Diane Bolger is a Research Fellow in Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. In addition to her research on gender, she specializes in the ceramics of early agricultural societies in the ancient Near East, particularly in Cyprus, where she has been involved in fieldwork since the early 1980s. Her major publications on gender include three books: Gender in Ancient Cyprus (2003), Engendering Aphrodite: Women and Society in Ancient Cyprus (2002), and Gender through Time in the Ancient Near East (2008).

An authoritative guide on gender prehistory for researchers, instructors and students in anthropology, archaeology, and gender studies
* Provides the most up-to-date, comprehensive coverage of gender archaeology, with an exclusive focus on prehistory
* Offers critical overviews of developments in the archaeology of gender over the last 30 years, as well as assessments of current trends and prospects for future research
* Focuses on recent Third Wave approaches to the study of gender in early human societies, challenging heterosexist biases, and investigating the interfaces between gender and status, age, cognition, social memory, performativity, the body, and sexuality
* Features numerous regional and thematic topics authored by established specialists in the field, with incisive coverage of gender research in prehistoric and protohistoric cultures of Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas and the Pacific

List of Illustrations x
List of Tables xiii
Notes on Contributors xiv
Acknowledgments xxii
Introduction: Gender Prehistory - The Story So Far 1
Diane Bolger
Part I Thematic Perspectives in Gender Prehistory 21
Section 1 Current Themes and Debates 21
1 Engendering Human Evolution 23
Adrienne Zihlman
2 Gender, Complexity, and Power in Prehistory 45
Scott R. Hutson, Bryan K. Hanks, and K. Anne Pyburn
3 Archaeology of Embodied Subjectivities 68
Teresa Dujnic Bulger and Rosemary A. Joyce
4 Queer Prehistory: Bodies, Performativity, and Matter 86
Benjamin Alberti
5 The Future of Gender in Prehistoric Archaeology 108
Margaret W. Conkey
Section 2 Gender and Prehistoric Material Culture 121
6 Gender and Prehistoric Rock Art 122
Kelley Hays-Gilpin
7 Gender and Lithic Studies in Prehistoric Archaeology 142
Nyree Finlay
8 Gender, Labor, and Pottery Production in Prehistory 161
Diane Bolger
9 Gender and Textile Production in Prehistory 180
Cathy Lynne Costin
Section 3 Gendered Bodies and Identities in Prehistory 203
10 Personhood in Prehistory: A Feminist Archaeology in Ten Persons 204
Yvonne Marshall
11 Bioarchaeological Approaches to the Gendered Body 226
Joanna Sofaer
12 Figurines, Corporeality, and the Origins of the Gendered Body 244
Douglass W. Bailey
13 Goddesses in Prehistory 265
Lucy Goodison and Christine Morris
Part II Regional Perspectives in Gender Prehistory 289
Section 4 Gender Prehistory in Africa and Asia 289
14 Gender in North African Prehistory 291
Barbara E. Barich
15 Gender in the Prehistory of Sub-Saharan Africa 313
Lyn Wadley
16 Gender and Archaeology in Coastal East Asia 333
Sarah Milledge Nelson
17 Gender Archaeology in East Asia and Eurasia 351
Katheryn M. Linduff and Karen S. Rubinson
18 Gender in Southwest Asian Prehistory 372
Diane Bolger and Rita P. Wright
Section 5 Gender in European Prehistory 395
19 The History of Gender Archaeology in Northern Europe 396
Marie Louise Stig Sørensen
20 Gender in Eastern European Prehistory 413
John Chapman and Nona Palincaº
21 Gender and Feminism in the Prehistoric Archaeology of Southwest Europe 438
Margarita Díaz-Andreu and Sandra Montón-Subías
22 Gender in British Prehistory 458
Benjamin Edwards and Rachel Pope
23 Gender in Central Mediterranean Prehistory 480
Ruth Whitehouse
24 Gender in Greek and Aegean Prehistory 502
Louise Hitchcock and Marianna Nikolaidou
Section 6 Gender Prehistory in the Americas and the South Pacific 526
25 Gender in the Prehistory of the Eastern United States 527
Cheryl Claassen
26 The Archaeology of Gender in Western North America 544
Alice Beck Kehoe
27 The Archaeology of Gender in Mesoamerica: Moving Beyond Gender Complementarity 564
Elizabeth M. Brumfiel
28 Gender in South American Prehistory 585
Melissa A. Vogel and Robyn E. Cutright
29 Gender and Archaeology in Australia, Papua New Guinea, and the South Pacific 608
Cherrie De Leiuen
Index 628