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Middle East History - Ancient & Islamic Empire, Social History - General & Miscellaneous, Middle East & North Africa - Archaeology, Agriculture - General & Miscellaneous, Feminism & Feminist Theory, Middle Eastern History - Modern - General & Miscellaneou
Sexual Revolutions by Jane Peterson β€” book cover

Sexual Revolutions

by Jane Peterson
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Overview

The change from a hunting-gathering lifestyle to one dependent upon farming constitutes a truly 'revolutionary' event in the human career. Most archaeologists agree that how ancient people organized their work and family groups was crucial to the success of early attempts at farming. Yet little serious attention has been paid to the social organization of labor in the prehistoric past. This book addresses that lacuna by investigating sexual divisions of labor. As a case study, Peterson chose the southern Levant of West Asia, where the world's first farming societies emerged some 10,000 years ago. Shattering long held assumptions about women's work that lead to generalizations about gender roles, Peterson shows that gender studies can be both scientific and thoroughly grounded in feminist theory.

Synopsis

Description, based upon research evidence from the Near East and elsewhere, of the change in the gendered division of labor during the Neolithic agricultural revolution.

About the Author, Jane Peterson

Jane Peterson is assistant professor of anthropology at Marquette University.

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Editorials

American Antiquity

In sum, this book, the fourth book in a series on Gender and Archaeology edited by Sarah Nelson, is a gem. It introduces new hard data and judicious interpretation into a subject too often dominated by unsubstantiated but fervently held theories....it's value as a textbook: both readable and scholarly, it is a wonderful demonstration of wha science is good for. In addition to her admirably clear prose, Peterson has selected good graphic and illustrative materials.

Antiquity

Sexual Revolutions is superb, and, indeed, important. It has considerable significance for both general questions about the archaeology of gender and for more particular concerns about Near Eastern prehistory. Peterson presents a stimulating synthesis of theory and osteological evidence concerning the role of women in the agricultural and urban 'revolutions' of south-west Asia, with the focus on the southern Levant.

Bulletin Of The American Schools Of Oriental Research

This book is an important one that should be read by all scholars interested in issues of labor and social organization in the archaeological record. Written in a readable and accessible style, it is both a scholarly work and one that can be easily used as a case study in classes. Peterson's work points us in a direction that many other scholars may wish to pursue.

Reviews in Anthropology

Peterson's substantive results are intriguing.... This is an important piece of work not simply because of its substantive contribution. One of the primary contributions of this study is its skepticism.... Peterson generally makes good and valid use of ethnographic analogy, especially when it comes to materialist generalizations.

Book Details

Published
August 1, 2002
Publisher
AltaMira Press
Pages
192
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780759102576

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