Gendered Grave Goods

Paper Summary:

The paper explores the portrayal of the feminine gender through grave-goods and the light these grave-goods shed on the culture of a woman and her community. The paper examines three contrasting inhumations, one Saxon, one Anglian and one Kentish, in order to compare and contrast these different cultures and communities. The paper discusses the revelations of contrasting styles of dress, varying roles played by women, such as weavers, wives and mothers and the status afforded to the Anglo-Saxon woman through the fulfilment of these roles.

From the Paper:

"In order to consider what is meant here by 'gendered grave-goods', it is first important to consider what is referred to by 'gender'. The term 'gender' is usually differentiated from the term 'sex' in that 'sex relates specifically to the biological, physical characteristics which make a person male or female at birth, whereas gender refers to the behaviours associated with members of that sex.' Sex, then, is defined biologically, and gender, culturally. Crawford says of the grave-goods associated with the pagan Anglo-Saxon inhumation ritual, that '[t]he clearest message conveyed [...] was the sex of the deceased', the sharp contrast between the '[w]eapons, including spears, shields and swords' almost exclusively found in male burials and the jewellery that is associated with female burials serving to highlight the very different types of goods used to symbolise the male and female sexes. Stoodley emphasises the contrast between masculine and feminine symbolism further still in his comment that the jewellery of the female inhumation ritual is not only an indication of the female sex, but is also involved in 'the creation of a feminine gender'."

Sample of Sources Used:

• 'Anglo-Saxons' in Microsoft(r) Encarta(r) Online Encyclopedia 2000, http://encarta.msn.co.uk (c) 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
• Campbell, James, 'The Lost Centuries: 400-600' in The Anglo-Saxons, ed. by James Campbell, (Penguin: London, 1991) pp. 20-44
• Chadwick, Sonia, E., 'The Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Finglesham, Kent: a Reconsideration' in Medieval Archaeology, Volume 2, 1957, pp. 1-71
• Chadwick Hawkes, S., 'Finglesham. A Cemetery in East Kent' in The Anglo-Saxons, ed. by James Campbell, (Penguin: London, 1991) pp. 24-25
• Crawford, Sally, 'Grave Goods' in The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England, ed. by M. Lapidge, J. Blair, S. Keynes, and D. Scragg (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999) pp. 218-220

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