Sexual division of labour in early agricultural Central Europe: an argument against androcentric bias in bioarchaeology
Date
2020-08-28
Authors
Craig, Caitlin
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Abstract
A common assumption in anthropology is that agricultural intensification involves
increasing male labour contributions. This assumption is affected by substantial
androcentric bias, and bioarchaeological investigations of past populations do not
always support it. In Central Europe, previous studies have shown marked differences
in terrestrial mobility and upper limb manipulative behaviours between males and
females, as well as consistently high levels of female humeral loading. However,
humeral loading and relative interlimb loading in contemporaneous males have not
been investigated. This study analysed humeral and tibial cross-sectional geometric
properties ( J and I max / Imin ) in Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, and early Medieval Central
European males. The results show a lack of significant change in the intensity and
directionality of upper limb loading over time, but significant declines in tibial loading in
all time periods relative to the Neolithic. The first ~6150 years of agricultural
intensification in Central Europe can thus be characterized as having disproportionately
affected male lower limb relative to upper limb loading, likely related to increasing
sedentism following the introduction of agriculture. This contrasts with previous findings
in contemporaneous females, among whom interlimb loading patterns document very
high levels of manual labour relative to terrestrial mobility through to the early Medieval
period. This research offers insight into sexual divisions of labour in early Central
European farming populations, and addresses the androcentric and methodological
biases that affect perceptions of agricultural labour in the bioarchaeological record.
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Keywords
Sexual division of labour, Bioarchaeology, Androcentrism, Agriculture, Central Europe