Archaeogender Studies in Gender's Material Culture, Marco Polo Monographs by Sheldon Lee Gosline

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MPM2: Archaeogender Studies in Gender's Material Culture
by Sheldon Gosline
Contents __________________________________________ ii.......Acknowledgements 1-16.....Introduction 17-58....1: Feminist Critique and Archaeogender 59-94....2: Archaeogender of Representation: A Case from Indian Prehistory 95-134...3: Archaeogender of Religion: A Case from Egypt 135-176..4: Archaeogender of Rule: A Case from Nigeria 177-207..5: Archaeogender of Death: A Case from Israel 208-234..6: Archaeogender of Ornament: A Case from South Asian Poetry 235-239..Gender Frontiers 240-269..Bibliography 270......List of Figures 271-273..Index 274-292..Illustrations	ORDER NOW How does a barbie doll relate to archaeology? This book explores how society makes us who we are! ISBN 0-9677201-2-5 Cloth Bound Price $39.50 US Single Orders Volume Orders Excerpt Below Read Enculturated Sexuality of Egyptian Religion, an abstract by Prof. Gosline.
The Author Prof. Gosline is a leading expert in gender of archaeology. This work results from many years of research in the field, displaying the author's broad and deep understanding of ancient societies in Egypt, Israel, India and China. REVIEW Archaeogender is probably the most profound study on gender in archaeology available. Every subject discussed is completely researched, yet it is presented in a witty and engaging style. How we are defined by society is something I had not seriously understood until now. This book is profoundly important! - A Reviewer from Cornell University
OVERVIEW

Gender differentiation is a universal human social norm. Every society has a mechanism intact for casting people into socio-sexual roles and this gender process can be traced in the archaeological record. That said, one must quickly counter that HOW gender is expressed varies drastically. Within a culture, the engendering process varies according to caste, class, economic standing or other cultural sub-group. Between cultures gender is continually interacting with other social norms. Gender takes on a life of its own as it changes through time, like all other aspects of a society. Tracking this change through time and space is the study of what I call "archaeogender."

EXCERPTS

ARCHAEOGENDER OF RELIGION: A Case From Egypt

	It can not be denied that Roman Catholic celibacy has some pagan roots in socially constructed gendered values.  Celibacy, to the extreme of cultic castration of priests, has been associated with Babylon, Phoenicia, Cyprus, in the cult of Artemis in Ephesus, in the Phrygian cult of Attis and Cybele, and even in later manifestations of the cult of Osiris in Egypt (Ranke-Heinemann, 1988/1990: 13, 99).  But, there is no evidence that castration, or even celibacy, was encouraged in ancient Egypt.
	By far, the theologian who most firmly fused Christianity to a hatred of sex and physical pleasure was the great Church Father, Saint Augustine (d. A. D. 430).  He took the prevailing contempt for sex and added a personal and theological sexual anxiety of original sin.  Augustine informs us that before the Fall, which was caused by a woman, Adam had been capable of moving his phallus with as much control as fallen mankind exercises over a finger, arm or foot.  But infected with original sin, the sexual organs function with no regard to their owner, so children are sown in lust (Haskins, 1993: 78).  How he came to this divine understanding is unclear.  It is clear that this fervor against sex developed from a bad conscious relating to his life before conversion.  He concluded that the fault lay less in himself than in the evil pleasures of sex. (Ranke-Heinemann, 1988/1990: 75-76, 79-80).
	Men are supposed to hoard sperm.  Both Western and Eastern religions discourage the expenditure of sperm without effecting impregnation.  Many societies consider the waste of sperm as a loss of wealth.  The idea is that when a man spends or ejaculates his sperm he is acting against his approved social role; that of husbanding, conserving or saving limited resources.  Cultures may even express this distinction as a factor of maturity.  While a boy will spend sperm and money, a man uses sperm and women to produce wealth, but both are crucial to the perpetuation of male supremacy.  “In the male system, control of money means sexual maturity, as does the ability to control ejaculation” (Dworkin, 1979/1980/1981: 21).
	It is well known that the writings of Aristotle generally influenced Western culture (Sissa, 1992: 68; Ranke-Heinemann, 1988/1990: 187) as did Christian philosophers such as Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas.  Bonaventure supported a position that “the male sex is more excellent in worth in originating; in power in acting; in authority in ruling” by citing Aristotle’s view that the male is active while the female is passive (Gibson, 1992: 73).  Bonaventure also argued that since Christ came to save both sexes, he ought to assume human nature either in both sexes or from both sexes.  But, to assume both sexes in one individual would be abominable, and to assume humanity in two would be superfluous.  So he concluded that the male sex was chosen for decorum and due to its greater dignity.  The now famous definition of woman as a “misbegotten male”, by Thomas Aquinas, is actually directly derived from Aristotle’s biology, which identified the male sperm with the genetic form of the embryo.  By definition, a woman is thereby lacking normative human standing, physically deficient, and even morally deficient (Ruether, 1981: 53).  Women are then regarded as contributing only the matter or “blood” which fleshes out the form of the embryo.  Hence, the very existence of women must be explained as a biological accident, through the deformation of the male seed by this female “matter” (Gibson, 1992: 74-75).
	The position of Christianity in all of its forms has not always been so monolithic on the priestly calling and sacerdotal role of women.  There is some indication that the injunction from I Timothy for women to keep silent in the church was “a second generation reaction against widespread participation of women in leadership, teaching and ministering in first-generation Christianity” (Ruether, 1981: 56).   Similar to some reconstructions of gender roles in the early church, latent egalitarianism in Christian theology surfaced in left-wing Puritanism from the English Civil War, but was defeated by the reclericalization of the Puritans.  According to Ruether (1981: 58), “The Quakers were the only Civil War Sect that retained the version of women’s equality and carried it down into the beginning of nineteenth century feminism”.
	The Protestant Reformation has also had a great effect on our understanding of the priestly occupation as being a ministry to the populace rather than a servant to a deity.  This dichotomy did not exist in ancient Egypt and it is, in fact, a fairly modern one.  Watterson (1991: 38), presents a Protestant, not Catholic or Orthodox, model for worship, “Unlike, for example, a Christian church or cathedral, an ancient Egyptian temple was not a place in which a god was worshipped by a congregation led by a spiritual leader who was also a preacher and instructor of his parishioners”.   This post-reformation perspective greatly affects our perceptions of ancient religious practice, but has nothing to do with that of ancient Egypt.
	The actual evidence for a sacerdotal role of women in ancient Egypt is truly quite significant, and very different from the Western paradigm.  That does not imply that Egyptian society was matriarchal in its structure.  Unequivocally, the internal bias of Egyptian society does seem to be patriarchal.
        In sum, if Egyptian society of the Old Kingdom was basically a man’s world, reflected, for the most part in tomb chapels of which men were the primary owners, women are nonetheless seen to have participated in some of the most essential and important activities of that society... (Fischer, 1989: 23).
        There is likewise, and perhaps as a result, a tendency to lessen the significance and recognized presence of women in preserved records, as written by a male scribal throng.  Social structure and the organization of religious activity do not have to be guided by the same, or even remotely related principles.  Such an assumption is derived from Marxist theory, which although chiefly concerned with economy rather than social structure encourages a confusion between gender and class issues.   Marxism includes a notion of patriarchy as an inter-subjective domination which is sometimes used as a metaphor for class relations, and therefore gender and social issues are easily confused.  Not only is a natural division of labor presupposed to exist between the sexes, but also class society is interpreted according to male concerns. As Coward (1983: 160, 167) points out, “For Engles, as for many subsequent Marxists, it is the economic element which is the source of oppression within marriage”.  This theoretical template tries to conform the position of women in the priesthood of Hathor to some kind of rank in society.  Evidence of this borrowed paradigm is to be found in many discussions of the subject.  For example, according to Lesko (1987: 20), “Wives of the temple priests had ritual functions corresponding to their elevated rank”.  Similarly Ward (1986: 25) positions the social rank for the “The ‘Priestess of Hathor’ somewhere in between” the ‘Daughter of the Count’ and a ‘Sole Lady-in-waiting’.  This assumed association was also not part of the ancient world view.
	In short, as is the case of other historical archaeologists, Egyptologists have used assumptions, theories and methods that have reified the modern gender mythology.  Women’s subordinate status has been upheld in at least three major ways according to Suzanne Spencer-Wood:

1) by ignoring gender or subsuming women in male-defined categories or generalizations, thus reifying beliefs in the insignificance of women and gender,
2) by considering women in the past only in currently low valued roles, such as housewives, without researching how people, especially women, valued these roles in the past, or
3) by interpreting all of women’s roles in the past as subordinate or inferior to men’s roles (Spencer-Wood, 1991: 235).

Egyptologists have thus unconsciously helped to justify the modern androcentric beliefs in women’s inferior status as priests.

Ancient Egyptian Evidence
	In the Old Kingdom, the evidence for women of particularly high social rank reveals a wide variety of priestly positions.  For example, the royal princess Inti, from the end of the fifth dynasty, was both “priest of the Hathor” and the “unique ornament of the king” (Brown, 1973: 18, No. 10).  The central stele of the false door from her tomb shows her receiving offerings.  False doors from the west wall of an offering chamber were intended to assure passage between the realm of the living and that of the dead.  Such archaeological sources provide the largest body of evidence for women’s involvement in the priesthoods of ancient Egypt.
	It is not clear that temple service was more open to these women, or if our knowledge about them is heavily slanted due to the archaeological focus on royal necropolis sites such as Giza and Saqqara and that princesses and other elite women were more likely to be able to be provided with fine tombs and inscribed mortuary equipment.  There is no absolute basis for Waterson’s assertion that, “members of the lowest social class , be they male or female, were excluded from these (priestly) positions...” (Watterson, 1991: 39).  What can be said for certain is that women did serve in the priesthoods of both male and female deities.  There is also evidence that women served in the mortuary priesthood of Cheops and for the god Ptah.  Queen Meresankh was high priestess of Thoth.  (Fischer, 1989: 12-13; Dunham and Simpson, 1974: 17, figs. 7 and 9; Watterson, 1991: 43).  There are records to document that a few women were among the men who performed in ceremonies for king Neuserre’s jubilee in the solar temple of Abusir, but the nature of their duties is unclear.  From Akhmim, we know of another type of divine service which women performed by keeping watch over the god Min (Fischer, 1989: 19), and at Beni Hasan, women served the local goddess Pakhet (Watterson, 1991: 43; Newberry, 1893: 14, pl. XVIII.; 43, pls. XXXV-XXXVI).  There is also an example of this title in the Middle Kingdom in addition to a Watcher of Bast, Horus, and Min (Guest, 1926: 46).
	Concerning the Hathor priesthood of the Old Kingdom, it appears that some could serve in more than one temple, and that positions in the temple hierarchy were not inherited (Lesko, 1987: 19; Watterson, 1991: 42).  According to Galvin (1984: 42-49), a daughter did not inherit the position from a family member, but the Inspector and Overseer of Priests, particularly in the Cuseae Hathoric cult, did.  How individuals acquired a position -- by merit, appointment, inheritance, and / or purchase  -- is really an area of investigation which requires further attention.  Although there are a few rare instances when persons attribute the acquisition of a particular status to an ancestor, most of the data are in the form of reconstructed genealogies which are plagued with problems of uncertainty and incompleteness.  Note instance of Hnm-hetep who claims his position through his mother’s side, “my mother attained the position...” (DeBuck, 1963:67-72).  In respect to the priesthood of Hathor, only nine of the one hundred and five female priests who provide us with information concerning their mothers and/or daughters had immediate female relatives also known to be in the service of that goddess.  In eleven cases mothers-in-law were priests of Hathor, and in five cases a female relative of non-specified relationship served Hathor.  Of the male relatives, twenty-five female priests of Hathor list male relatives who also held some Hathoric title.  According to Galvin (1981: 171-172, 185), “These statistics would suggest that Hathoric titles did not hold hereditary status for female-female relationships”.  One should, however,  question the usefulness of statistical analysis as it has been applied here due to the nature of funerary inscriptions.  Funerary inscriptions provide much data concerning the status and occupation of the particular individual for whom the artists created the monument. It is not usual for such inscriptions to provide much data concerning the status or occupation of anyone else.
	 Genealogical analysis of ancient stelae may illustrate that  priestly titles are restricted to the individual for whom the inscription was intended, while those of others mentioned are excluded, and that without context most of the relationships are not evident.  A group of false doors from the fifth dynasty family tomb of Tep-m-’ankh in Saqqara (Mariette, 1889, Reprint 1976: 96-201 (D11); Borchardt, 1937-1964: CG 1414, false door of R’a-n-k3w (m) and Jh3t (f); CG 1415, false door of Nebuhetep (f); CG 1416, false door of R’a-n-k3w (m); CG 1417, false door of Hem-Min (m); CG 1564, false door of Tep-m-’ankh (m)). may be used to illustrate this point.  On the false door of the male priest of Hathor, Seshat, and Maat; Tep-m-’ankh (m) [CG 1564], his wife is not mentioned, and although two of his sons, Hem-Min (m) and ‘Ankh-neter-m-’a (m) are depicted, none of their titles are given.  On the false door of the female priest of Hathor and Neith; Nebu-hetep (f) [CG 1415], she is identified as the wife of this Tep-m-’ankh (m) but none of his titles are given.  Her list of relatives is more complete than the list found on CG 1564, but only Hem-Min (m) appears on both CG 1564 and 1415.  The daughter Hetep-her-[s] provides a link with the third generation of this family tomb group.   The false door of the male priest of Hathor, Seshat, and Horus; Hem-Min (m) [CG 1417] indicates that he is the son of Tep-m-’ankh (m) but none of his titles are given.   His mother is not mentioned, although it is clear from her inclusion on CG 1415 that it was Nebu-hetep (f).   The false door of R’a-n-k3w (m) and Jh3t (f) [CG 1414], is mainly concerned with the wife and female priest of Hathor; Jh3t (f).  There are no priestly titles given for her husband R’a-n-k3w (m) on this false door.  Significantly, her parentage is given maternally as Hetep-her-s (f), who should almost certainly be identified with the daughter of Nebu-hetep (f) [CG 1415].  This listing of her mother is of value to us, for it provides the only link between CG 1564, 1415, 1417 and CG 1414, 1416.  Her sons, Sekhem-k3 (m), and Shepses-Ptah (m) are listed on both this false door and on CG 1416,  while two other children are only listed on CG 1414; ‘Ankh-ir-Ptah (m) and S3t-mrt (f). The false door of the male priest of Hathor, Maat, and Horus; R’a-n-k3w (m) [CG 1416] lists his wife Jh3t (f) but none of her titles are given.   It may even be possible to round out this genealogy with some more data concerning the fourth generation of this fifth dynasty family.  There are a number of statues known from a single mastaba which have the name of a male priest of Hathor and Horus; Shepses-Ptah (m) [CG 28, 54, 77, 81, 83 (?), 97, 164(?), 207, and 214] (Borchardt, 1911: 28-29, 47, 63, 65-67, 76-77, 117, 139-140; Mariette, 1889/1976: C10).   This could be a son of R’a-n-k3w (m) and Jh3t (f), but no genealogical data is given on these statues.  Another son, ‘Ankh-ir-Ptah (m) may be identified with a fifth dynasty Overseer of Beef Fat who was married to a female priest of Hathor; Nebt (f) (Moussa and Altenmüller, 1971: 10 [a-c]).  This genealogical example illustrates that priestly titles are clearly restricted to the individual for whom the specific inscription was intended, and that without context most of relationships would have been lost.
	Another factor which has recently become apparent is that women with the title of Mrt held important responsibilities for real estate and agricultural personnel.  Fischer (1989: 12) had identified this position as a “singer” while Lesko (1987: 19) associated the title Mrt  with the Hathor cult “in the environs of Memphis, the capital city during the golden age of the Fourth dynasty... ...some women exercised responsibilities for the fields and other property belonging to the cult places”.  This function of the Mrt was not discussed by Fischer (1989: 18).
	These female priests ultimately were responsible for the financial security of their cult centers, indicating that the position required considerable education. Inscriptions from the late Old Kingdom attest to a new administrative position, Inspector of Priest(esse)s of Hathor.  The men who held this position may have preempted the responsibilities of the Mrt.  However, from the Middle Kingdom there are indications that women were involved in the administrative function of Hathor temples.  For example, the lady Ib-Neith was a “Trustworthy Sealer” of the Hathor temple in Sinai (Ward, 1989:37).  Despite this evidence, Watterson (1991: 40) states that priestesses “were neither administrators nor specialists, and wielded little influence outside the temple”.  Likewise, Fischer (1989: 15) claims that, “The apparent exclusion of women from scribal activities is also borne out by the absence of female “lector priests”.
	In actual fact, this subject needs further study.  Several examples of unrecognized female scribal priestly administrators are recorded in the ancient sources but have gone unnoticed.  For example, there is a female priest of Hathor known from this Middle Kingdom temple in Sinai (Gardiner and Peet, 1952-1955: 105, pl. 33.98). 
	While it is true that the majority of women in the service of Hathor could be identified as songstresses, music and dance were a major part of her worship.  Furthermore, the fact that women were frequently associated with dance and music in a temple context has aided in the prevailing demeaning attitude toward their significance.  Manniche (1991: 109) expresses this current limited view of gendered artifacts by observing that “one is slightly surprised to come across it (the sistrum, a sacred emblem) in such surroundings (as on the Turin Papyrus), though there is another case of a drunken lady waving a sistrum and emptying a jar of wine at the same time”.  The use of wine is erroneously associated with drunkenness and sexual immorality.
	The issue concerning the religious importance of this apparent “entertainment” will subsequently be discussed in full.  For now it is suitable to point out that in the dance these women were transformed into the goddess Hathor.  As Lesko points out, (1987: 20), “The musician priestesses of Hathor impersonated the great cow-goddess and provided her cult with the tinkling music of the metal sistra and the rattle of the large bead collars (mnit)”.  According to one myth, Hathor resided in the desert as a ferocious lioness, but Re’, Hathor’s father, became embarrassed by her brutish lifestyle and lured her home by a magic potion and promises of a life dedicated to music, song, dance and drunken happiness (Watterson, 1991: 40).  As Manniche (1991: 58, 117) points out, Hathor as the daughter of Re’, was manifested as a savage lioness greatly feared by men.  Her first port of call, associated with the annual flood on the journey home was Philae, and it is this event which is celebrated in her temple on the island. Through the music and dance of her kindred devotees, the savage lioness was mystically transformed into the beautiful, gentle goddess of love.
	A curious passage from the Contentions of Horus and Seth states that when the Great God was upset, his daughter Hathor, Lady of the Southern Sycamore, came and stood before him, “and she revealed her nakedness (lit.: vagina) before him”,  which had the effect of making him laugh and recover from his depression.  The word in Egyptian is k3t.  Wente (Simpson, Faulkner, Wente, 1972: 112, passage IV, 1-3) translates this passage, “After a considerable while Hathor, Lady of the Southern Sycamore, came and stood before her father, the Universal Lord, and she exposed her vagina before his very eyes”.  There appears to be a dichotomy between coarse humor and religious seriousness which may reflect an aspect of the Ramesside age piety and zest for life.  This apparent dichotomy may be the result of mythic form which articulates the deepest antinomies of the human situation without attempting to reconcile these antinomies; note discussion of this point by Oden (1979: 368).  This potential for explosively dangerous and even sexually active power is a constant undercurrent in the worship of Hathor, providing a key to understanding that music and dance were not thought by the Egyptians to be mere entertainment.  Correspondingly, the description and depiction of drunken behavior should not be viewed as evidence of loose morals, but as an expression of piety.  According to Manniche (1991: 61), “We must visualize the musicians, who are representatives of a larger group, dancing, playing and singing to the goddess to entertain her and chase away her cares”.  This piety is well expressed in a hymn found in a Graeco-Roman temple at Medamud.  This is an example of our cultural biases getting in the way of a sensitivity to a different paradigm.

ARCHAEOGENDER OF RULE: A Case From Nigeria

  Contrary to one popular model concerning the supposed prehistoric age of the goddess, the worship of a female deity does not ensure that much actual power was held by women.  As discussed in the last chapter, one only needs to consider the Roman Catholic church's position concerning the Virgin Mary or Mary Magdalen in relationship to their position concerning women priests to see how this is true.  The way that archaeogender has been inscribed in religious devotional practices is not limited to the search for spiritual enlightenment and religious authority.
  The manipulation and takeover of the position of divine intermediary provides a powerful sanction to temporal rule.  A case study concerning the Ogboni of Nigeria provides an example of how male elders have taken control of the worship of a female deity, Onile, through which power is claimed.  This usurpation is made possible through an initiation process that creates a gender shift.  After transformation, ritual bisexuality and transvestitism provide the Ogboni elders with a means of 
demonstrating their usurped female identity and authority.  This power comes from a reversed social "implosion" sanctified by a few who govern.
  The freedom of the Ogboni to break boundary codes is striking. ...

  
GENDER FRONTIERS

Conclusion

   I have struggled to find a suitable 'conclusion' for this study and have drawn a blank.  The study of archaeogender is far from being ready for any summarizing statement that would attempt to draw all relevant points together.  Those of us who are studying the gendered past are still mapping out the territory and laying down some connecting routes between archaeological facts.
   Even within the Western tradition, the social significance of sexual behavior in given times and places varies widely.  Understanding such variation and the taxonomic distinctions of one age may be unrelated to another, makes the task of archaeogender daunting (Boswell, 1997: 129).  We are poised on the frontier of exploring the history and pre-history of human sexuality.  We are finally asking the archaeological record questions of this nature, but we are still like children in our theoretical sand boxes trying to reconstruct the wonders of the ancient world in crushed quartz powder.  Perhaps some collective memory of our past will aid this effort.  Perhaps we should rely on logical reasoning.

   We each inter-link our individual natures to conform to norms of collective consciousness.  That is what we know as societal 'culture'.  The age old question is whether the individual shapes culture or is the individual formed and transformed by this culture.  This paradox is the bread and butter of anthropology and the chore of revealing its record throughout history and pre-history is the prerogative of the archaeologist.

   I have identified 'archaeology' as a theoretical approach that specifies the elements of the archival resources, codifies them, and then subjects them to analysis.  Archaeology does not pursue the beginning of anything nor is it limited to the geological excavation.  It is a philosophical and descriptive approach to the past through any available means.  ...
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