Women s Studies 394 Gender and Prehistory Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona. Spring 1995; Mondays 7 to 9:30 pm Instructor: Kelley Hays-Gilpin (PhD Arizona 1992), Adjunct Professor, Anthropology Office at NAU: Bilby Research Center ("the little dome"), Ceramic Lab, Room 162, phone 523-4450, fax 523-7270, email kelley.hays-gilpin@nau.edu. At the Museum of Northern Arizona, phone = 774-5211 x255 Office hours: Mondays 1-5 pm at Bilby Research Center. Check both Room 162 and the upstairs computer lab. One hour every other week at the Women's Studies Office, Ashurst 102, time to be announced. Course Goals: This course will explore the roles of women and gender constructs in the distant past. Most important, we will discuss the process of interpreting archaeological data to create stories about the past. We will focus on 1) stereotyping and exclusion of women from many archaeological reconstructions, 2) the effects of feminist critique on current archaeological theory and practice, and 3) the roles of stories about the past in present day politics and religion. Contact period North America, the prehistoric Pueblo Southwest, and Neolithic Europe will provide foci for discussion, but examples from many times and places will be included. This is a reading and writing intensive course. This course bears upper division Social Sciences credit. The instructor assumes that all students taking the course for credit already have upper-division level reading comprehension and writing skills. Textbooks (available at Aradia Bookstore, on Cottage, west of Macy s Coffee House): 1. Women in Prehistory, by Margaret Ehrenberg, 1989, University of Oklahoma Press 2. What this Awl Means: Feminist Archaeology at a Wahpeton Dakota Village, by Janet Spector, 1993, Minnesota Historical Society Press recommended: Woman the Gatherer, edited by Frances Dahlberg (1981) These books and the other readings will be available at the Cline Library (reserve desk; if journal articles are checked out, try the bound periodicals), and in the Women s Studies Office, Ashurst 102 (items can be read there but not checked out) It is a good idea to take copious notes, or make your own photocopies to annotate, and bring them to class. Course requirements: 1) complete reading assignments 2) take part in class discussions 3) complete 8 short writing assignments, one-paragraph summaries of assigned readings 4) detailed outline for term paper on Nov. 6 5) ten to twenty minute oral summary of term paper on Dec. 4 6) ten to twenty page term paper on Dec. 11 Evaluation: Grades will be assigned based on a point system, as follows: Term paper = 30 points, based on clear presentation of topic; selection and definition of an appropriate topic and research methods; use and citation of appropriate sources; organization, style, spelling, and grammar; stay within page limits. Late papers will not receive full credit. Eight written summaries = 6 points each, clear, organized presentation of the article's purpose and conclusions, and a very short critique or evaluation; grammar and spelling count. Note that not turning in these assignments at all carries a significantly higher penalty (0 points) than turning them in late (minus one point)! Assignments must be typed; using a word-processor is not only a good idea, it's a critically important job skill. NAU provides computers for student use. oral summary = 10 points. Stick to time allotted; organization and clarity are important. class participation = 12 points. Attendance, thoughtful and concise participation in class discussions; thoughtful and concise questions. extra credit will be earned by rewriting summaries or by doing extra ones. Higher grades will be substituted for lower ones on rewrites. You may rewrite as many times as you like. It is important to re-read the article before you re-write! Final grade = 90-100 points = A; 80-89 points = B; 70-79 points = C; 50-69 points = D Course policies: Incompletes are a hardship for both students and adjunct faculty, so they will be granted only in emergency cases. The instructor reserves the right to evaluate what is an emergency. Academic Dishonesty: see the section on academic dishonesty in the NAU student handbook. In this course, avoiding plagiarism is of primary concern. Follow academic standards of proper identification and citation of quoted material. Do not represent the writing of others as your own. The penalty for academic dishonesty is no credit on the assignment. IRB review (internal review board) is required for any student project involving human subjects. If your term paper topic involves interviewing or studying living humans (for example, ethnoarchaeology), you must submit a prospectus to this review board, and receive their approval before proceeding with your project. Absences will be excused for illness, emergencies, and conflicts with other course's field trips. The best way to arrange an excused absence is via E-mail! Get notes from your colleagues and view missed videos at the library (some videos will be borrowed from ASU and may not be available for late viewing--contact the instructor.) Course Outline by Week: (* written summary due) 1-2 Introduction 3 Non-human Primates * 4 Human Evolution * 5 The Social Construction of Gender 6 Division of Labor: Hunter-Gatherers * 7 Division of Labor: Farmers * 8 Craft Production: Potters and Weavers 9 Mortuary Analysis * 10 Ideology: The Neolithic Goddess * 11 Hierarchical Societies (turn in term paper outline) 12 Architecture * 13 New Narrative Styles 14 Women in Science * 15 Oral Presentations Schedule and Assignments: Week 1: August 28 Introduction: About this course. Defining sex, gender, prehistory, archaeology, feminist archaeology, and gender archaeology. Video: "Archaeology: Questioning the Past" Week 2: No class meeting on Monday Sept. 4. On Sept. 11, you will have done the following readings, and the two listed for the Sept. 11 meeting. You will also hand in your first assignment. Read: Introduction to Women in Prehistory, Ehrenberg (pp. 7-9) Chapter 1 in Women in Prehistory, by Margaret Ehrenberg, pp. 10-37 Chapter 1 in What this Awl Means, by Janet Spector, pp. 1-18 recommended: "Women's Archaeology? Political feminism, gender theory, and historical revisionism'" by Roberta Gilchrist, Antiquity 65 (1991):494-501. (note: not the same journal as American Antiquity) Week 3: Sept. 11 Non-Human Primates. videos: "Jane Goodall: My Life with the Chimpanzees" and "Donna Haraway Reads the National Geographics of Primates" Read: "Seeing Nature Through the Lens of Gender," Science 260 (16 April 1993): 428-429. *"Gender and the Study of Primates," by Linda Marie Fedigan and Laurance Fedigan, In Gender and Anthropology: Critical Reviews for Research and Teaching, edited by Sandra Morgen, pp. 41-64. (Book is available in the Women's Studies Office; photocopy on reserve.) recommended: W.C. McGrew's Chimpanzee chapter in Woman the Gatherer Week 4: Sept. 18 Human Evolution and the Biological Bases for Behavior video: "The Search for Neanderthal" (with Lewis Binford and Erik Trinkaus) Read: "Introduction" to Woman the Gatherer, by Frances Dahlberg, 1981, Yale University Press. *"Women as Shapers of the Human Adaptation", by Adrianne Zihlman, in the same volume, Note: Sept. 22 is the last day to drop/delete this course. Week 5: Sept. 25 The Social Construction of Gender: Where do Sex and Gender Categories Come From? Read: "Supernumerary Sexes", Chapter 6 in Female of the Species, by M. Kay Martin and Barbara Voorhies Epilogue, by Henrietta Moore, in Engendering Archaeology: Women and Prehistory, edited by Margaret Conkey and Joan Gero. Weeks 6: Oct. 2 Division of labor by sex, hunter-gatherers: Read: "The Earliest Communities," Ehrenberg Chapter 2 (Women in Prehistory pp. 38-76) *Choose one (or more) of the following chapter(s)in Woman the Gatherer, 1981, edited by Frances Dahlberg: "Woman the Hunter: The Agta"; "Mbuti Womanhood"; "The Null Case: The Chipewyan". OR "!Kung Women", by Patricia Draper, in R. Reiter, ed., Toward an Anthropology of Women (photocopy of this chapter on reserve). Week 7: Oct. 9 Farmers. Video: "Discovering Women: Patty Jo Watson" Read: "The First Farmers," Ehrenberg, Chapter 3 *"The Development of Horticulture in the Eastern Woodlands of North America: Women's Role," by Patty Jo Watson and Mary C. Kennedy, in Engendering Archaeology: Women and Prehistory, edited by Margaret Conkey and Joan Gero. Week 8: Oct. 16 Potters and Weavers: Gender and Craft Production. Video: "Daughters of the Anasazi" (with Lucy Lewis) Read: "Women and Prehistoric Pottery Production," by Prudence M. Rice, 1991, in Proceedings of the 22nd Chacmool Conference, Calgary (photocopy on reserve) "Spinning and Waving as Female Gender Identity in Post-Classic Mexico," by Sharrisse D. McCafferty and Geoffrey G. McCafferty, 1991, in Textile Traditions of Mesoamerica and the Andes: An Anthology, edited by M.B. Schevill, J.C.Berlo, and E.B. Dwyer, Garland Publishing, New York. (photocopy on reserve). Note: October 19 is the last day to change from Credit to Audit. Week 9: Oct. 23 Examining gender and age categories through mortuary analysis Read: "From Burials to Gender Roles: Problems and Potentials in Post-Processual Archaeology." by Charlotte Damm, in The Archaeology of Gender, edited by Dale Walde and Noreen Willows, 1991 "Patterns of Violence against Women in the Prehistoric Southwest", by Debra Martin and Nancy Atkins (unpublished conference paper, on reserve). "Babes in the 'Hood: Concepts of 'Personhood and the Spatial Segregation of Infants from Adults in Archaeological Burial Practices", by Louise M. Senior (unpublished conference paper, on reserve). * write on any of these three--your choice. Photocopies of all 3 papers on reserve. Week 10: Oct. 30 Gender and ideology: The Neolithic Goddess and Ecofeminist interpretations of archaeological texts. Video: "The Goddess Remembered" Read: "The Uses of Archaeology for Women's History: James Mellaart's Work on the Neolithic Goddess at Catal Huyuk," by Anne Barstow, in Feminist Studies 4:3:7-18 "Rewriting the Past to Save Our Future", by Beth Grindell (an archaeologist who specializes in the Near East and early civilizations), Arizona Anthropologist 10 (1993) 119-129 (this journal is not in the stacks, use the reserve photocopy). "The Neolithic Mystique," in Rethinking Ecofeminist Politics, by Janet Biehl (a social ecologist). Read first half now, pp. 29-41, and the rest by Nov. 6. review Ehrenberg pp. 66-76. recommended: Civilization of the Goddess, by Marija Gimbutas, pp. 2-9, skim 12-122. On Reserve at the Cline Library--tough to photocopy because of numerous photos, so please plan ahead and share. Chapters 1-2, The Chalice and the Blade, by Riane Eisler, 1987, Harper Collins. *choose one to review: Barstow, Grindell, Biehl OR write your own short critique of Eisler, Gimbutas, Starhawk, or another popular text (this may be positive, negative, or balanced (!), but must evaluate how the author obtains archaeological evidence, i.e. primary or secondary sources, and how s/he interprets this evidence). Week 11: Nov. 6 Gender and Hierarchical Societies Read: Ehrenberg Chapters 5-6 2nd half of Janet Diehl's essay, "The Neolithic Mystique," (citation above) pp. 42-56 assignment: turn in a one-page outline and abstract of your term paper. Week 12: Nov. 13 Gendering Architecture, from Catal Huyuk to Anasazi Pueblos to African Iron Smelters Read: "Reflections of Sex Roles in the Archaeological Record: Insights from Hopi and Zuni Ethnographic Data," by Julie C. Lowell, in Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Chacmool Conference (photocopy on reserve). "Women, Reproduction, and Religion in Western Pueblo Society," by M. Jane Young, Journal of American Folklore Vol. 100, no 398, pp. 435-445. * assignment = review either Young or Lowell Week 13 Nov. 20 New narrative styles in writing about the past: Spector s What this Awl Means and women archaeologists' experiences in the Southwest Read: Spector Chapter 2-end (review Chapter 1 if necessary) "Women Archaeologists in the Southwest" by Linda Cordell, in Hidden Scholars: Women Anthropologists and the Native American Southwest, pp. 202-220, edited by Nancy J. Parezo, Univ. of New Mexico Press. (photocopy of this chapter on reserve) Weeks 14 Nov. 27 Archaeological labor, archaeological science: men and women in field and lab Video: "Science and Gender with Evelyn Fox Keller" Read: Ehrenberg s Conclusion (Women in Prehistory pp. 172-174) "Our Own Endangered Species," by Linda Hurcombe, Antiquity 69:87-100. "Feminists Find Gender Everywhere in Science," Science 260 (16 April 1993): 392-393. "After the Science Question in Feminism," by Sandra Harding, from Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? Thinking from Women's Lives, 1991, Cornell Univ. Press (photocopy of this chapter on reserve). recommended: "Have We Got a Theory for You! Feminist Theory, Cultural Imperialism and the Demand for 'The Woman's Voice'," by Maria Lugones and Elizabeth Spelman, in Womens Studies, 1993. *review Hurcombe, Harding, or Lugones and Spelman--your choice If you wish, this week you may turn in a draft of your term paper for advice. Week 15: Dec. 4 ORAL PRESENTATIONS Each student will present a five minute summary of their term paper. The summary should include: What question does your paper answer or explore? What data did you find? What are your conclusions? You may use slides or pass around handouts, but visual aids are not required. This is the last day to turn in re-writes of summaries or extra summaries for extra credit (you may substitute a better grade for an old one on each assignment, or substitute a better grade on an entirely new summary (choose any of the readings in the Course Bibliography on reserve at the library or available by e-mail from the instructor) for an old one. Final term papers due Monday December 11 at 5pm in Women's Studies Office, Ashurst 102. Papers are graded on appropriateness of topic and research question; use of more primary than secondary sources; evaluation and analysis of source materials/data; concise summary of conclusions, good discussion of problems encountered, need for future research, and how future research might be done. Organization, spelling, grammar, precise and appropriate use of terms, and style are very important. These are skills that can get you a job and help you keep it after you leave NAU. Cheers.