Womb Politics: The Pregnant Body and Archaeologies of Absence

IF 1.6 2区历史学 0 ARCHAEOLOGY

CAMBRIDGE ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOURNAL Pub Date : 2025-05-13 DOI:10.1017/s0959774325000125

Marianne Hem Eriksen, Katherine Marie Olley, Brad Marshall, Emma Tollefsen

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Pregnancy encompasses core socio-political issues: kinship, demography, religion, gender and more. In any society, the ontology of the pregnant body and the embryo-fetus holds core existential concerns. Is a pregnant body one or two beings? When does personhood begin? Yet pregnancy is still a marginal topic in archaeology and its onto-political consequences have scarcely been raised. It would be ludicrous to claim that pregnancy or childbirth is part of the grand narratives of prehistory. Also in scholarship centring theoretical perspectives on the body and personhood the pregnant body is absent. This article poses fundamental questions of the body-politics of pregnancy. We develop concepts from material feminism, medical ethics and philosophy to interrogate pregnancy and provide a case study to demonstrate how these concepts can work in practice from the Viking Age. The questions posed, however, are not limited to the Viking period. Our overall objective is to centre pregnancy as a philosophical and political concern in archaeology writ large. We develop new thinking and language to this end, which can be used to examine the politics of pregnancy in other periods and regions. Ultimately, we discuss the absence-making of pregnant bodies from our sources as well as from archaeological discourse.

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子宫政治：怀孕的身体和缺席的考古学

怀孕涉及核心的社会政治问题：亲属关系、人口、宗教、性别等等。在任何社会中，怀孕身体和胚胎-胎儿的本体论都是存在主义的核心问题。一个怀孕的身体是一个还是两个生命？人格什么时候开始？然而，怀孕在考古学中仍然是一个边缘话题，其对政治的影响也很少被提及。声称怀孕或分娩是史前宏大叙事的一部分将是荒谬的。同样，在以身体和人格为中心的理论观点的学术研究中，怀孕的身体是缺席的。这篇文章提出了关于怀孕的身体政治的基本问题。我们从物质女权主义、医学伦理和哲学等方面发展概念来质疑怀孕，并提供一个案例研究来展示这些概念如何在维京时代的实践中发挥作用。然而，所提出的问题并不局限于维京时期。我们的总体目标是将怀孕作为考古学中哲学和政治问题的中心。我们为此开发了新的思维和语言，可以用来考察其他时期和地区的怀孕政治。最后，我们从我们的资料来源和考古学的话语中讨论怀孕身体的缺席制造。

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来源期刊

CAMBRIDGE ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOURNAL ARCHAEOLOGY-

CiteScore

3.30

自引率

8.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Cambridge Archaeological Journal is the leading journal for cognitive and symbolic archaeology. It provides a forum for innovative, descriptive and theoretical archaeological research, paying particular attention to the role and development of human intellectual abilities and symbolic beliefs and practices. Specific topics covered in recent issues include: the use of cultural neurophenomenology for the understanding of Maya religious belief, agency and the individual, new approaches to rock art and shamanism, the significance of prehistoric monuments, ritual behaviour on Pacific Islands, and body metamorphosis in prehistoric boulder artworks. In addition to major articles and shorter notes, the Cambridge Archaeological Journal includes review features on significant recent books.