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Neolithic women
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moss
moss
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Re: Neolithic women
Mar 07, 2017, 09:48
tiompan wrote:
carol27 wrote:
[quote="tiompan"][quote="moss"][quote="carol27"]



Yes thankyou everyone, but what I'm wondering about is why, do we think, that subjugation was deemed necessary. Why, do we think that the concept of , virgin, whore, witch as tjj so succinctly put it became a concept, "going forward":) Yes, a nauseating phrase I know:) but, you know modern parlence & all that.


This is a typical approach to the idea that much greater gender inequality began with the onset of farming during the Neolithic .

http://www.econ.ku.dk/mehr/calendar/seminars/30112012/Hansen_et_al___2012__pdf.pdf

There is also a similar argument for general inequality and greater opportunities for a more hierarchical society .

The Beeb VIEW http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-18235130
The paper , it's a bit techy in places but jump to the conclusions .
http://www.pnas.org/content/109/24/9326.full.pdf

It might be argued that it is little different from the usual wishful thinking golden age fantasies associated with any period earlier than today , in this case the Mesolithic , and also suffers from with the extra baggage of noble savage stuff too . But there is some data rather than dreams .
Of course it wouldn't have been a bed of roses for women or any males that might " less advantaged " in Meso but the possibility that farming exacerbated the divisions seems likely .



A long way from lions and bitches !! sorry Carol..

Though we can only surmise how Neolithic women behaved, also Bronze age, as illustrated in the links you gave, there is no evidence about the day to day interaction. Later historical information point to inheritance and marriage law, which must have been working in the Iron Age/Celtic period, when such burials as the Vix female grave was discovered, and of course later in the Saxon period when women were buried with their grave goods. The high-born Anglo-Saxon Street-Loftus female burial shows her with expensive brooches, as do a lot of A/S female burials. Laying down laws had created an equality, which of course was corroded through time, female were not strong physically, this sorted the boys from the girls, as it still does today.

What I cannot prove though is that marriages were not arranged by families, as for instance looks like the case in the Whittle findings when females were found to be from outside the areas. It shows that the male took over the family farm, it does not show subjugation though, the two sexes could have been working side by side.

Women sadly have always born the brunt of childbirth and caring, those traits have tied her to the home for centuries, the time involved and society’s expectations. But one thing does strike me from the past, the Avebury Avenue of both female/male stones, evident elsewhere, at least a common acceptance that both sexes were equal parts of the world, the yin-yang of dark-light, female-male can never be under estimated .
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