Gender, Identities, and Material Culture in the Italic Peninsula: Burial Practices and Loom Weights in Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 18-35
Author(s):  
Arianna Esposito ◽  
Airton Pollini

Abstract This paper discusses the complex relationship between material culture and gender studies from a methodological point of view, with the aim of contributing to discussions in the field of Classical archaeology. First, we provide a few historiographical benchmarks for key epistemological developments, while evidencing the methodological difficulties inherent in the variability of our interpretations of burial practices and data. Then, in a second section, a case study focuses on simple objects of daily life. Discussing approaches inspired by gender studies, and considering the place of loom weights, we wish to tackle the presumption of textile work as an eminently female activity. The aim of this paper is to suggest a more nuanced and fluid approach to gender in relation to material culture.

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 149-170
Author(s):  
Charlie Athill

This narrative case study explores how material culture, in the form of dress, grooming and accessories, is utilized to establish a gender-fluid presentation of the self. It focuses on Tim Mustoe, a 42-year-old heterosexual creative living and working in London, whose embodied practice contributes to the problematization of gender normativity through a disruption of culturally established links between appearance, gender and sex. The study considers how a particular form of non-spectacular cross dressing is used to integrate into a work environment and also operate within a non-queer social environment. The study explores the affective power of material culture in the reification of subject position and as a means of resilience and empowerment through everyday practice and also considers its significance on a social, intersubjective level. The methodology used for this case draws on sensory ethnography and includes a queer reflexive turn to consider parallels and contrasts between my own and Tim’s experience and practice. Conceptualizations of subjectivity, sex, gender are considered in relation to those on material culture, and the study draws on scholarship related to cross-dressing in the United Kingdom. Tim identifies as a man, as do I; however, his embodied practice and gender identification proffer a particular response to culturally embedded norms relating to the binaries of sex and gender. Therefore, in relation to male femininity, I propose the notion of feminizing as an amendment to the concept of femaling, which assumes the identification with or transition to a cisgender position. This study explores the phenomenology of dress as an expressive tool of gratification and as a means of integration for which the imperatives of professionalism, age and respectability are key factors.


2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (12) ◽  
pp. 1609-1631 ◽  
Author(s):  
Varda Wasserman ◽  
Michal Frenkel

How does the multiplicity of surveilling gazes affect the experience of employees subjected to a matrix of domination in organisations? Building on a case study of ultra-religious Jewish women in Israeli high-tech organisations, the article demonstrates how the intersectionality of gender and religiosity exposed them to a matrix of contradicting visibility regimes – managerial, peers, and religious community. By displaying their compliance with each visibility regime, they were constructed as hyper-subjugated employees, but simultaneously were able to use (in)visibility as a resource. Specifically, by manoeuvring between the various gazes and playing one visibility regime against the other, they challenged some of the organisational and religious norms that served to marginalise them, yet upheld their status as worthy members of both institutions. Juxtaposing theoretical insights from organisational surveillance and gender studies, the article reveals the role of multiple surveilling gazes in both the reproduction of minorities’ marginalisation, and their ability to mobilise it to maintain their collective identities.


Author(s):  
Fiona Hackney

The launch of over fifty titles put women and their magazines at the forefront of popular publishing in the interwar years. The buoyant market opened new opportunities for women as writers, on the editorial side, in publicity, art departments, and related areas such as advertising, in order to better ‘appeal to women’ and articulate the ‘woman’s point of view’. Driven by commercial imperatives–women were considered to hold the purse strings of the nation–woman appeal, nevertheless, signalled a more nuanced understanding of female psychology and a gendered perspective on life. This chapter examines how it was constructed in the domestic monthly Modern Woman in the 1920s, and popular weeklies Woman’s Weekly and Woman in the 1930s. It argues that while simultaneously serving to reinforce accepted notions of womanhood, the complex relationship between editorial and advertising produced a hybrid environment in magazines that offered their widening readerships a space to imagine other versions of womanhood which, albeit quietly, challenged established class and gender norms.


1996 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-136

Space and gender have been two of the ‘buzz words’ in archaeology over the last few years; and quite rightly so, since they identify two of the most crucial aspects of human experience. As we move around buildings today, we are all well aware of norms and restrictions — public spaces and doors marked ‘private’, lounges and bedrooms, stairways and corridors. We negotiate and respect these according to customs and habits learned mainly in childhood. What is true of our own society is true of every other society, past and present, and one of the challenges — not to say obligations — facing archaeologists is to gain some understanding of these spatial mores, even when presented with little more than a ground plan.In Gilchrist's case-study of medieval English nunneries, the evidence is rather more substantial. Not only has some of the fabric survived — both of churches and their associated buildings — but there is a rich body of textual information about the nunneries, the nuns who inhabited them, and the Christian symbolism and belief which underlay the whole institution.What better place to study gender and its material expression than in such a uniquely female institution as the medieval nunnery? Fezv would deny that archaeology can play a powerful role in helping us to understand these religious communities — enabling us to see beyond the confines of written records. The application of particular theoretical approaches, however, is somewhat more contentious. Just how well do they fit such a body of evidence? And on a subject where we already have a great deal of textual evidence, can study of the material remains — in layout of buildings, evidence of their use, and iconography — truly reveal new levels of meaning? In sum, how successful is this new analysis?These are among the key issues which are discussed in the following pages. As usual, we begin this Review Feature with an introduction by the author herself, Roberta Gilchrist. Then follow four contrasting reactions, from archaeologists and historians, rounded off by Gilchrist's reply. Whatever our assessment, the interplay of gender and space has profound and far-reaching significance, and raises issues that no serious historical archaeologist — or indeed prehistorian — can afford to ignore.


2020 ◽  
pp. 73-96
Author(s):  
Claudia Carvalho

This article explores the role of researchers in online environments, namely Facebook, and their ethical responsibilities towards fieldwork in a broad sense, their interlocutors, colleagues, themselves, and their families. The aim is to highlight the relationship between methodology, ethical considerations, and political circumstances in the realm of jihadi audiovisualities. By addressing actual methodological and ethical limitations experienced while conducting research offline and on Facebook, I will further the practical understanding of radicalization processes and entanglement with jihadi media. The study has its own ethic and theoretical limitations since it is anchored in an empirical case study that represents a novelty in terms of methods and results. The sum of the application of these methods and creative solutions may inspire new scientific approaches for digital ethnography, digital ethics, and gender studies and may, in particular, help to conceptualize jihadi audiovisuality as a field of research.


Author(s):  
Jinat Hosain

This study tries to explore the interrelated dynamics among cosmetic surgery, choice and empowerment. While poverty, poor health accessibility and gender inequality are common problems in Bangladesh, a growing number of cosmetic clinics are being established and a number of women are increasingly taking up cosmetic surgeries. This study seeks to explore why women choose cosmetic surgeries for beautification, how they experience it and whether cosmetic surgery leads women to be empowered or not. Using qualitative research methods, this study used in-depth semi structured interview, observation and case study method to collect the data from the different cosmetic surgery patients, coming from both urban and rural areas of Bangladesh. The data was further analyzed by coding informants' responses into themes based on the research objectives and the theory, named ‘empowerment'. The study shows that even if the women choose surgery, it does not necessarily enhance their empowerment. That is the surgery that brings changes in physical appearance and might make them attractive, but it contributes little socially in terms of enabling them to make own decision in the contest of family and in community. Rather these women act as prescribed by patriarchal norms and gendered rules. Analyzing the data from theoretical point of view, this study found that the women, irrespective of regional boundaries, can rarely fulfill the condition of empowerment in relation to choice and IAP. The study concludes with some questions and queries that need more research to be answered.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 92-110
Author(s):  
Margaret Steenbakker

This article explores the gendered narrative in the video game Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation. Using this game as its main case study, it addresses the question in which ways the game developers have conceptualized gender, race, and gender performance in the video game. It does so from an intersectional point of view. After establishing Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation as a prime example of the trend to include more female characters in games during recent years, I will argue that this game includes a complex rhetoric that not only perpetuates stereotypical notions regarding gender, but also fails to acknowledge issues regarding its main protagonist’s skin color in the historical reality the game wishes to emulate.


Author(s):  
Allisson Silva Silva dos Santos ◽  
Giulliane Ohana Cassiano ◽  
Maria Luiza da Costa Santos

<p><span style="left: 118.11px; top: 896.995px; font-size: 18.6162px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(0.68349);">This study starts from the considerations of teachers who live in an environment of constant technological </span><span style="left: 118.11px; top: 918.995px; font-size: 18.6162px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(0.685875);">modernization and that perform their activities under a climate of pressure and demands, which indicates, </span><span style="left: 118.11px; top: 940.995px; font-size: 18.6162px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(0.710648);">therefore, a possible scenario for the predisposition of Burnout Syndrome. Thus, these considerations led to the </span><span style="left: 118.11px; top: 962.995px; font-size: 18.6162px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(0.684732);">following research questions: how do the teachers of the Management and Business Academic Department </span><span style="left: 118.11px; top: 984.995px; font-size: 18.6162px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(0.671458);">in João Pessoa campus at IFPB perceive the effects of technological innovations on the performance of their </span><span style="left: 118.11px; top: 1007px; font-size: 18.6162px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(0.69227);">functions? Can the level of psychoemotional commitment be a factor that may give rise to the burnout syndrome? </span><span style="left: 118.11px; top: 1029px; font-size: 18.6162px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(0.651325);">Thus, the research aimed to analyze the effects of technological innovations on teachers’ daily life as a trigger </span><span style="left: 118.11px; top: 1051px; font-size: 18.6162px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(0.672112);">to the Burnout Syndrome. In addition, the research, of descriptive and exploratory nature, was characterized </span><span style="left: 118.11px; top: 1073px; font-size: 18.6162px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(0.71655);">as a case study that involved 38 teachers who answered a form using the google forms online digital platform. </span><span style="left: 118.11px; top: 1095px; font-size: 18.6162px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(0.710358);">Results indicate correlated data between Technological Innovations, Burnout Syndrome and Gender. The results </span><span style="left: 118.11px; top: 1117px; font-size: 18.6162px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(0.693525);">indicate correlations between technological innovations, burnout syndrome and gender. A positive correlation was </span><span style="left: 118.11px; top: 1139px; font-size: 18.6162px; font-family: sans-serif; transform: scaleX(0.694413);">observed between the variable “technological innovations” and the dimension “psychic wear”.</span></p>


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 619
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Palavestra ◽  
Monika Milosavljević

From the point of view of the fact-oriented history of archaeology, there is no reason to consider the works of Jovan Cvijić and Vladimir Dvorniković. However, if we consider the history of ideas that have fundamentally determined the course of Serbian archaeology, it is relevant to examine the contributions of other disciplines and their key representatives. In the case of Serbian archaeology, the estimation of interdisciplinary transfers of ideas must be approached critically and with great caution, due to the deeply rooted tradition of not explicating the theoretical and methodological base of research. In other words, well into the 20th century, archaeologists have very rarely referred to authors from other fields of research, especially when dealing with general social phenomena. Serbian archaeology has tended to be a-theoretical, and the ideas of social development, social dynamics, or the rules of social behaviour have been considered as “implicit knowledge”, that need not be explained. However, these knowledges are counted upon, and are still considered as indubitable; there lies the power of “common points”, whose origins and genesis are very hard to discern. In this case study, the aim is to: 1) reconsider the link between the culture-historical archaeology in Serbia and cultural belts of Jovan Cvijić; and then to 2) attempt to understand the genealogy of the idea of continuity in Serbian archaeology. In other words, we shall challenge the apparently very logical supposition that our culture-historical archaeology has used the foundations laid by Jovan Cvijić, both in the case of cultural belts and of continuity. It will be demonstrated that archaeologists have skipped the lesson of Cvijić’s anthropo-geographical school of cultural circles, as well as his rejection of deep continuity in the Balkans. This means that the source of the archaeological idea of the elements of (material) culture that may be preserved from prehistory to the present, must be sought for in another direction, outside the work of Cvijić. One possible solution is to acknowledge the worlds of ideas of Milan Budimir and Veselin Čajkanović, along with very explicit ideas of continuity of less known Niko Županić and more prominent Vladimir Dvorniković, who modified and widely disseminated the ideas of Županić.


Author(s):  
Humapar Azhar Rahimi ◽  
Omid Afghan ◽  
Angeela Dadwar ◽  
Valentina Nori ◽  
Mahmood Mahaly ◽  
...  

In this research, the application of eleventh grade chemistry book content on the daily life of students at professor Rasoon Amin school in kabul provinces has been studied. The application has been evaluatyed at two levels of social and individual bases. The research was based on the active components of William Roman's theory and the context-based approach, which based on this theory, the practical content of the book, encourages students to use it in their daily lives. The results of this study showed that the practical content of the 11th grade chemistry in daily life has confirmed to maintain the health of students with more than 80% of their answers. Recognition of natural resources using chemistry content is more than 80% in students and they feel responsibility about 80% in their lives. In addition, more than 80% of students have taken benefits of chemistry content. On the other hand, the study made it clear that whenever the subject is taught empirically and practically and the students' attention is drawn to practical activities, it can be used in all aspects of everyday’s life.


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