A Consideration of Gender Roles and Relations in the Aegean Bronze Age Interpreted from Gestures and Proxemics in Art

Description

This monograph analyses human figures that appear in Aegean Bronze Age art, considering the roles and relations between genders, and interpreting differential status or power implications. Susan E. Poole studies a comprehensive range of figures that appear on wall paintings, glyptics (seals, seal impressions and finger rings), and some three-dimensional objects. The gestures and postures displayed in the body language are examined, together with placements and orientations between the figures. The author considers the way figures occupy their surrounding space, possible gender distinct activities, the seating of figures, and processions. A structural iconographic method is used to interpret the material, together with ethological, sociological and linguistic approaches, and a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis is applied. The research includes a rich corpus of images from a wide range of sources to illustrate observations. Front Cover Of Related Interest Acknowledgements Contents List of Figures List of Tables Abstract 1: Introduction Outline of Investigation The Aegean Context Identifying Images in the Text 2: Relevant Previous Research Gesture in the Aegean Figurines Gestures Associated with Spatial Divisions Gestures of Ecstasy? Gestures of Power? Gestured Images Influencing Activity? Glyptics Frescoes Gender in the Aegean Gender Identification Gender definitions? Criteria for Gender Distinctions? Binary Divisions of Gender? The ‘Mother Goddess’ Influence Assignment of ‘Traditional’ Activitiesto Males and Females Gender Segregation? Plant-Gathering as Status-Imbued? The Link Between Females and Child-Care Textile Production The ‘Domestic’ Context Male-Focused Perspective Age and Gender Some Concluding Observations 3: A Theoretical Framework for Analysis The Relationship Between Image, Subject and Viewer Image as Sign The Importance of the Human Image The Audience Was there a Different Prehistoric Understanding of Perception? Which Gender did the Viewing? Can We Knowand does it Matter? Image as Metaphor Gesture, Art and Iconography What Gesture and Proxemics Might Mean Outsidethe Image The Ethological Model The Sociological Model The Linguistic Model The Importance of Gestural Behaviour and Proxemics as Status Indicators in Orientation, Ceremony and Ritual, and Spatial Behaviour Greetings and Farewells Ceremony and Ritual Spatial Behaviour 4: A Methodology and the Material Examined How Gender will be Understood and Interpreted A Grounded Theory Approach The Structural-Iconographic Framework for Analysis Technical, Crafting, Stylistic, and Material Considerations The Material Analysed The Frescoes The Glyptics Three-Dimensional Miscellaneous Artefacts Supplementary Material Including Figurines Past And Present Problems with the Evidence General Misleading Reconstructions of the Material Misleading Drawings Gender Attributes Identified The Issue of Skin Colour 5: Are There Gender-Distinct Activities? Objects Held as Indicative of Perceived Social Roles Objects and Inter-Personal Relationships 6: The Ways Bodies Occupy Their Surrounding Space Contained or Expanding Body Shapes Within the Picture Frame: Are There Gender Differences? ‘Uncontrolled’ Postures: Are These Gender Specific? Conclusion 7: In What Ways Do Figures Orientate Towards Each Other? Preliminary Considerations Some Basic Assumptions Female-to-Female Orientation Mixed Gender Orientation Females More Dominant Neither Gender Dominant Mutual Orientation or Males Dominating? Some Concluding Observations about Orientation 8: Can the Seating of Figures Reveal Anything About Gender Status? The Approach The Artefacts Analysed Where and When These Seated Figures were Viewed Gender of Figures Identified Kinds of Seating Used Special Chairs Other People in Relation to the Seated Figure Conclusion 9: What Might an Examination of Processions Reveal? The Nature of processions Elements Identifiable in Processions Gender Distinctions Female-only Processions Mixed Gender Processions Some Concluding Observations 10: Conclusion References