Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T22:46:22.990Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sex, Gender, and Status: Human Images from the Classic Mimbres

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Marit K. Munson
Marit K. Munson*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Prehistoric imagery is a valuable source of information on relations between people of different social identities. Analysis of a large sample of human figures depicted on Classic period Mimbres ceramics illustrates facets of that society's gender system, including the traits individuals used to indicate their gender and the possible presence of third or fourth genders. The imagery indicates that hunting large game and participating in ceremonies were considered men's activities. Men also are portrayed in a wide range of activities and in active postures. This suggests that men had the potential for achieving high status through their activities. Images of women are more static and show fewer activities than men. Women are associated with activities that are low in prestige cross-culturally: child care and carrying burdens. At the same time, women are depicted more often with valuables, such as jewelry, and constitute the majority of people handling parrots, which were used in ritual. This, combined with other evidence, suggests that some women may have achieved relatively high status through their membership in certain families, their association with ritually important parrots, and their possession of esoteric knowledge.

Resumen

Resumen

Las imágenes prehistóricas son una fuente valiosa de la información sobre relaciones entre la gente de diversas identidades sociales. El análisis de una muestra grande de las figuras humanas en la cerámica del período clásico Mimbres ilustra facetas del sistema del género esa sociedad, incluyendo los rasgos usados para indicar el gónero de los individuous y la posible presencia de los terceros o cuartos generos. Las imágenes indican que la caza de animates grandes y la participación en ceremonias eran consideradas actividades masculinas. Retratan a los hombres tambián en una amplia gama de actividades y en posturas activas. Esto sugiere que los hombres tuvieran el potencial para alcanzar alto estatus con sus actividades. Las imágenes de mujeres son más estaticas y muestran menos actividades que las de los hombres. Las mujeres están asociadas a las actividades que son de menor prestigio: cuidado de niños y transporte de llevan las cargas. Al mismo tiempo, representan a las mujeres más a menudo con los objetos de valor, como joyería, y ellas son quienes manejan los papagayos, quefueron utilizados en ritual. Esto, combinado con otra evidencia, sugiere que algunas mujeres pudieron haber alcanzado estatus relativamente alto con su calidad de miembro en ciertas familias, su asociacion con los papagayos ritualmente importantes, y su posesión del conocimiento esotérico.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 65 , Issue 1 , January 2000 , pp. 127 - 143
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Anderson, K. M., Fenner, G. J., Morris, D. P., Teague, G. A., and McKusick, C. 1986 The Archeology of Gila Cliff Dwellings. Publications in Anthropology 36. Western Archeological and Conservation Center, Tucson, Arizona.Google Scholar
Anyon, R. and LeBlanc, S. A. 1984 The Galaz Ruin: A Prehistoric Mimbres Village in Southwestern New Mexico. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Bolin, A. 1996 Traversing Gender: Cultural Context and Gender Practices. In Gender Reversals and Gender Cultures: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives, edited by Ramet, S. P., pp. 22–51. Routledge, New York.Google Scholar
Brandt, E. A. 1994 Egalitarianism, Hierarchy, and Centralization in the Pueblos. In The Ancient Southwestern Community: Models and Methods for the Study of Prehistoric Social Organization, edited by Wills, W. H. and Leonard, R.D. pp. 9–23. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Brightman, R. 1996 The Sexual Division of Foraging Labor: Biology, Taboo, and Gender Politics. Comparative Studies in Society and History 38: 687–729.Google Scholar
Brody, J. J. 1977 Mimbres Painted Pottery. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Brody, J. J., Scott, C. J., and LeBlanc, S. A. 1983 Mimbres Pottery: Ancient Art of the American Southwest. Hudson Hills Press, New York.Google Scholar
Brody, J. J., and Swentzell, R. 1996 To Touch the Past: The Painted Pottery of the Mimbres People. Hudson Hills Press, New York.Google Scholar
Carr, P. 1979 Mimbres Mythology. Southwestern Studies 56. University of Texas, El Paso.Google Scholar
Creel, D., and McKusick, C. 1994 Prehistoric Macaws and Parrots in the Mimbres Area, New Mexico. American Antiquity 59: 510–524.Google Scholar
Crown, P. L., and Fish, S. K. 1996 Gender and Status in the Hohokam Pre-Classic to Classic Transition. American Anthropologist 98: 803–817.Google Scholar
Ember, C. 1983 The Relative Decline in Women's Contribution to Agriculture with Intensification. American Anthropologist 85: 285–303.Google Scholar
Errington, S. 1990 Recasting Sex, Gender, and Power: A Theoretical and Regional Overview. In Power and Difference: Gender in Island Southeast Asia, edited by Atkinson, J. M. and Errington, S., pp. 1–58. Stanford University Press, Stanford.Google Scholar
Espenshade, C. T. 1997 Mimbres Pottery, Births, and Gender: A Reconsideration. American Antiquity 62: 733–736.Google Scholar
Everitt, B. S. 1992 The Analysis of Contingency Tables. 2nd ed. Monographs on Statistics and Applied Probability 45. Chapman and Hall, New York.Google Scholar
Fewkes, J. W. 1993 The Mimbres: Art and Archaeology. Reprinted. Awanyu, Albuquerque, New Mexico.Google Scholar
Fewkes, J. W. 1914-1924, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Gilman, P. A. 1989 Households, Communities, and Painted Pottery in the Mimbres Region of Southwestern New Mexico. In Households and Communities: Proceedings of the 21st Annual Chacmool Conference, edited by MacEachern, S., Archer, D. J. W, and Garvin, R. D.. Archaeological Association of the University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta.Google Scholar
Gilman, P. A., Bishop, R. L., and Canouts, V. 1994 The Production and Distribution of Classic Mimbres Black-on-white Pottery. American Antiquity 51: 688–720.Google Scholar
Hamann, B. 1997 Weaving and the Iconography of Prestige: The Royal Gender Symbolism of Lord 5 Flower's/Lady 4 Rabbit's Family. In Women in Prehistory: North America andMesoamerica, edited by Claassen, C. and Joyce, R.A. pp. 153–172. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Hargrave, L. L. 1970 Mexican Macaws: Comparative Osteology and Survey of Remains from the Southwest. Anthropological Papers 20. University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Hegmon, M., and Trevathan, W. R. 1996 Gender, Anatomical Knowledge, and Pottery Production: Implications of an Anatomically Unusual Birth Depicted on Mimbres Pottery from Southwestern New Mexico. American Antiquity 61: 747–754.Google Scholar
Hegmon, M., and Trevathan, W. R. 1997 Response to Comments by LeBlanc, by Espenshade, and by Shaffer et al. American Antiquity 62: 737–739.Google Scholar
Herdt, G. 1987 The Sambia: Ritual and Gender in New Guinea. Holt, Reinhart, and Winston, New York.Google Scholar
Herdt, G. (editor) 1994 Third Sex, Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History. Zone Books, New York.Google Scholar
James, W. D., Brewington, R. L., and Shafer, H. J. 1995 Compositional Analysis of American Southwestern Ceramics by Neutron Activation Analysis. Journal ofRadioanalytical andNuclear Chemistry, Articles 192(1): 109–116.Google Scholar
Jett, S. C, and Moyle, P. B. 1986 The Exotic Origins of Fishes Depicted on Prehistoric Mimbres Pottery from New Mexico. American Antiquity 51: 688–720.Google Scholar
Joyce, R. A. 1993 Women's Work: Images of Production and Reproduction in Pre-Hispanic Southern Central America. Current Anthropology 34: 255–274.Google Scholar
Joyce, R. A., and Claassen, C. 1997 Women in the Ancient Americas: Archaeologists, Gender, and the Making of Prehistory. In Women in Prehistory: North America and Mesoamerica, edited by Claassen, C. and Joyce, R.A. pp. 1–14. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Kabotie, F. 1949 Designs from the Ancient Mimbrenos with a Hopi Interpretation. Graborn Press, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Kokkinidou, D., and Nikolaidou, M. 1997 Body Imagery in the Aegean Neolithic: Ideological Implications of Anthropomorphic Human Figurines. In Invisible People and Processes: Writing Gender and Childhood into European Archaeology, edited by Moore, J. and Scott, E., pp. 88–112. Leicester University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Lambert, M. F, and Ambler, J. R. 1961 A Survey and Excavation of Caves in Hidalgo County, New Mexico. Monograph 25. School of American Research, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Lang, S. 1996 There is More than Just Women and Men: Gender Variance in North American Indian Cultures. In Gender Reversals and Gender Cultures: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives, edited by Ramet, S. P., pp. 183–196. Routledge, New York.Google Scholar
LeBlanc, S. A. 1983 The Mimbres People: Ancient Pueblo Painters of the American Southwest. Thames and Hudson, New York.Google Scholar
LeBlanc, S. A. 1997 A Comment on Hegmon and Trevathan's “Gender, Anatomical Knowledge, and Pottery Production.” American Antiquity 62: 723–726.Google Scholar
Lesure, R. G. 1997 Figurines and Social Identity in Early Sedentary Societies of Coastal Chiapas, Mexico, 1550-800 B.C. In Women in Prehistory: North America and Mesoamerica, edited by Claassen, C. and Joyce, R.A. pp. 227–248. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Lorber, J. 1994 Paradoxes of Gender. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Meskell, L. 1998 The Irresistible Body and the Seduction of Archaeology. In Changing Bodies, Changing Meanings: Studies on the Human Body in Antiquity, edited by Montserrat, D., pp. 139–161. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Minnis, P. E., Whalen, M. E., Kelley, J. H., and Stewart, J. D. 1993 Prehistoric Macaw Breeding in the North American Southwest. American Antiquity 58: 270–276.Google Scholar
Molyneaux, B. L. 1997 Representation and Reality in Private Tombs of the Late Eighteenth Dynasty, Egypt: An Approach to the Study of the Shape of Meaning. In The Cultural Life of Images: Visual Representation in Archaeology, edited by Molyneaux, B. L., pp. 108–129. Routledge, New York.Google Scholar
Moulard, B. 1984 Within the Underworld Sky: Mimbres Ceramic Art in Context. Twelvetrees Press, Pasadena, California.Google Scholar
Munson, M. K. 1997 Sex and Gender in Classic Mimbres Imagery. Paperpresented at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Nashville, Tennessee.Google Scholar
Pollock, S. 1991 Women in a Men's World: Images of Sumerian Women. In Engendering Archaeology: Women and Prehistory, edited by Gero, J. M. and W. Conkey, M.. Basil Blackwell, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Potter, J. M. 1997 Communal Ritual and Faunal Remains: An Example from the Dolores Anasazi. Journal of Field Archaeology 24: 353–364.Google Scholar
Pringle, R. 1993 Absolute Sex? Unpacking the Sexuality/Gender Relationship. In Rethinking Sex: Social Theory and Sexuality Research, edited by Connell, R. W. and Dowsett, G.W. pp. 76–101. Temple University Press, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Ramet, S. P. (editor) 1996 Gender Reversals and Gender Cultures: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives. Routledge, New York.Google Scholar
Roscoe, W. 1991 The Zuni Man-Woman. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Schaafsma, P. 1980 Indian Rock Art of the Southwest. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Schaafsma, P. 1992 Rock Art in NewMexico. Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Shafer, H. J. 1985 A Mimbres Potter's Grave: An Example of Mimbres Craft-Specialization? Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 56: 185–200.Google Scholar
Shafer, H. J. 1987 The NAN Ranch Archaeology Project: 1985 Interim Report. Special Report 7. Anthropology Laboratory, Texas A&M University, College Station.Google Scholar
Shafer, H. J., and Brewington, R. L. 1995 Microstylistic Changes in Mimbres Black-on-white Pottery: Examples from the NAN Ruin, Grant County, New Mexico. Kiva 61: 5–29.Google Scholar
Shafer, H. J., and Taylor, A. J. 1986 Mimbres Mogollon Pueblo Dynamics and Ceramic Style Change. Journal of Field Archaeology 13: 43–68.Google Scholar
Shaffer, B. S., and Gardner, K. M. 1995 The Rabbit Drive through Time: Analysis of the North American Ethnographic and Prehistoric Evidence, Utah Archaeology 8(l): 13–25.Google Scholar
Shaffer, B. S., and Gardner, K. M. 1996 Use of Mimbres Art to Compare Prehistoric Subsistence Activities with Puebloan Ethnography. Paper presented at the 61 st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Shaffer, B. S., Gardner, K. M., and Baker, B. W. 1996 Prehistoric Small Game Snare Trap Technology, Deployment Strategy, and Trapper Gender Depicted in Mimbres Pottery. Journal of Ethnobiology 16: 145– 155.Google Scholar
Shaffer, B. S., Gardner, K. M., and Powell, J. F 1996 Prehistoric and Ethnographic Pueblo Gender Roles: Continuity of Lifeways from the Eleventh to the Early Twentieth Century. Paper presented at the Fourth Annual Gender and Archaeology Conference, Lansing, Michigan.Google Scholar
Shaffer, B. S., Gardner, K. M., and Powell, J. F 1997 Who's Who in Mimbres Pottery Motifs: Identifying the Sex of Portrayed Human Figures. Paper presented at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Nashville.Google Scholar
Shaffer, B. S., Gardner, K. M., and Shafer, H. J. 1997 An Unusual Birth Depicted in Mimbres Pottery: Not Cracked Up to What It Is Supposed to Be. American Antiquity 62: 727–732.Google Scholar
Smith, S. G. 1992 Gender Thinking. Temple University Press, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Stoffel, D. E. 1991 Classic Mimbres Iconography: An Investigation of Style, Symbol, and Meaning. Unpublished Master's thesis, State University of New York, Buffalo.Google Scholar
Whelan, M. K. 1991 Gender and Historical Archaeology: Eastern Dakota Patterns in the Nineteenth Century. Historical Archaeology 25: 17–32.Google Scholar
Woosley, A. I., and Mclntyre, A. J. 1996 Mimbres Mogollon Archaeology: Charles C. DiPeso's excavations at Wind Mountain. AmerindFoundation Archaeology Series. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar