Sex and Gender in Southeast Asian Rock Art: Case Studies from Borneo

Summary

Multiple indigenous and intrusive Borneo rock art (the additive or reductive human modification of naturally fixed-in-place stone) traditions depict figures and abstract designs that can be interpreted as sexed/gendered. Dating from the terminal Pleistocene through modern period, these images are an untapped source of archaeological information regarding the roles and interactions of the biological sexes and culturally constructed and ascribed genders. This paper uses rock art to identify and examine sex and gender in groups indigenous and intrusive to Borneo. It treats rock art through formal analysis and employs archaeological and ethnohistoric information on iconography and ideology to delineate sexed/gendered rock art images and the prehistoric roles, relationships, values and structures of power they possibly represent. Results reveal chronologically and culturally distinct depictions of sex and gender both restricted to Borneo Island and found regionally that can be associated with hunter-gatherers as well as later "Neolithic" and historic groups. This research generates insights into sex and gender in ancient and historic societies on and beyond Borneo. It also underscores the informative potential of rock art and gender archaeology in Southeast Asia.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Recent Developments in East and Southeast Asian Archaeology II: Sites, Landscape, and Environment

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15975