Seeing Gender Ambiguity in Moche Visual Culture

Summary

This paper explores the visual language of gender expression in Moche art, seeking to determine the relationships among ambiguous gender, social role, and status in Moche visual culture. The Moche are well-known for their representations of warriors and warfare, as well as the sacrificial rituals associated with the taking of prisoners. However, this martial focus was not consistent across Moche time and space, and regional variations indicate the existence of a potential field of expression which was used differently in different areas and times. In this paper, I explore that potential field of expression, and the representations of gender that could exist outside of the strongly-gendered warriors and priests. I focus instead on the center of a Moche spectrum of gender that had women at one end and men on the other. Clothing could cover areas of the body associated with gender identity, and diagnostic elements such as hairstyle could be covered or simply not expressed. In addition, contextual elements such as ornaments and adornments, items held in the hand, or settings can give clues to social roles and status relative to the warriors and priests, and form a greater understanding of how the iconography deals with gender.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20160