Providing a Past for ‘Bodies That Matter’ Today

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The article  ‘Providing a Past for ‘Bodies that Matter’: Judith Butler‘s Impact on the Archaeology of Gender, by Elizabeth M. Perry and Rosemary A. Joyce, discusses how Judith Butler’s theories about performing gender impact archaeological studies on gender. The article is divided into four sections, including an introduction and conclusion, and builds on Butler’s core tenets of the theory of performing gender.

INTRODUCTION

Recent archaeological studies follow Butler’s theories, focusing less on biological differences and more on the fluidity of gender roles shaped by social factors. Butler offers insights into Archaeology, a material-based field, on how gender roles were performed and regulated in the past.

GENDER PERFORMANCE AND ARCHAEOLOGY

Societies have had gender rules since ancient times, which are evident in grand ceremonies and everyday activities. An example is Aztec cultural ceremonies. The Aztec civilisation was a Mesoamerican empire that thrived in central Mexico from 1325 to 1521. Their settlement rules and tool use reflect strict gender roles. Plazas were the common community spaces for the Aztecs. Eating together also reinforced gender duties and emphasised who does what. People normalised gender roles prescribed in community rituals by connecting them to daily routines, and these actions, in turn, constructed their identities as men and women. Performing gender roles again and again confirmed it as normal and expected. Drawing on Butler’s theories, anthropology seeks to understand how people in the past perceived gender.

MATERIALITY AND GENDER PERFORMANCE

Materials matter in Archaeology. Archaeologists link gender performances to physical things like tools, bones, writings, art, etc. Different societies use different materials to show gender roles. Like materials, work roles also determined gender. Often, jobs like weaving were connected to gender and social class. Representations, such as pictures on walls, showed how gender was performed in workspaces, shaping shared beliefs and making those performances routine and unquestioned.

An example of this is Maya culture. The Maya civilisation was a Mesoamerican civilisation that flourished from around 2000 BC to 1697 AD. Their art, like paintings on hard materials like stone and pottery, showed fixed ideas about gender roles. By analysing the archaeological remains of Central American peoples, we can see that even clothes mattered. What people wore influenced how they performed gender roles, and the choice of accessories reflected their gender values. The article also shows how people sometimes pushed back against gender norms, revealing the complexity of gender roles in the past. Depiction of sexuality in objects also helps us to understand the connection between gender performance and physical pleasures.

GENDER TRANSGRESSIVE PERFORMANCE THAT MATTERS

This section examines the life and culture of pre-Hispanic North American society. In this society, gender roles were binary—male and female. This is reflected in artefacts, architecture, and ceremonies until 1275. Later, in Zuni communities, people tried to break gender roles both at home and in public ceremonies. The Zuni are Native American Pueblo people from the Zuni River Valley. By examining these people’s public rituals and daily routines, we can find a reaction against the binary gender roles. In this community, transgender people were known as Ihamanas. They had definite domestic and public roles. They had specific roles in Katsina ceremonies. Changes in the status of transgender people in Zuni society may have happened due to changes in religious beliefs. One of the richest archaeological sites, Grasshopper Pueblo, shows that labour divisions were gender-based. This is evident from the bones. The female bones showed signs of grain processing and other traditional female job roles, while the male ones showed signs of weapon use.

PERFORMANCE AND THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF SEXUALITY

Butler’s work on gender helps archaeologists understand ancient sexual norms. For example, Tenochtitlan Joyce uses Butler’s ideas to study gender roles in Aztec society. She says that in these societies, celibates usually devoted themselves to religion. The body markings and ornaments also reveal gender roles beyond just physical sexuality. Visual images influenced the Classic Maya societies to engage in traditional gender-based practices. The phallic sculptures represented idealised manhood. In Mesoamerican culture, people deviating from established gender norms were either ignored or rejected. Body anxiety is also evident. Representations of physically challenged groups like dwarves reflect social anxiety about the body.

CONCLUSION

Archaeological studies in North America have their theoretical roots in anthropology. Archaeologists are delving deeply into gender issues, leading to many studies that explore gender in the past from different perspectives. Butler’s ideas are not universally accepted; however, her theories on the social construction of gender identity and sexuality offer powerful tools for archaeologists. Archaeologists seek to understand how ancient societies established and imposed gender roles, which helps us comprehend contemporary gender performances.

 

 

 

 

WORKS CITED

Perry, Elizabeth M., and Rosemary A. Joyce. “Past Performance: The Archaeology of Gender as Influenced by the Work of Judith Butler.” Butler Matters: Judith Butler’s Impact on Feminist and Queer Studies, edited by Margaret Sönser Breen and Warren J. Blumenfeld, Routledge, 2000.

Joyce, Rosemary A. “Archaeology of the Body.” Gender & History, vol. 20, no. 3, Nov. 2008, pp. 561–584.

“Past Performance: The Archaeology of Gender as Influenced by the Work of Judith Butler.” ResearchGate, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269991192_Past_Performance_The_Archaeology_of_Gender_as_Influenced_by_the_Work_of_Judith_Butler.

Perry, Elizabeth M., and Rosemary A. Joyce. “Providing a Past for ‘Bodies That Matter’: Judith Butler’s Impact on the Archaeology of Gender.” International Journal of Sexuality & Gender Studies, vol. 6, nos. 1/2, 2001. SpringerLink, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A%3A1010142023744.