The Chatelaine, Gender, and Diagnostic Artifact Use

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Chatelaines suspend multiple items to be employed for such purposes as grooming, tools, or keys and have been widely used from before the Roman occupation of England to well after the Ninth Century. Additionally, they have been used to determine gender identity within Anglo-Saxon Burials. By examining the chatelaine’s use as a diagnostic measure of gender within a culture and the resulting limiting interpretations, it will be shown that this artifact is not gendered in its overall usage and should cease being used to determine identity. Further, examining gender politics and the use of diagnostic artifacts, multiple long-held biases could be resolved, allowing for a greater understanding of gender identities, societal norms, and overall culture. The implications of this could affect both Anglo-Saxon studies and long-held cultural paradigms worldwide. Determining the use of diagnostic artifacts, such as the chatelaine, to arbitrarily assign gender identities is antiquated, the use of current research to create a more honest examination of identity when examining the material culture of burials is required. This research framework can have impacts on multiple levels ranging from feminist perspectives within history, heritage tourism, and the overall public education about the Anglo-Saxon culture.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39010.0