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A Critical Evaluation of Recent Gendered Publishing Trends in American Archaeology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Dana N. Bardolph*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93101-3210 ([email protected])

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between gender identity and patterns of authorship in peer-reviewed journals as a lens for examining gendered knowledge production and the current status and visibility of men and women in American archaeology. Drawing on feminist theory and the feminist critique of science, I examine how gender imbalance and a lack of diversity continue to affect the work that archaeologists produce. The evaluation of publishing trends serves as a means to investigate knowledge valuation/validation in archaeology and lends insight into the control over archaeological narratives. Analysis of publicacion rates from 1990–2013 in a number of prestigious archaeology research journals (including American Antiquity) as well as smaller-scale regional journals reveals that strong gender differences persist in one of the major ways that data are disseminated to the American archaeological community. I suggest that these patterns are likely a result of authorial behavior, rather than editorial or reviewer bias, and conclude with a discussion of future directions for practitioners to pursue research on gender equity in the discipline.

Este artículo explora la relatión entre género y autoría en revistas sujetos a revisión por pares para examinar la productión de conocimiento y el estado actual y la visibilidad de hombres y mujeres que practican la arqueología americana. Usando la teoría feminista y la crítica feminista de la ciencia, examino cómo desigualdad de género y lafalta de diversidad continúan de afectar el trabajo de los arqueólogos americanos. La evaluatión de los datos de publicatión sirve para investigar la valoración y validación del conocimiento en la disciplina de la arqueologia, y nos ayuda a entender el control sobre las narrativas arqueológicas. Análisis de los datos de publicatión desde 1990–2013 en una serie de revistas prestigiosas (incluyendo American Antiquity), asi como revistas regionales de menor escala, revela fuertes diferencias de género en una de las principales formas en que los datos se difunden a la comunidad arqueológica. Sugiero que estos resultados son prohablemente el resulto de la conducta de los autores, en lugar de prejuicios de los editores o revisores, y concluyo con una discusión sobre direcciones futuras de investigatión sobre la tema de igualdad de género en la disciplina arqueológica.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2014

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References

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