WOMAM · Women, Men and Mobility: Understanding Gender Inequality in Prehistory

Women, Men and Mobility: Understanding Gender Inequality in Prehistory

The overall objective of the project WOMAM was to contribute to understanding the origin of gender inequality by integrating ethnographic and archaeological data, and by focusing on residential patterns and mobility. As mentioned in the proposal of the project, the hypothesis was that female residential mobility played a central role in the emergence and consolidation of gender differences and inequality since the Neolithic. Although the issue of social inequality has traditionally been a key theme in Anthropology and Archaeology, gender inequality has received less consideration. At a time when Feminism is clearly experiencing major advances both within and outside academia, the interest on issues related to gender inequality is high. Gender and gender inequality can no longer be analyzed as independent elements of social development, but must be addressed as central categories to truly understand early social processes. Tackling gender inequalites an understanding of the social and cultural conditions that give rise to gender differences in both the present and past by comparing the lives and experiences of women and men, and other potential genders in non-binary systems. Specifically, the project is structured around three scientific research objectives: 1. Analyzing the linkage between residential patterns and gender inequality in ethnographically documented non-state societies. 2. Determining the residential patterns of Late Prehistoric Iberia. 3. Establishing whether Neolithic, Copper Age and Bronze Age societies of Iberia were patrilocal or matrilocal and whether mobility played a central role in the origin and development of gender inequality. Through the project, some propositions in the form of conclusions can be outlined for each of these objectives, although it does not mean that the research is over. Briefly, these conclusions are: 1. Cross-cultural studies based on data from ethnographically documented non-state societies shows a clear linkage between residential patterns and gender inequality. When residential patterns are male-centered the status of women tend to be worse than if residential patterns are female-centered. This does not imply necessarily a correlation, but the tendency does exist. 2. With the current evidence at hand, determining of the residential patterns of Late Prehistoric Iberia is uncertain and requires more data. The project has, however, contributed greatly to this issue by generating more data on Sr isotopes, especially from Copper Age individuals, although there are still relevant gaps in the availability of data to answer properly this question. 3. According to both the data compiled and new analyses performed, during the Neolithic no single residential pattern appears to have existed in Iberia. Isotopic data for non-local women and non-local men are very similar between c. 5500 and 3200 BC. However, in the Chalcolithic (3200–2300 BC) the mobility of people increased and females seem to have been more mobile than males, which could be related to a bilocal residential pattern biased to patrilocality, especially in the so-called mega-sites. In the Bronze Age (2300-850 BC) mobility experienced a decrease, but the data available are still very scarce and no general propositions can be made.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union