What Does Androcentric Archaeology Tell Us About Men?
Both Brøndsted (1960) and Harding (2007) commit androcentrism of all the previously mentioned kinds. None of these studies inform us much about prehistoric women, but I will assert that they do not really tell us much about men either. They are mainly concerned with presumed male roles and male activities, but while Brøndsted generally presents them as people and humans, making the explicit manly and masculine disappear into the shadows, Harding clearly states that the warrior was male and transfers readymade modern stereotypic ideas on male roles. Since masculinity is not questioned, the image of men in both studies becomes a never ending reproduction of male archetypes like the warrior, the farmer, the hunter and the chief or in other words; the breadwinner and the man in charge fulfilling 19th century masculine ideals of being head of house, making decisions, being stout and taking risks (Caesar 1999b; Hjørungdal 1994; Welinder 1997). The prehistoric man lives up to mythic ideas of an original, inborn and natural masculinity, which is rough and fierce and explicitly put in contrast to the peaceful feminine (Brøndsted 1960:73). Consequently, the impression of the male becomes one-dimensional and shallow and he doesn’t change even though the archaeological record and
thus society and cultural norms obviously did.
In studies like Brøndsted’s (1960) men become actions, large scale social and technological developments, or cultural groups, and as such they seem unaffected by gender. For example, Brøndsted (1960:154, 157) states that smith tools are found in male burials, and that iron production and smith work must have been the most important among the crafts (250). Nevertheless, neither in his thorough discussion of iron production technology (see 110–113) nor anywhere else is the possible relation between iron technology and men discussed any further. Thus, how the introduction and incorporation of iron technology may have influenced gendered structures remains unknown. Most likely, the introduction of iron production had consequences for the division of labour or task differentiation (see e.g. Ra¨f 2006; Spector 1983, 1993) as it is a rather time consuming activity. If groups, possibly consisting mainly of men, went away for weeks to produce iron, this must have affected the accomplishment and division of other tasks in the community. Further, iron production requires the knowhow as well as access to and control over human and raw material resources (Larsen 2009; Østiga°rd 2007). As the economical importance of iron production increased rapidly in Southern Scandinavia by the end of the Pre-Roman Iron Age, tasks related to different stages in the production, in all probability, created specific gendered contexts of action and consequently contexts of power (Conkey 1991). In addition, a possible repeated association between men and iron production may have created new notions of
masculinity, and metaphors related to iron production might have been used for expressing, legitimating and explaining masculinity (see Butler 2006[1990]:190–193). In other words, Brøndsted’s study tells a lot about iron technology, but little of how it may have affected the lives of men.
Harding (2007) gives a nuanced presentation of possible developments of the hunter/warrior from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age, mainly concerning the weaponry and ways of warfare. He stresses that war was pervasive in the development of Bronze Age society and lists the increasing need for craftsmen, traders, travellers and military training of young men as examples of changes in society (Harding 2007:181). In spite of the fact that he characterizes warfare as a single-sexed arena Harding never considers whether the emergence and development of the warrior role may have been related to changes in gender structures and hereunder notions of masculinity. On the contrary, he struggles hard to unpack what happens as the warrior role develops throughout the Bronze Age. He aims to discuss how warrior identity transformed over time and how it was related to changes in society but it remains unclear what he means by identity as well as warrior ideology and how it influenced other social structures. He stresses bellicosity as an important premise for war (2007:24), but seems unaware that universally and throughout history a variety of cultures and belief systems have developed concepts of masculinity that motivate and induce men to fight (Goldstein 2004:264). A large body of literature and research shows that war systems; the ways that societies organize themselves to participate in potential or actual wars, and the cultural understanding of masculinity are closely interrelated (e.g. Braudy 2005; Dudink et al. 2004; Goldstein 2004; Spierenburg 1998). ‘‘Gender roles adapt individuals for war roles, and war provides the context within which individuals are socialized into gender roles.’’ (Goldstein 2004:6). Hardings study contains potentially a lot of information about men and masculinities but the male warrior remains a category which explains the presence of weapons. In contradiction to Brøndsted, Harding could indeed be criticised for not taking gender into account. That is, however, not the point of this discussion.
What is missing from the non-gendered archaeology of men is the idea of masculinity (Connell 2005[1995]:28). Gendered mechanisms, how gender may structure action, space or development or how masculinity may differentiate between different groups of men (see e.g. Connell 1995) are not a part of the understanding of prehistoric men. The fact that men are representing the entire prehistoric society is not simply because women are ignored; it is mainly because men are not gendered.
To ignore masculinity is to leave the idea of this undifferentiated, universal
‘‘man’’ in place and neglect his complexity (Caesar 1999b:115). As androcentric studies apply ‘‘man’’ and ‘‘masculinity’’ as universal norms they blur the image of prehistoric men and it becomes even more difficult to explore masculinity. In some respects there is an unfinished task in finding and making prehistoric men visible as a heterogeneous group as well as individuals. The man as the norm may be challenged by giving attention to women but the stereotype image of prehistoric men is not altered. To explore prehistoric men and masculinity might on the other hand confront androcentric archaeological studies just as much as to study women in prehistory. By gendering prehistoric men it becomes clear that they can only stand for themselves, rather than represent the whole of humanity (Alberti 2006:404; see also Knapp 1998c).