Women as Actors in Systems of Violence: Their Roles and Identities in the Precolonial US Southwest

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

When examining violence in archaeological contexts, the roles of females have often been undertheorized or omitted completely. Violence research is quick to identify males as warriors and aggressors but women should not be ignored as actors in past violence. Our perception and interpretation of females as actively engaged in violent interactions in the past is shaped by our own social conditioning, cultural frameworks, and lived experiences. What is considered violence in one society may not be so in others. In an effort to provide a more nuanced representation of the women living in the ancient Southwest, we conducted a bioarchaeological analysis of skeletal remains from several Mogollon sites (Point of Pines, Grasshopper, Turkey Creek, and numerous Mimbres sites) with a focus on injuries sustained, disease processes, and musculoskeletal development. We then considered the results in relation to mortuary contexts, social processes, and cultural structures that sanctioned and encouraged interpersonal and gendered patterns of violence. This research considers the agency of women in times of conflict with a goal of identifying how women were more than just victims of violence, but also occasionally aggressors, defenders, or supporters of warfare and raiding in the precolonial Southwest.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36600.0