An approach to the construction of gender in arhaeology through the case study of La Paya. An histotiographical review

Abstract

As it has occurred in other areas of social sciences, archaeology in Argentina has maintained a disparate interest in gender studies, which is reflected both in regard to a historiographical review about the interpretive construction as in the search for material evidences about the gender diversity in the past societies. This paper seeks to  approach critically the first of these lines of analysis through a case study, the tombs of La Paya (Valle Calchaquí Norte, Province of Salta), whose interpretation was published by Ambrosetti in 1907, in order to understand how the categories of female and male were constructed in the early development of archaeology as a scientific discipline. Comprising 161 burials with human bones of adults, we study the material evidence Ambrosetti used to identify the gender of these individuals, looking for the associations between artifacts and specific genders. We consider whether these associations could have been influenced by ideas of his time about female and male roles that are not necessarily related to pre-Hispanic societies of the area.