Feminist Dichotomy

There’s a complicated history of women in archeology that reflects a wider, societal issue. For a long time in western society, women weren’t treated as equals; this continued into archeology where women were often pushed into fringe fields of study (Fisher). It’s not hard to assume that some conclusions may have been biased to disfavor women since women were barely accepted into the field. This is where feminist theory comes to play an important role. Feminist theory is a theoretical perspective designed to question gender inequalities. In archeology, this means inequalities found not only within burial contexts, but within the researchers themselves. Combined with objectivist and relativist theories, it requires us to question how one interprets …show more content…
It forces us to question “the credibility of each of these ‘versions’” and if they are “strictly context or perspective… specific” (Wylie 23). While skepticism should generally be encouraged in academic settings, the idea that no amount of effort will ever be enough to possibly discover even a sliver of the truth is rather cynical. In fact, this perspective makes one wonder why one would study archeology at all. There are some clear aspects of this perspective that can be applied with feminist theory during an archeological study, like recognizing how we may apply contemporary gender roles to prehistoric burials. In the case of the Hungarian Mözs and with the thoroughly empirical methods of blood- and collagen-typing, they were able to trace familial lineages and determine that they had a “matrifocal family structure” (Pearson 122). Relativists and feminists alike would likely approve of this conclusion due to the use of hard science to reach a conclusion instead of relying on interpretation …show more content…
As Wylie describes it, “[e]videtial relevance is constructed as three-place relation” (Wylie 25). She continues, stating, “archaeologists inevitably constitute data as evidence or, ascribe it ‘meaning’ as evidence of specific events or conditions in the past, by means of linking hypotheses and interpretive principles” (Wylie 25). Feminist theory has an important role in this process by asking the archeologist in question to consider an event differently than they may inherently do. Feminist theory encourages consideration for looking beyond the gender binary. The discovery of the potential third gender represented in burials at Vedbaek only become possible when one is not denying the existence of more than two genders at many points in history (Pearson 105). If one lets the modern gender binary heavily influence one’s interpretation, then one might only see the possibilities for this deceased person as a ritual leader or simply an anomaly, which are the other interpretations of this burial (Pearson