Relevant bibliographies by topics / Social aspects of Prehistoric figurines

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Academic literature on the topic 'Social aspects of Prehistoric figurines'

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Published: 4 June 2021
Last updated: 15 February 2022

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Journal articles on the topic "Social aspects of Prehistoric figurines"

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Begun, Erica. "THE MANY FACES OF FIGURINES." Ancient Mesoamerica 19, no. 2 (2008): 311–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0956536108000412.

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AbstractFigurines offer archaeologists intriguing insights into many aspects of prehistoric culture. Beyond their utility as chronological markers, figurines offer information regarding the social and cultural structures of a society. This paper will demonstrate how the figurines of Michoacan can be used as markers of ethnic identity and ethnic continuity in the Lake Patzcauro Basin. The high degree of continuity in decorative and production styles throughout much of the sequence serves as evidence for ethnic continuity and the identity of the people who made the artifacts. A preliminary typology for the Michoacan figurines is presented to support the idea that a distinctly Michoacan style of figurine exists. The application of this figurine typology reveals a high degree of continuity in the figurine record. This supports the hypothesis that the ethnic origins of the Michoacan people may reach back as far as the Late Preclassic/Early Classic period.
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Hamilton, Naomi. "Can We Interpret Figurines?" Cambridge Archaeological Journal 6, no. 2 (October 1996): 281–307. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0959774300001748.

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Figurines—miniature human representations modelled in clay or stone — are one of those key categories of prehistoric material which no archaeologist who finds one can ignore. Whether working in central America or southeast Europe, or in any of the many other contexts in which figurines abound, they form a central class of material which generates a heightened level of interest and attention. But however numerous and how-ever intriguing, prehistoric figurines have another crucial quality — that of ambiguity. Without the help of textual evidence, can prehistoric figurines be confidently interpreted or understood? Can we ever hope to know what an individual figurine was meant to represent, or why it was modelled in the way it was? Yet the challenge of interpretation can hardly be refiised. For figurines illustrate self-awareness, which is a unique human characteristic. It is this dilemma — the impulse to interpret, but the difficulty of doing so convincingly — which is the focus of the present Viewpoint.Figurines are found in many (though not all) regions and periods of prehistory. The earliest — the female forms once referred to as ‘Venus figurines’ — date back to the Upper Palaeolithic. At the other end of the scale, figurines are still in active production today, in the form of dolls, models and statues. In a prehistoric context, figurines have multiple dimensions of interest and meaning. In first place, there is the issue of sex and gender. Many figurines are clearly female, yet their gender significance, in both social and cognitive terms (rather than in simplistic notions of Mother Goddess or sex object), has only recently begun to be considered in a serious and critical way. Then there is the aspect of human self-awareness which the figurines so vibrantly express. Figurines also encode important cognitive elements in the modelling and representation of the human form, their makers frequently exaggerating some features or concealing others. Nor, ultimately, can we avoid the question of belief, and the ritual context in which so many figurines were made or used.The contributors to this Viewpoint feature all believe that figurines can indeed be interpreted. But they also lay stress on the vital importance of context and definition. Prehistoric figurines cannot be understood as isolated artefacts, but must be seen as products of particular societies. How far we can penetrate into their meanings — and into the minds of their prehistoric makers — is the fundamental question which underpins this discussion. Can we interpret figurines? And if so, how should we go about it?
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Rachman, Dikdik Adikara. "Majapahit Terracotta Figurines: Social Environment and Life." Humaniora 7, no. 1 (January 30, 2016): 29. http://dx.doi.org/10.21512/humaniora.v7i1.3394.

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This article aimed to determine the three-dimensional visual tradition in the Majapahit kingdom. This was a manifestation of aesthetic that expressed in various forms, one of them was the figurines that represented linkage aspects in Majapahit’s community life. Terracotta was used as the main basic material in making figurines. Figurines indicated two aspects, namely the human relationship with the natural environment surrounding that translated into a mechanism for the creation, and showed the dimensions of social life in the Hindu tradition. The method used is empirical relational visual with text. In addition, the article was the result of field research conducted under the supervision of Sacred Bridge Foundation, which lasted from 2009 to 2010 in Trowulan as a heritage center site of Majapahit that spread over an area of nearly 100 km2. The research finds out that figurines as a proof of authenticity and identity of the Majapahit that understood as the embodiment of visual culture manifestation.
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Overholtzer, Lisa. "SO THAT THE BABY NOT BE FORMED LIKE A POTTERY RATTLE: AZTEC RATTLE FIGURINES AND HOUSEHOLD SOCIAL REPRODUCTIVE PRACTICES." Ancient Mesoamerica 23, no. 1 (2012): 69–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0956536112000053.

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AbstractThis paper examines the materiality—or the mutually constitutive relationships between people and things—of Aztec rattle figurines in order to shed light on household ritual life in Postclassic central Mexico. By examining iconographic, archaeological, and ethnohistoric evidence, I argue that these figurines were actively used in household healing rituals concerning successful biological and social reproduction, comprised of the work, relationships, and attitudes that perpetuate human life. I then consider the physical experience of that ritual use by exploring the visual, tactile, auditory, and physiological aspects of these figurines. I contend that their visibility in workshops, markets, and the home presented an image of the female body that reinforced women's important roles in the production and reproduction of the household and society. Finally, the material qualities of these figurines reveal ancient discourses on the human body and experimentation with bodily representation in terms of scale, form, and material.
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Atakuman, Çiğdem. "Figurines of the Anatolian Early Bronze Age: the assemblage from Koçumbeli-Ankara." Anatolian Studies 67 (2017): 85–108. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0066154617000023.

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AbstractThrough analysis of a figurine assemblage from the site of Koçumbeli-Ankara, this study aims to re-evaluate the origins, meanings and functions of the Early Bronze Age (third millennium BC) anthropomorphic figurines of Anatolia. Conventional typological approaches to figurines are often focused on their origins and sex; however, such approaches hinder an understanding of the context of the norms of production, display and discard within which the figurines become more meaningful. Following an examination of breakage patterns and the decorative aspects of the Koçumbeli assemblage, a comparative review of figurine find contexts, raw materials and abstraction scales in Anatolia is provided, so that the social concerns underlying the use of these figurines can be explored. It is concluded that the origins of the figurines are difficult to pinpoint, due to the presence of similar items across a variety of regions of the Near East from the later Neolithic onwards. The sex of the figurines is equally ambiguous; while some human sexual features can be discerned, it is difficult to decide whether these features are ‘male’, ‘female’, both or beyond classification. Alternatively, the decoration, breakage and find contexts of the figurines suggest that the imagery was embedded in more complex perceptions of social status, death and social regeneration. The need for materialisation of these concerns in the form of the figurines could be related to the development of a new social landscape of interaction leading to political centralisation by the second millennium BC. Furthermore, the figurines were produced through a meaningful linking of particular raw materials and particular abstraction scales to particular use contexts, which seems to have shifted during the centralisation process.
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Lee, Yun Kuen, and Naicheng Zhu. "Social integration of religion and ritual in prehistoric China." Antiquity 76, no. 293 (September 2002): 715–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x0009116x.

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Holm, Lena. "Stone Artefacts as Transmitters of Social Information - Towards a Wider Interpretation with a North Swedish Example." Current Swedish Archaeology 2, no. 1 (December 28, 1994): 151–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.37718/csa.1994.08.

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Stone artefacts have been studied from various aspects. During the last decades possible behavioural aspects have been emphasized in discussions of different strategies in prehistoric manufacture and acquisition. In this paper specialization and distribution of stone tools are discussed in connection with manufacture, acquisition and consumption. The interpretation is based on Late Neolithic/Bronze Age assemblages in northern Sweden.
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Vitezovic, Selena. "Studies of technology in prehistoric archaeology." Zbornik Matice srpske za drustvene nauke, no. 137 (2011): 465–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.2298/zmsdn1137465v.

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Technology studies have always been the most important focus of archaeology, as a science which analyzes human past through the study of material culture. To say that something is technological in archaeology, means to put the concept of technology in the centre of theoretical studies, and to study not only the form of the object, but also the entire sequence of technological factors, from raw material choice, mode of use, up to the reasons for abandonment. The concept of technology in anthropology and archaeology is based on the original meaning of the word ????? in ancient Greek, meaning the skill, i. e., to study how something is being done. Such a concept of technology as a skill or mode of doing something was for the first time outlined by the French anthropologist Marcel Mauss, whose starting point was that every technological statement was at the same time social or cultural statement and that technological choices have social foundations. Pierre Lemonnier further developed the anthropology of technology, focusing on the question of technological choices, as well as numerous other anthropologists. In archaeology, the most important contribution to the study of technology was the work of Andr? Leroi-Gourhan, who created the concept of cha?ne op?ratoire, as an analytical tool for studying the mode of creating, using and discarding an artefact, starting with raw material acquisition, mode of manufacture, final form, use (including caching, breaking and repairing) up to the final discarding. It is not only about reconstructing the algorithmic sequence of operations in creating one object, but it is a complex analysis of operational chain within one society which includes the analysis of technological choices. The analyses of technologies today include a variety of different approaches, most of them with emphasis on the cultural and social aspects of technology. The analysis of bone industry in the Early and Middle Neolithic in central Balkans (Starcevo culture), which included not only final objects, but also manufacture debris and semi-finished products, revealed a well developed industry, with a high level of technological knowledge on the properties of raw materials, skillful manufacture, well organized production, as well as possibility of a certain degree of specialization on the micro and macro level (within one settlement and within a group of settlements). Both raw material choices and manufacturing techniques, as well as the final forms, demonstrated a high standardization level. Also certain symbolic value was attributed to some raw materials, and there is a possibility that skill itself was valued. Further analyses of multiple technologies will help in reconstructing the organization of production, social and economic aspects in Neolithic societies, as well as the role of technology in everyday and ritual life.
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Jørgensen, Lise Bender. "The question of prehistoric silks in Europe." Antiquity 87, no. 336 (June 1, 2013): 581–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00049140.

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Textiles and clothing are among the most visible aspects of human social and symbolic behaviour and yet they have left all too few traces in the archaeological record and it is easy to overlook their importance. Luxury textiles such as silk can additionally provide evidence of long-distance contact, notably between Europe and China during the Han dynasty and the Roman empire. But can these connections be projected back in time to the prehistoric period? The late Irene Good proposed a number of identifications of silk in Iron Age Europe and was instrumental in bringing the issue to wider attention. Closer examination reported here, however, calls those identifications into question. Instead, the case is put that none of the claimed Iron Age silks can be confirmed, and that early traffic in silk textiles to Europe before the Roman period cannot be substantiated.
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Gonzalez, Ralph Araque. "Social Organization in Nuragic Sardinia: Cultural Progress Without ‘Elites’?" Cambridge Archaeological Journal 24, no. 1 (February 2014): 141–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s095977431400002x.

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After the collapse of most early states in the East around 1200 BC, parts of the western Mediterranean experienced technological progress and demographic rise, apparently without adapting forms of hierarchic political organization. A very good example is Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age nuragic Sardinia, which had been connected to eastern trade networks since Mycenaean times, and developed into one of the most important venues for culture contact and exchange in the West after 1200 BC. However, its rich archaeological record, including figurines, architecture, sanctuaries, villages and tombs, does neither indicate the existence of ‘elite’ groups, nor does it show any traces of a hierarchic society. This article examines the possibility that a non-hierarchical form of socio-political organization devoid of elites developed to a high level of cultural complexity and progress on the island. Other important aspects are the role of immigration as an integrant in nuragic society, considering comparable situations of non-hierarchic politics in ethnography and history, as well as theoretical approaches to forms of social organization. It is concluded that socio-economic development does not necessarily require a centralized political authority.
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Dissertations / Theses on the topic "Social aspects of Prehistoric figurines"

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Townsend, Andrew P. J. "The social context of prehistoric figurines and statuary from the Mediterranean and Near East." Thesis, University of Bristol, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.390141.

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Price, Richard P. S. "Burial practice and aspects of social structure in the late Chalcolithic of north-east Bulgaria." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1997. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:e93fb806-0a9a-4250-9e42-789743ca8f5e.

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The study considers archaeological evidence for burials and other mortuary practices from the Late Chalcolithic period in north-east Bulgaria. The Late Chalcolithic is defined (circa 4500-4000 B.C.) and around 900 burials are attributed to two cultural groups within the region in this period. It is argued that previous studies of the evidence can be rejected for assuming a straightforward equivalence between burial forms and social structures. An alternative model of social organization is proposed based on the 'structuration' and 'habitus' models of Giddens and Bourdieu which emphasize the role of the individual in the reproduction of social institutions. This framework is used to examine the importance of (mortuary) rituals and the symbolic use of material culture in strategies intended to maintain or alter the distribution of power and resources. The data is examined using quantitative measures of spatial and temporal variability and statistical measures of association between variables. It is argued that two basic patterns can be discerned and which correspond to the defined cultures. The inland cultural pattern is further divided into two 'types' based on the location and forms of burials. Burial forms and grave goods are also examined qualitatively and the values attributed to artefacts, materials and the processes of burial are addressed. From this it is argued that meanings are fundamentally mediated through processes of reciprocation between kinship groups and with ancestors. Social structures based on gender and age, the settlement community and residence are proposed. 'Codes' of the use of material culture within mortuary rituals are described and evaluated through a consideration of assemblages and performance. Changes within and between cemeteries over time are used to reconstruct patterns of competition and emulation. The interpretations of social interaction in burial practices are related to other forms of evidence from the Late Chalcolithic in north-east Bulgaria and suggestions made for a new understanding of social organization in both cultures. The conclusions are placed in a wider spatial and temporal perspective and conclusions presented relating to both the data studied and the theoretical models adopted.
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Larsson, Thomas B. "The Bronze Age metalwork in southern Sweden aspects of social and spatial organization 1800-500 B.C. /." Umeå : University of Umeå, 1986. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb357239764.

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Books on the topic "Social aspects of Prehistoric figurines"

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Egloff, Brian. Bones of the ancestors: The Ambum Stone : from the New Guinea highlands to the antiquities market to Australia. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 2008.

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Haarmann, Harald. Interacting with figurines: Seven dimensions in the study of imagery. West Hartford, Vt: Full Circle Press, 2009.

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Interacting with figurines: Seven dimensions in the study of imagery. West Hartford, Vt: Full Circle Press, 2009.

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Social adaptation to food stress: A prehistoric southwestern example. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.

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Burton, Frances D. Fire--the spark that ignited human evolution. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2009.

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Mount, Charles. The early and middle bronze age in south-east Ireland: Aspects of social and cultural distributions. Dublin: University College Dublin, 1997.

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Greis, Gloria Polizzotti. Relations of production: Social networks, social change and the organization of agriculture in late prehistoric southern Britain. Oxford: J. and E. Hedges, 2002.

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Relations of production: Social networks, social change and the organization of agriculture in late prehistoric southern Britain. Oxford: John and Erica Hedges, 2002.

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Mukhopādhyāẏa, Śaṃkarānanda. Studies in pre-history and thereafter: Some aspects of Bengal social life. Calcutta: Sanskrit College, 1990.

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European Association of Archaeologists. Meeting. Rock art as social representation: Papers from a session held at the European Association of Archaeologists Fourth Annual Meeting in Göteborg 1998. Oxford, England: Archaeopress, 1999.

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Book chapters on the topic "Social aspects of Prehistoric figurines"

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Lenssen-Erz, Tilman, and Andreas Pastoors. "Reading Spoor." In Reading Prehistoric Human Tracks, 101–18. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60406-6_6.

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AbstractThe spoor of animals and humans alike contain rich information about an individual and about a momentary activity this individual performed. If the – arguably hard-wired – human ability to read spoor and tracks is sufficiently trained, a footprint allows to glean from it various physical, kinetic, medical, social and psychologic data about an individual, as has been observed among various populations across the globe. The Ju|’hoansi San from northern Namibia still today practice traditional hunting so that tracking is a skill that is required and trained on a daily base. For a good tracker, the information she or he gets from spoor is equally rich on animal and human footprints, and it is not necessary that the tracker has been exposed before to the individual whose spoor she/he reads. In order to allow an assessment of how tenable are the interpretations by contemporary hunter-gatherers of prehistoric human footprints, this chapter elucidates methodological aspects of tracking and situates this ability in an epistemological framework.
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O'Brien, William. "Technology and Work Practices." In Prehistoric Copper Mining in Europe. Oxford University Press, 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199605651.003.0013.

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The production of copper in prehistory was a complex undertaking, involving a sequence of inter-related activities that required specialist knowledge and informed organization. The operation of early copper mines demanded a long-term commitment that had important implications for the societies in question. There are obvious parallels with modern mining in terms of the multi-stage nature of the process, from the initial search for copper ores to their extraction, treatment, and eventual conversion to metal. This explains why early mining is often characterized as an ‘industry’, with its own specialists and techniques. Given their professional background, it is not surprising that the earliest researchers in this field focused on the geological setting, technology, and engineering aspects of prehistoric copper mines. Modern research also deals with these aspects, but is more concerned with understanding the wider societal context of this activity. It is now recognized that any reconstruction of the chaîne opératoire of early copper mining cannot be based solely on technique and process, but needs to incorporate the dynamic social context of this activity. It also needs to recognize that human choice played a significant role in determining the process of mining. While some areas are not amenable to archaeological enquiry, a reconstruction of task structure and work routines should capture many aspects of decision making in these mines. This will be revisited in the next chapter to explore the distinctive nature of prehistoric mining communities and how they interacted with the external world. Before doing so, it is necessary to examine the process of mining in terms of the techniques employed and the work environment of these miners. The opening chapter of this book considered the concept of ore, as it would have applied in prehistory. The modern definition is essentially an economic one that relates the cost of mining a mineral deposit to perceived financial returns or strategic interests. The effort of extraction must be set against the concentration or ‘grade’ of metal present in the rock, which will determine whether it can be profitably extracted.
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Laneri, Nicola. "Defining the Canon of Funerary Archaeology in the Ancient Near East." In Testing the Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology, 153–71. Oxford University Press, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190673161.003.0007.

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In archaeology, funerary practices are a quintessential element in the process of interpreting ancient societies because of the widespread presence in the archaeological record of remains associated with mortuary depositions. For this reason, throughout the twentieth century, archaeologists have debated both methodologically and theoretically what value to assign to the remains of funerary rituals enacted by ancient communities in relationship to other social and cultural domains. The aim of this chapter is to define the canon of ancient Near Eastern funerary practices through a detailed interpretation of the relationship between funerary practices, socioeconomic organization, and religious beliefs. With the use of a diachronic perspective, transformation in one of these domains is shown to have had a direct impact on the others. Case studies test how specific aspects of mortuary and funerary practices among prehistoric through first-millennium BCE Near Eastern communities have become canonical.
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Dean, Jeffrey S., and George J. Gumerman. "Understanding Anasazi Culture Change Through Agent-Based Modeling." In Dynamics in Human and Primate Societies. Oxford University Press, 2000. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195131673.003.0013.

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Traditional narrative explanations of prehistory have become increasingly difficult to operationalize as models and to test against archaeological data. As such models become more sophisticated and complex, they also become less amenable to objective evaluation with anthropological data. Nor is it possible to experiment with living or prehistoric human beings or societies. Agentbased modeling offers intriguing possibilities for overcoming the experimental limitations of archaeology by representing the behavior of culturally relevant agents on landscapes. Manipulating the behavior of artificial agents on such landscapes allows us to, as it were, "rewind the tape" of sociocultural history and to experimentally examine the relative contributions of internal and external factors to sociocultural evolution (Gumerman and Kohler in press). Agent-based modeling allows the creation of variable resource (or other) landscapes that can be wholly imaginary or that can capture important aspects of real-world situations. These landscapes are populated with heterogeneous agents. Each agent is endowed with various attributes (e.g., life span, vision, movement capabilities, nutritional requirements, consumption and storage capacities) in order to replicate important features of individuals or relevant social units such as households, lineages, clans, and villages. A set of anthropologically plausible rules defines the ways in which agents interact with the environment and with one another. Altering the agents' attributes, their interaction rules, and features of the landscape allow experimental examination of behavioral responses to different initial conditions, relationships, and spatial and temporal parameters. The agents' repeated interactions with their social and physical landscapes reveal ways in which they respond to changing environmental and social conditions. As we will see, even relatively simple models may illuminate complex sociocultural realities. While potentially powerful, agent-based models in archaeology remain unverified until they are evaluated against actual cases. The degree of fit between a model and real-world situations allows the model's validity to be assessed. A close fit between all or part of a model and the test data indicates that the model, albeit highly simplified, has explanatory power. Lack of fit implies that the model is in some way inadequate.
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Smyntyna, Olena V. "Environment in Soviet and Post-Soviet Archaeology." In Humans and the Environment. Oxford University Press, 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199590292.003.0009.

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Soviet archaeology, based on a revized Marxist paradigm of historical process, traditionally emphasized the primacy of social and economic processes, while at the same time empirically creating a foundation for palaeoenvironmental studies based on the interdisciplinary reconstruction of a subsistence economy. The collapse of the Soviet Union caused the break-up of the well-composed strict Soviet methodology of historical reconstruction, provoking intensive searches for new theoretical frameworks for both field and interpretative investigations. This paradigmatic and in some aspects epistemological crisis has created a unique background for the critical revision of a series of approaches and scientific schools which functioned during the second half of the twentieth century. As a result of this difficult, long-lasting, and often ambiguous process of self-reflection only a few concepts applied in Soviet archaeology have demonstrated a vital, cognitive capacity in the post-Soviet period; however, environment is one of these. The history of environmental thought in Soviet archaeology (as in Soviet social sciences in general) represents a unique genre: officially neglected and even theoretically non-existent, it was nevertheless broadly applied in practical research, and many important theories, concepts, and reconstructions have been developed on the basis of palaeoenvironmental data. This ambiguity of lack of official status mixed with practical application of an environmental approach in Soviet archaeology explains why a detailed history of Soviet theoretical approaches to the environment is as yet unwritten. However, this contribution tries to begin this process by briefly summing up the history of environmental approach implementation in Soviet and post-Soviet archaeology, outlining the basic stages of this process and examining the main concepts and notions explored in this context. The specificity of the material remains of hunter-gatherer daily life and subsistence as well as features of their archaeological investigation techniques (including studies of the geological characteristics of cultural layers alongside detailed examination of faunal remains) caused Stone Age archaeology to emerge within the framework of the natural sciences—geology and palaeontology. From the very beginning of Stone Age archaeology the Early Prehistoric population was viewed as an integral part of the natural environment.
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"interpreted in different ways by individual scholars. Why, for example, is the preponderance of male depictions seen at Grot ta di Porto Badisco interpeted as meaning male domination of Neolithic society in Italy (Whitehouse, 1992b) whereas Hodder (1990: 68) declines to interpret the common occurrence of female figurines in the Neolithic of S.E. Europe as an indication of an equivalent female domination of society, but instead suggests "To put it over-simply, women may or may not have had any real power in the Neolithic of S.E. Europe, but certain aspects of being a woman were conceptually central."? One can cite a similar example from Skeates (1994: 207-8), where he accepts Whitehouse's identification of the human figures as males or females, but disagrees with her interpretation of male dominance and hostility between the sexes in Italian Neolithic society. Each of these two scholars also has their own interpretation of the important group 16 painted scene from the Grotta do Porto Badisco — needless to say, I also have mine. By turning to burial evidence, can one avoid the above dilemmas? Physical anthropological methods can be used to identify male and female human remains, and, knowing the sex of burials could then lead to a better understanding of the gender affiliations of accompanying grave goods. These artefacts can then be investigated in other contexts such as settlement sites. However, there is a surprising amount of uncertainty involved in sexing human remains. In this paper I wish to discuss the uncertainties in the physical anthropological methods of sexing human remains and their implications for gender studies by focussing on a recent analysis of an Iron Age necropolis at Pontecagnario, Campania, carried out by Vida Navarro (1992). PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL METHODS OF SEXING HUMAN REMAINS Since gender is culturally constructed, it is possible for individuals or groups to have a gender that is different from their biological sex, or is intermediate or anomalous in some way. For example, in Ancient Rome, a Vestal Virgin had an ambiguous status in Roman society as shown by the fact that she could give evidence in a law court like a man. Usually Roman women had to be represented by a male relation or their spouse and could not speak in court on their own behalf or give evidence (Beard 1980: 17). Nevertheless, a Vestal Virgin was still a woman, and was allowed to marry, if she so wished, after her term of office finished (Beard 1980:, 14, note 21). Although ambiguous groups of this kind have been recognised in many societies, it is nonetheless the case that one would expect a high level of correlation between biological sex and social gender. The accurate identification of the biological sex of human remains would therefore be a great step forward in understanding gender construction and gender roles in prehistory. Unfortunately, physical anthropological methods are reliable only to a certain extent, and it is important for all archaeologists to be aware of the limitations of these methods. Like other primates, humans show sexual dimorphism i.e., the males have a larger body and show other skeletal differences from females, especially in the shape of the pelvis. When an intact pelvis is present in a burial, the identification of those remains as male or female can be made with 95% confidence (Krogman & Iscan 1986: 259). This, of course, applies to recent skeletal material, as the morphological and morphometric methods for sex identification used by anthropologists are based on reference collections from modern human populations. As Gotherstrom et ¿z/. (1997) point out, the application of these standards to prehistoric remains may be inappropriate. Prehistoric females may have been more skeletally robust, so that in the absence of a diagnostic pelvis, they could appear to be males, according to standards derived from modern populations. The pelvis anchors muscles, and "Considering the plasticity of the skeleton in response to external forces and stimuli, there are reasons to proceed with caution in interpreting all morphological differences in the pelvic region as a result of differential reproductive function." (Gotherstrom et al. 1997)." In Gender & Italian Archaeology, 44–58. Routledge, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315428178-13.

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