| Abstract: |
The central theme is the relationship between the role of women in economic production and distribution, and their social status, as far as this can be deduced from archaeological, ethnographic, and literary evidence. In Palaeo, Meso, and early Neo times women were the main providers of food, but as farming developed men acquired increasingly dominant roles, though not uniformly in time or space. Even when most women appeared as second class citizens, some of them (eg Celtic female warleaders, perhaps Minoan Crete) had dominant positions. Some ways of collecting data to examine this topic in further depth are outlined; assumptions must eliminate those induced by modern cultural preoccupations. |
