Women Bleed Red: Rendering Women’s Spaces Visible in the Archaeological Record

Summary

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

As Patricia Galloway aptly observed in her 1998 paper, “Where Have all the Menstrual Huts Gone?”, menstruation is rarely discussed in archaeological literature. Recent research in the Ohio River Valley has brought renewed interest to these ‘invisible’ spaces, attempting to identify potential menstrual structures in the archaeological record. It was determined through ethnohistoric and archaeological research that menstrual structures likely existed at some archaeological sites and would have been a part of the gendered cultural landscape. Women’s spaces, including areas of childbirth and menstrual structures, need to be examined to have a holistic view of gendered landscapes in the past. Paleoethnobotanical research (including the identification of medicinal herbs used during menstruation and pregnancy), collaboration with descendant communities, and further archival research and literature review can contribute to expanding our understanding of this gendered cultural landscape. This paper will examine how combining these methods can lead to a more comprehensive understanding of women’s use of space in the past.

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): 37218.0