Gender and Status in Competition in Pre-Modern Societies ed. by Martha Bayless, Jonas Lilequist and Lewis Webb (review)

Abstract

Gender and Status in Competition in Pre-Modern Societies is a volume of essays investigating how gendered practices, performances and (re)presentations have been used for status competition in the premodern world. It aims to impress the omnipresence of status competition throughout history and across cultures, while contributing new research on the intersections between gender and status competition. A key feature, and perhaps the greatest strength of the volume in terms of sparking interest, is that the contributions span a vast temporal and geographical scope and are drawn from various research disciplines. Temporally, the studies span from, at the earliest, the fourth millennium bce in Marta Ameri’s essay ‘Women, Seals, and Power in Prehistoric Iran and Central Asia’, to, at the latest, the seventeenth century ce in Martin W. Huang’s ‘Status Competition, Mourning and Gender in Seventeenth Century China’. The geographical scope of the volume encompasses China, Iran, Arabia, Italy, France, Scandinavia, and Sweden. And they draw on archaeology, various forms of literature, iconography and art history, and legislation. This quality speaks to efforts to decolonise the field of medieval and early modern studies and, with several of the essays drawing on numerous evidence types, it also demonstrates an awareness of the benefits of cross-disciplinary research.