Anthropomorphic Figurines from the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Aegean

Description

This work focuses on the study of gender in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age (EBA) periods in the Aegean, seeking to explore the ways in which gender was dynamically constructed, enacted and negotiated through daily interactions and practices in early prehistoric communities, through systematic analysis of anthropomorphic figurines of the Neolithic and EBA Aegean. The present study critically reviews earlier interpretations, but more importantly, explores the resulting implications for the understanding of the Neolithic and EBA societies of the Aegean. It detects fluctuating patterns of gender dynamics, but the observations are also compared diachronically in order to investigate rhythms of social development or episodes of stasis in societies taken to represent different cultural traditions. Ultimately, the findings serve to reassess social models that have been proposed for the explanation of the Neolithic and EBA periods in the Aegean in terms of unilinear or fluctuating rhythms of social development.