Transgender Identities in Ancient Persia: Analysis of Burial Goods from the Hasanlu site (Modern Day Iran)

As previously mentioned anthropology is a holistic discipline, meaning that all of the anthropological subfields must be taken into consideration in order to understand what it means to be human.  This is particularly the case when attempting to understand human biological and cultural lives in the past.  Archaeologists and bioarchaeologists must have a solid understanding of sociocultural anthropology in order to better accurately interpret the archaeological record.  By understanding how living people interact with each other within specific physical and cultural environments one can make more precise interpretations about the material cultural evidence of the past.  This lesson is particularly important when it comes to Megan Cifarelli’s interpretation of burial goods found at the site of Hasanlu in modern day Iran (Figure 1).  Cifarelli claims that she has evidence of third gender/transgendered individuals present at this site, which has stirred up controversy within various scholarly circles.  This blog post will provide you with the background of the Hasanlu site, the evidence Cifarelli is citing to support her claims of transgender identities at the site, and the reasons why the controversy exists.

 

Figure 1: Map of the Middle East and Hasanlu location (Image Source: Megan Cifarell)

 

The Hasanlu site is located in northwestern Iran.  It existed throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages (1800-800 BC), and it was situated among various important and influential state level societies (e.g., Mesopotamia, Assyria, and more) during its existence.  There is substantial evidence at the site that demonstrates it was a socially stratified society, perhaps a chiefdom or city-state itself.  The site was excavated in the mid-20^th century by and American and Iranian team of archaeologists, who discovered a series of cemeteries and individuals hastily buried during the fall of the city (purportedly the result of an invading army).  The site showed no evidence of looting, providing archaeologists a unique opportunity to study both mortuary traditions and daily life among the Hasanlu residents, particularly around the time of its destruction.

 

Magen Cifarelli is one of many scholars who has taken advantage of these archaeological contexts to study the people of Hasanlu.  Her work built on previous studies focused on personal adornments, which are credited as being optimal to study identity.  It was clear from previous studies that these were remarkable objects that provided information concerning socioeconomic status differences among the people, and they were also interpreted as excellent markers of gender.  Earlier studies hinted at some anomalous individuals concerning gender differentiations, specifically individuals who had both masculine and feminine personal adornments.  These were discarded as either errors in interpretation (due to limitations in the skeletal analysis of sex) or cult members who worshipped the principal deity, Ishtar, who purportedly could and did manipulate individuals’ sex. 

 

Cifarelli, however, opted to reexamine the evidence, taking a more critical look at how specifically personal adornments could be used to differentiate gender.  She analyzed the burial goods of 100 burials from period IVb, which was considered the height of the occupation at Hasanlu, and statistically tested the results for specific patterns.  She found that there were statistically significant differences between males and females in what personal adornments they had on their persons.  Women’s personal adornments stressed beauty (being used to fasten clothing in locations that would accentuate the body), whereas men’s emphasized occupation (e.g., weapons and armor to demonstrate military positions).  She found something else, though.  She discovered that 20% of the burials demonstrated mixed artifact assemblages, meaning that both masculine and feminine artifacts were present in the burials.  This led her to conclude that a third gender category existed among the residents of Hasanlu. 

 

Figure 2: Hasanlu Gold Bowl with Transgendered Individual in Bottom Left Corner (Image Source: Megan Cifarelli)

She did not, however, stop at just the burial evidence, particularly as several of the individuals with the associated mixed artifact assemblages could not be skeletally classified by sex (due to age or ambiguous traits).  She also pointed out that there was iconographic evidence of third gender categories among the Hasanlu citizens.  The famous Hasanlu Gold Bowl has a bearded woman engraved on it.  This individual is dressed in women’s attire and seated, both of which are suggestive of a man dressed and behaving as a woman.  She speculates this is further evidence of a third gender category among the people at this site.

 

There is substantial sociocultural evidence of third gender categories in past and modern contexts.  Various groups around the globe have three or more gender categories, which demonstrates that this is not a new or rare cultural phenomenon.  Cifarelli points out that the reason why this cultural norm has not been more widely addressed in archaeological contexts is the ethnocentrism present among archaeologists, particularly Western archaeologists.  Because there remains a stigma against transgendered individuals in Western societies Western archaeologists may be hesitant or averse to reaching such conclusions when confronted with the evidence.  She encourages archaeologists across the world to be more open in their interpretations and consider the cultural norms, beliefs, and values of the people being studied versus imposing one’s own cultural beliefs and values onto those under study.  This standard is slowly taking over many contemporary archaeologists and anthropologists, who are moving toward a more culturally relativistic approach in archaeological interpretation.  This will hopefully bring about a more truthful and nonjudgmental understanding of cultural groups of the past.

 

References

Cifarelli, M. (2014). Personal ornaments at Hasanlu, Iran. Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean, 23(2), 297-316.

Cifarelli, M. (2015, February). Gender and Jewelry at Hasanlu. Friends of Asor.

David, A. (2018, December 30). Ancient Civilization in Iran Recognized Transgender People 3,000 Years Ago, Study Suggests. Retrieved from Haaretz: https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.premium.MAGAZINE-ancient-civilization-in-iran-recognized-transgender-people-study-suggests-1.6790205

Luntz, S. (2019, January 16). Ancient Persians Recognized At Least Three Genders. Retrieved from IFLScience: https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/ancient-persians-recognized-at-least-three-genders/

Marcus, M. (1994). Dressed to Kill: Women and Pins in Early Iran. Oxford Journal of Art, 3-15.

 

 

Women the Providers: Rethinking the Hunter and Gatherer Dichotomy

Figure 1: Depiction of female big game hunter (Source: Matthew Verdolivo / UC Davis IET Academic Technology Services)

In the 1960s the idea of “Man the Hunter” was introduced.  It was based on ethnographic evidence of African hunting and gathering groups wherein men were solely responsible for big game hunting, while women were relegated to caring for the children and foraging for food.  There has since been evidence that suggests that women did hunt.  They were opportunistic hunters who brought along hunting and fishing equipment and used them if and when small game or fish were available.  Now there is even newer evidence that suggests that in the ancient past that women and men were equal when it came to hunting activities.  This blog post will address this new evidence and what it means for understanding gender differences in the past.

 

In 2018 a team of American and Peruvian archaeologists were excavating at the southern Peruvian site of Wilamaya Patjxa.  They discovered two notable burials of adults found with a large cache of hunting tools, specifically blades and stone points, and they initially concluded that these were two high status male burials.  Subsequent analysis of both burials demonstrated that they were partially correct in this initial conclusion.  Using a new sexing method derived from forensic anthropological studies a protein analysis of tooth enamel showed that one of the burials belonged to a male and the other was of a 17–19-year-old female.   

 

She was buried with over 20 stone blades and points found near her leg, along with the bones of large game animals.  Isotopic analysis of her remains was completed to determine her diet, and it was found that she subsisted on a diet made up largely of meat and minimally of vegetative materials.  Taken together this led the team to conclude that she was indeed a hunter, as was the other male. 

 

This led the team to further analyze other burials that had been previously excavated, and they realized that 30-50% of the burials with similar blade tool assemblages in their graves were women, not men.  They concluded that women must have had equal opportunities to be hunters and that hunting was not an exclusively male occupation.  This conclusion is in line with other studies of later cultural groups that showed that women participated in “male activities”.  Ancient Viking and Scythian women were warriors, women may have been leaders in the Argaric culture of modern day Spain, and there are a few modern hunter-gatherer groups that show women are primarily the hunters, not doing so opportunistically. 

 

Ultimately, this shows that both in the past and today women were of equal or greater status to men, but it is unclear when the switch occurred.  More study is required to identify when this happened.  In the end this and other studies show that women can do anything men can do based on modern cultural norms.

 

Bibliography

Gershon, L. (2021, November 5). This Prehistoric Peruvian Woman Was a Big-Game Hunter. Smithsonian Magazine.

Gibbons, A. (2021, November 4). Woman the hunter: Ancient Andean remains challenge old ideas of who speared big game. Science.

Kelleher, S. (2021, November 5). Female Big Game Hunters May Have Been Common in the Early Americas. American Association for the Advancement of Science .

Milks, A. (2021, November 30). Women at the Hearth and on the Hunt. Retrieved from Sapiens: https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/female-hunters/

 

Anthropologist Profile: Beatrice Medicine, Research and Applied Sociocultural Anthropologist

Figure 1: Beatrice Medicine (Image Source: Indigenous Goddess Gang)

Today’s post is dedicated to discussing the contributions of Beatrice Medicine, an American Indian anthropologist who advocated for American Indian’s rights in various ways (Figure 1).  Her academic career spanned almost half a century, but retirement did not stop her from continuing to applied or academic work.  Her impressive career has earned her many recognitions, and her namesake is attached to an awarded provided to students who wish to present at the Society for Applied Anthropology annual meeting. 

 

Born in 1923 at the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota, her Native name was Hinsha Waste Agli Win (Returns Victorious with a Red Horse Woman), but she frequently went by Beatrice Medicine.  She felt an affinity toward anthropology but her passions lied in education.  As a Lakota (Sihsapa) Indian this put her in an awkward place at times.  American Indians were rightfully suspicious of “anthros” (a pejorative term referencing anthropologists), who had exploited American Indian groups’ languages, identities, histories, and material cultures, and many were discouraged from entering into the field as a result.  Medicine, however, believed that anthropological approaches could create and foster a more equitable and culturally relevant educational experience for American Indians.  This is why she went on to pursue sociocultural anthropological studies at South Dakota State University, Michigan State University, and University of Wisconsin, where she ultimately received her PhD.

 

In 1945 she began teaching at Haskell Indian Institute (today the Haskell Indian Nations University), but she moved on to teach at 20 different higher education institutions throughout the United States and Canada before she retired.  She continued to teach at ten more institutions throughout her retirement.  She dedicated her research on the interplays of race, power, language, culture, and education, specifically being concerned with how discriminatory educational practices harmed American Indian students. 

 

She eventually became known for being an advocate for American Indian rights and for having an intellectual commitment to authentic and accurate American Indian studies.  She pointed out specific attitudes among teachers and administrators that produced a hostile environment against American Indian/Indigenous populations and students, thereby either forcing or strongly encouraging them to drop out of school and not complete their educations.  Also, she identified how the choice to provide English only schooling to American Indian students was reckless and discriminatory as it caused them to become isolated and feel they were forced to either assimilate to the dominant White culture or drop out in order to maintain their American Indian identity through informal educations from within their tribal groups.  By not completing their secondary educations American Indian students were less likely to attend college, thereby remaining impoverished and continuing stereotypes that were used to prop up and characterize them as a group. 

 

To put an end to this vicious cycle she advocated for the revitalization of American Indian languages, citing how language was a key aspect of American Indian identity.  She identified how the traumatic experiences of Boarding/Residential School students caused these individuals who later were parents to shy away from or actively not teach their Native languages to their children, thereby leading to an endangerment of many American Indian languages.  Medicine pointed out how the ability to speak one’s Native language is tied directly to identity-if one does not speak their cultural group’s language then they are not “Indian” enough.  This led her to strongly advocated for bilingual-bicultural education programs, which promote Native language and cultural learning, but these needed to be done in culturally accurate and appropriate ways, which require tribal group buy in and contributions.  Ultimately, her work spearheaded more culturally relevant, accurate, and respectful pedagogical approaches in education that benefit not just American Indian groups but various minority groups who are better able to feel included and valued in educational institutions.

 

Medicine passed away in December 2005, leaving behind a great legacy and wealth of accomplishments.  Her advocacy work earned her the American Anthropological Association’s Distinguished Service Award (currently the Franz Boas Award for Exemplary Service to Anthropology), as well as an honorary doctorate from the University of Michigan.  She published over 50 articles, books, and book chapters, which are considered foundational to educational anthropologists and educators to this day.  While she is no longer with us her contributions continue to mold and shape anthropology and education, moving both in more equitable direction for the benefit of all.

 

Works Cited

Author Unknown. "Beatrice Medicine." 2002. Women's Intellectual Contributions to the Study of Mind and Society (Webster University). Electronic. 20 December 2021.

Deyhle, Donna and Teresa L. McCarty. "Beatrice Medicine and the Anthropology of Education: Legacy and Vision for Critical Race/Critical Language Research and Praxis." Anthropology & Education Quarterly 38.3 (2007): 209-220. Document.

Dustin (Oneman). "Beatrice Medicine Dead at 82." 3 January 2006. Savage Minds. Electronic. 20 December 2021.