Kimball 1998, 2001; Legrand 2008; Rubinson 2008), and North America (Cannon 2005; Carr and Case 2006; Clark 2014; Charles 1995; Crass 2001; Doucette 2001; Field et al. 2006; Gamble et al. 2001; Hollimon 1996, 2001; Milner 2004; Nassaney 2004; O’Gorman 2001; O’Shea 1984, Rubertone 2001; Sempowski 1987). Central to the concept of archaeological modeling of gendered social patterns, mortuary analyses integrate aspects of material culture and its performative aspects as a reflection of gender, taking into
account the confounding factors of using gendered social interpretations from mortuary contexts as proxies for gendered social realities in living societies (Arnold 2006).
2.1.1 Methods of Mortuary Analysis: Case Studies of Material Culture from North America
A central viewpoint of funerary archaeology and gender studies is the idea that grave goods, as material objects through which social processes are embodied, can provide important clues to gender roles in past societies with respect to aspects of social inequalities, socialization, and symbolic representations of the importance of individuals (Bentley 1996; Crass 2001; Hamlin 2001; Sullivan 2001). O’Shea (1984) published a landmark volume, Mortuary Variability, using archaeological mortuary research as a means to elucidate societal variability from the archaeological record. This study analyzed burials from North American indigenous cultures: the Pawnee, the Arikara, and the Omaha. O’Shea (1984) emphasized that mortuary treatment was directly correlated with an individual’s status in life and was a very robust analytical tool for establishing patterns of social rankings such as status and gender, using variables such as sex, treatment of the body, and grave good counts with statistical approaches of cluster analysis and principle component analysis. This type of study became traditional in archaeology for differentiating social status, gender, and social roles.
Several North American studies illustrate how mortuary analysis can investigate questions pertaining to gendered social divisions. Crass (2001) argued that through the analysis of grave goods, social information may be gained in situations where complete bioarchaeological inventory may not be possible due to repatriation laws. From archival reports of archaeological investigations of burials among the Inuit, Crass compared reported grave goods against sexed burials or records of male/female cairn use. Items traditionally associated with the female gender (sewing implements) and the male gender (kayaks, sleds, weapons) were found in relatively equal distribution across male, female, and subadult burial contexts. Crass (2001) described the gendered social structure of the Inuit as “gender fluid” with little differentiation between types of material objects, sex, and age.
O’Gorman (2001) challenged the hypothesis that the Oneota (1000-1600AD), a group of protohistoric people from the American midcontinent, were truly egalitarian by comparing same-sex/gender and between- sex/gender patterns at the household, inter-household, and community levels. Ethnographic studies demonstrated that women were primarily associated with agricultural activities and men with bison hunting, though some ethnographic accounts reference women as active participants in warfare, as well as integral actors for processing bison kills (O’Gorman 2001). It was demonstrated, via inventory of grave goods, that some groups of women within and between longhouses had achieved a high emergent status, based on differential frequencies of grave goods made of non-local material sources. It was hypothesized that, based upon settlement and household data, increasing size of Oneota households and settlements and increased scalar stress may have provided a mechanism for emergent social inequalities (O’Gorman 2001). As some households developed surpluses of trade goods and other
items, women may have used these surpluses to gain prestige and status as distributors of wealth and supplies for group endeavors, such as warfare (O’Gorman 2001).
There are additional studies that investigate gender in North America in the mortuary context (Cannon 2005; Carr and Case 2006; Charles 1995; Clark 2014; Crass 2001; Doucette 2001; Field et al. 2006; Gamble et al. 2001; Hollimon 1996; Milner 2004; Nassaney 2004; O’Gorman 2001; O’Shea 1984, Rubertone 2001; Sempowski 1987). These studies have generally focused on the distribution of grave goods and mortuary ritual patterns with respect to biological sex. However, these are numerous avenues in which gender is an important aspect to mortuary analysis, notably contact (Cybulski 1992; Nassaney 2004; Rubertone 1989), productive roles (Doucette 2001; Gamble et al. 2001; Hollimon 1996), and expression of social status (Cannon 2005; Carr and Case 2006; Clark 2014; Charles 1995; Crass 2001; Field et al. 2006; Milner 2004; O’Shea 1984; Sempowski 1986). These studies have demonstrated that material culture and mortuary ritual are important components for the development of functional models for gender and social status in North American prehistoric and historic contacts with respect to various social factors. While the mortuary context is a prominent feature of archaeological inquiry into gendered social processes in North America, mortuary analysis is limited in its approach to gender. Bioarchaeological methods provide deeper context in the present study.
2.1.2 The Limitations of Mortuary Studies
Bioarchaeologists have become increasingly critical of studies which utilize only correlates of material inclusions of burials with sexed skeletons, as the theoretical relationship between biological sex and identity goes beyond simple associations (Cannon 2005; Hollimon 2011). This is of key relevance in the study of non-binary genders, and it is emphasized by Arnold (1991) and Knüsel (2002) in their studies of the “Princess of Vix” (dated 500-480BCE), a burial from Hallstott period of central Europe. This is an atypical burial of a probable biological female, though some of the features of the cranium appear to be ambiguous, with an admixture of “male” and “female” goods, indicating third gender (Arnold 1991; Knüsel 2002). Arnold (2001) noted that the limitation of mortuary analysis, with a focus on gender, is that the patterns and interpretations of material culture and bodies offered by archaeologists may not reflect how past people viewed themselves as agents of social processes. This issue and the limitations of mortuary analysis in bioarchaeological interpretations of gendered social patterns are demonstrated in the relative differences between ethnohistorical reports and bioarchaeological investigations of burials (Arnold 2001; Noel 2011). For example, historians and indigenous scholars have promoted the idea of gender equality and age related status systems among the Iroquoians of northeastern North America, but Cannon (2005) noted a division in grave good distribution by sex (Noel 2011; Venables 2010).
Material culture is not merely a static entity that is inexorably tied to being “male” or “female”, but rather is imbued with complex meaning as a reflection of its use, function, and role in the identity of the person who used it (Sofaer 2006a; Sørensen 2006). Bodies themselves are products of material culture; interpreting social processes
and aspects of identity such as gender without integrating the biological variables from the human skeleton provides a limited view of many aspects of social performance (Fugelesveldt 2014; Sofaer 2006a). This disconnect between the physical body and material objects is an interpretive limitation in traditional mortuary studies that used binary sex distinctions as a single sorting category (Sofaer 2006a; Sørensen 2006). The interaction between life course, biological sex, activity markers, disease, and material culture are important for understanding aspects of gendered identity and performance, with biological sex and age, grave goods, and burial treatment as important interpretive variables (Sofaer 2006a).
2.2 ANALYTICAL METHODS IN BIOARCHAEOLOGY: PALEODEMOGRAPHY