The Dynamics of Gender in Early Agricultural Societies of the Near East

In the pages that follow I will consider some of the major themes that have served as focal points of this research during the last twenty to thirty years. While this discussion is intended in part to draw attention to the lack of gender‐based approaches in traditional models of early agricultural communities within the region, it also aims to identify some of the new directions in the field that are beginning to grant a more central role to issues of gender and social identity. Four major areas of research will be considered: (1) gender and subsistence, (2) bioarchaeological evidence for gender roles, (3) the effects of sedentism and the built environment on gender relations, and (4) symbolism, ideology, and social identity. While the separation of these fundamentally interrelated topics runs the risk of artificially dissociating them, it allows for greater clarity in addressing some of the major issues and problems inherent in traditional approaches to early agricultural economies and in identifying some of the more recent, socially based approaches that are helping to reshape our understanding of gender relations and gender identities during one of the most formative phases of human prehistory.