Introduction: Amazons and Dianas? Female Burials in Perspective

Q3 Arts and Humanities
Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Were classical Greek legends of Eurasian steppe heroine-warriors and female hunters mythic fantasies or based on reality? Was Herodotus, who wrote about them in the fifth century BCE, more accurate in his historical descriptions and wiser in his analysis than previously thought, despite being interpreted for many centuries as sensational? What can lavish graves of goldbedecked females buried with weapons reveal about our own projections and assumptions regarding status and gender? Using the lens of gender-sensitive archeology, our stereotypes of male warrior-leaders have rarely been as challenged, as when a Scythian period grave found in Tuva, initially viewed as that of a male youth, proved to be female after DNA analysis. My fascination with female hunters was sparked in the 1970s when I first learned about them in Ob-Ugrian Khanty villages, where they were anomalies who had gone extra milesto feed their families in times of trouble. At the same time, I learned that a secret “traditional Khanty burial” in the early 1970s, against all Soviet prohibitions and practices, had been conducted for a revered male elder, complete with a horse sacrifice. Could any woman ever have been buried with such honor? The logic of female role flexibility was palpable and confirmed many years later in Turkic Sakha (Yakut) villages of the Far North, where other female hunters flourished and were admired. Harder to confirm were historical traces of women buried with horse sacrifices, although this too has been documented beyond doubt in the case of the famed royal Pazyryk “Altai princess,” discovered in 1993 and discussed ahead. Questions of a range of female roles and statuses existing in numerous nomadic societies over the huge swath of territory from the Black Sea to Mongolia are broached in this issue, which also ranges widely in time. Besides potential hunters and warriors, female claims to respect or fame appear more often to have come from priestess-like roles, as evident in some female burials with altar-like stone stands. ANTHROPOLOGY & ARCHEOLOGY OF EURASIA 2020, VOL. 59, NO. 2, 79–83 https://doi.org/10.1080/10611959.2020.1950467
导读:亚马逊和戴安娜?透视女性墓葬
古典希腊关于欧亚草原女英雄战士和女猎人的传说是神话般的幻想还是基于现实?希罗多德在公元前五世纪写过关于他们的文章,他对历史的描述是否比以前想象的更准确,分析是否比以前更明智,尽管他在许多世纪里都被解读为耸人听闻?用武器埋葬的镀金女性的奢华坟墓能揭示我们自己对地位和性别的预测和假设吗?从对性别敏感的考古学角度来看,我们对男性战士领袖的刻板印象很少像在图瓦发现的一座斯基泰人时期的坟墓那样受到挑战,最初被视为男性青年的坟墓,经过DNA分析,证明是女性的。20世纪70年代,当我第一次在Ob Ugrian Khanty村了解到女性猎人时,我对她们产生了浓厚的兴趣。在那里,她们是异常的,在遇到困难时,她们会加倍努力养活家人。与此同时,我了解到,在20世纪70年代初,一场秘密的“传统汗国葬礼”违背了苏联的所有禁令和惯例,为一位受人尊敬的男性长者举行,并配有马祭。有哪个女人能以这样的荣誉下葬吗?女性角色灵活性的逻辑是显而易见的,多年后在遥远北方的突厥萨哈(雅库特)村庄得到了证实,在那里,其他女性猎人蓬勃发展,备受钦佩。更难证实的是埋葬有马祭的女性的历史痕迹,尽管这一点在1993年发现并在前面讨论的著名皇家帕兹里克“阿尔泰公主”的案例中也有毫无疑问的记录。从黑海到蒙古的大片领土上,许多游牧社会中存在着一系列女性角色和地位的问题,这一问题在时间上也存在很大差异。除了潜在的猎人和战士之外,女性对尊重或名声的要求似乎更多地来自于类似女祭司的角色,这在一些带有祭坛状石碑的女性葬礼中很明显。《欧亚人类学与考古学2020》,第59卷,第2期,79–83https://doi.org/10.1080/10611959.2020.1950467
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来源期刊
Anthropology and Archeology of Eurasia
Anthropology and Archeology of Eurasia Arts and Humanities-History
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期刊介绍: Anthropology and Archeology of Eurasia presents scholarship from Russia, Siberia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, the vast region that stretches from the Baltic to the Black Sea and from Lake Baikal to the Bering Strait. Each thematic issue, with a substantive introduction to the topic by the editor, features expertly translated and annotated manuscripts, articles, and book excerpts reporting fieldwork from every part of the region and theoretical studies on topics of special interest.
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