Gender Inequality and Archaeological Practice

A Cypriot Case Study

Authors

  • Jennifer M. Webb La Trobe University
  • David Frankel La Trobe University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jmea.v8i2.29927

Keywords:

gender, gender inequality, archaeology, Cypriot archaeology, women archaeologists, female archaeologists, androcentricity

Abstract

Contemporary disciplinary structures and stratification play an important role in determining intellectual priorities and establishing and maintaining acceptable areas of research in archaeology. This paper seeks to document current gender asymmetry within the sub-field of Cypriot archaeology and to examine the critical interface between this aspect of archaeological practice and the construction and interpretation of the archaeological record. It is suggested that androcentric views of the past and contemporary disciplinary inequities are highly correlated and that the structure, assumptions and goals of the discipline must be fundamentally challenged if gender is become a truly significant category of archaeological analysis.

Author Biographies

  • Jennifer M. Webb, La Trobe University
    Jennifer Webb is a Research Associate in the School of Archaeology at La Trobe University and Academic Associate of the Department of Classics and Archaeology at the University of Melbourne. She completed a dissertation on the ritual architecture and iconography of Cyprus in the Late Bronze Age for the University of Melbourne in 1988 and is Assistant Director of the Australian Cyprus Expedition excavations at Marki Alonia. Broader research interests include Cypriot Bronze Age glyptic, systems of pottery production and ritual practice.
  • David Frankel, La Trobe University
    David Frankel is Reader in Archaeology at La Trobe University, Melbourne. He read archaeology at Sydney University (BA 1970, MA 1973) and Gothenburg University (Phd 1975). He was for some years in the Department of Western Asiatics Antiquities in the British Museum, before returning to Australia in 1978. Apart from Cypriot and Western Asiatic archaeology he has research interests in pottery and trade in Papua New Guinea and in Australian hunter-gatherer prehistory. He is currently Director of the Australian Cyprus Expedition excavations at Marki Elonia.

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Published

1995-12-01

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 2 (1995)

Section

Discussion and Debate

License

© Equinox Publishing Ltd.

For information regarding our Open Access policy, click here.

How to Cite

Webb, J. M., & Frankel, D. (1995). Gender Inequality and Archaeological Practice: A Cypriot Case Study. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology, 8(2), 93-112. https://doi.org/10.1558/jmea.v8i2.29927