| Abstrakt: |
This contribution examines the conceptualisation of gender in the Iron Age, considering current theoretical perspectives and some case studies from the La Tène period in Northern Italy. It applies for the first time to these contexts a critical approach considering that gender as a social construct cannot be regarded as a binary and fixed category of social identity. The reflection is addressed through the analysis of ten published burials dated to the La Tène C2-D2 (c. end of the 3rd-second half of the 1st century BCE) from the cemeteries of Oleggio, in the territory of Novara (Piemonte Region), Isola Rizza and Santa Maria di Zevio in the territory of Verona (Veneto region). These burials contained weapons, usually considered to be representative of male gender, while the deceased itself appears to be anthropologically identifiable as female. The almost automatic equation between weapons and men (warriors) has hidden some exceptional cases in which weapons could perhaps be considered as elements primarily linked with the social position of the deceased. It is here proposed that some women, in these La Tène communities, could have reached positions of prestige and weapons could maybe be symbolical means to communicate these roles. This reflection has the potential to change our perception of the gender divide in these communities and to contribute to the develop- ment of a more conscious methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
