Archaeological possibilities for feminist theories of transition and transformation

Abstract

Archaeology takes up material fragments from distant andrecent pasts to create narratives of personal and collective identity. It is, therefore, a powerful voice shaping our current and future social worlds. Feminist theory has to date made little reference to archaeology and its projects, in part because archaeologists have primarily chosen to work with normative forms of gender theory rather than forge new theory informed by archaeological insights. This paper argues that archaeology has considerably more potential for feminist theorizing than has so far been recognized. In particular it is uniquely placed to build theory for understanding change, transition and transformationover extended time periods, a potential explored through anarchaeological case study of Pacific Northwest Coast people. Inconclusion, some possibilities for expanding this case study into a wider comparative perspective are sketched ou