Archaeological Ms.conceptions: Contemplating Gender and Power in the Greek Neolithic

Abstract

During the last few decades feminist scholarship has sought to destabilize mainstream thinking across diverse disciplines by re-examining the issues of women, gender relations and gender ideologies. While the resulting publications embrace disparate theoretical stances, all of them ultimately question the way knowledge is constituted. As one writer has observed, feminist theorists have called upon scholars

to unpack the processes that select and preserve evidence; to decenter narrative to interrogate categories of analysis within each discipline; [and] to demonstrate the way that gender works to legitimize structures of power.^l

I would like to thank Tracey Cullen, Steve Bank, and most significantly my father, Anselm Talalay, for many insights and helpful comments. My appreciation also to all of the participants at the Conference who provided such lively discussion, especially Naomi Hamilton whose provocative presentation on figurines of the eastern Mediterranean (Chapter 2 in this volume) had a direct bearing on this chapter. Part of this chapter is based on an earlier article in Gender and History, 6 (1994).