13834b

WiSe 14/15: Performance and the politics of gender in the archaeology of the Middle East (Seminar)

Leila Papoli Yazdi

Information for students

Das Modul 13834a V und 13834 b S (3 SWS) im Bachelor ist mit 10 LP zu bewerten. Beide Veranstaltungen müssen zusammen belegt werden.

Comments

This course examines some of the essentialist assumptions about gender held by archaeologists which have shaped, and continue to shape, scholarly and popular perceptions of the past. At the same time, considering the Judith Butler’s “Politics of Performativity”, it aims to demonstrate some of the ways in which current gender-based approaches can shed light on the socio-economic and political complexities of past historical cultures by engaging in a review of theory and methods in gender studies. Moreover, the course will include discussions of the politics of propaganda and media that influence the interpretation of archaeologists. Specific case studies will be drawn from the historical dynasties of the Middle East dating from the first millennium B.C.E. to the modern era. We will build on an understanding of gender as a culturally constructed rather than biologically determined social category and emphasize an appreciation of the importance of contextual evidence for interpreting gender roles presented within the frames of performativity and material culture. close

Suggested reading

Babayan, K. and A. Najmabadi (eds.) 2008. Islamicate Sexualities: Translations across Temporal Geographies of Desire (Harvard Middle Eastern Monographs. Boston: Harvard CMES. Bahrani, Z. 2001. Women of Babylon: Gender and Representation in Mesopotamia. New York: SUNY. Butler, J. 1997. Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative. New York: Psychology Press. Cifarelli, M. 2011. Gender through Time in the Ancient Near East, edited by Diane Bolger. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 70, No. 2 (October 2011), pp. 348-351. Floor, W. 2008. A Social History of Sexual Relations in Iran. New York: Mage Publishers. Gero, J., Conkey, M.(eds). 1991. Engendering Archaeology. Oxford: Blackwell. Joyce, R.A. 2008. Ancient Bodies, Ancient Lives: Sex, Gender, and Archaeology. London: Thames & Hudson. Gilchrist, R. 1999. Gender and Archaeology: Contesting the Past. London: Routledge. Keddie, N. and B. Baron. 1993. Women in Middle Eastern History: Shifting Boundaries in Sex and Gender. New Haven: Yale University Press Nelson, S.M. 2004. Gender in Archaeology: Analyzing Power and Prestige. Oxford: Altamira. Wylie, A. 1992. The interplay of evidential constraints and political interests: Recent archaeological research on gender. American Antiquity 57(1): 15-35. close