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Ritual, Context, and Gender in Neolithic South-Eastern Italy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Robin Skeates
Robin Skeates*
Affiliation:
School of History and Archaeology, University of Wales, P.O. Box 909, Cardiff CF1 3XU, Great Britain
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Abstract

An attempt to demonstrate the importance of a contextual approach in the interpretation of prehistoric ritual is made through a critique of Ruth Whitehouse's recent work, Underground Religion. Cult and culture in prehistoric Italy, and through a re-examination of the spatial, material, historical, and social context of the ritual use of caves in south-eastern Italy, with special reference to Grotta di Porto Badisco and other Neolithic and early-Copper-Age sites in the Salento peninsula. Alternative interpretations are offered which focus upon: variations over space and time in the use of caves for different activities; a notion of complementarity and mutuality in Neolithic gender relations; and the existence of a degree of male-bias in the archaeological evidence of the symbolic construction of gender in Grotta di Porto Badisco.

Un essai pour démontrer l'importance de l'approche contextuelle pour interpréter les rites préhistoriques est fait à travers la critique du travail récent de Ruth Whitehouse, Religion souterraine Culte et culture en ltalie Préhistorique, et à travers un re-examen du contexte spatial, matériel, historique et social de l'utilisation rituelle de cavernes en Italie du sud-est, avec référence spéciale à la Grotte de Porto Badisco et autres sites néolithiques et chalcolithiques dans la péninsule de Salento. On offre des interprétations alternatives centrées sur les variations dans le temps et l'espace de l'utilisation de cavernes pour différentes activités; une notion de complémentarité et de mutualité dans les relations de genre au Néolithique; et l'existence d'un degré de subjectivité mâle dans la construction symbolique de genre d'après les découvertes archéologiques de la grotte de Porto Badisco.

In diesem Beitrag wird versucht, die Bedeutung eines kontextuellen Ansatzes für die Interpretation vorgeschichtlicher Rituale zu demonstrieren. Dies geschieht anhand einer Kritik von Ruth White-houses jüngerer Arbeit Underground Religion. Cult and culture in prehistoric Italy (Untergrund Religion, Kult und Kultur im vorgeschichtlichen Italien) sowie durch eine Neuuntersuchung des räumlichen, materiellen, historischen und sozialen Kontextes der rituellen Benutzung von Höhlen in Südostitalien, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Grotta di Porto Badisco und anderer neolithischer und frühkupferzeitlicher Fundplätze auf der Halbinsel von Salento. Alternative Interpretationen werden angeboten, die folgende Aspekte in den Brennpunkt rücken: in Zeit und Raum verschiedene Benutzungen der Höhlen für unterschiedliche Aktivitäten; eine Vorstellung von Komplementarität und Wechselseitigkeit in den neolithischen Beziehungen zwischen den Geschlechtern; und die Existenz eines Grades von ‘Männer-Ausrichtung’ des archäologischen Materials, das die symbolische Konstruktion von Geschlecht in der Grotta di Porto Badisco dokumentiert.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of European Archaeology , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , Autumn 1994 , pp. 199 - 214
Copyright
Copyright © European Association of Archaeologists 

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