Archaeological Studies on Gender in Early East Asia

This Element reviews gendered archaeology in Asia since the 1990s, exploring the role of gendered identities in ancient societies. It highlights how national guidelines, local traditions, and historiographic shifts influence research, with recent studies emphasizing national civilizations and traditional values.

Gendered archaeology in Asia has been studied by archaeologists since the 1990s and scholars have posed questions such as the role and construction of gendered identities in ancient societies. In this Element, the authors review secondary literature, report on to what stage the research has evolved, evaluate methodologies, and use the concept of networking to examine the issues across East Asia, including China, Mongolia, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. Interestingly, those literatures are not entirely parallel with each other – the authors found, for example, that archaeological investigation was largely bound by national guidelines, by local intellectual traditions, and by changing historiographic interpretations of past events, as well as funding. The complexion of recent studies on gender and archaeology in Asia has often been focused on providing a framework for a grand narrative of each national ''civilization'' as the emergence of institutional political structures, including traditional values placed on men and women.