Archaeologies of sexuality.

JAMES, N. ; BRODIE, NEIL ; STODDART, SIMON 等

ROBERT A. SCHMIDT & BARBARA L. Voss (ed.). Archaeologies of sexuality. xv+303 pages, 53 figures. 2000. London: Routledge; 0-415-22365-2 hardback 60 [pounds sterling] & $90, 0-415-22366-0 paperback 19.99 [pounds sterling] & $29.99.

The first set of studies collected by SCHMIDT & VOSS are on the organization of space: two on monasteries (Colonial California and R. Gilchrist on England), one on `gay leathermen in San Francisco', and one on a novel of c. 1800 (cf. the section below on `Spatial organization'). There follow four on 19th-and 20th-century prostitution, homosexuality and Black midwifery in the USA and Australia; three case-studies in prehistory alongside a paper on architectural design and archaeological interpretations in the USSR (cf. Gordon Childe in the following section); a couple on iconography (New Kingdom Egypt and the ancient Maya); and a concluding review by M. Conkey, remarking of Christopher Hawkes that `he must be turning over in his grave, poor old guy!' (p. 289). It comes across well that identities may be created by subjects or imposed by others.

Ms HUBERT presents 16 studies of disability and exclusion from a great range of disciplines including archaeology and social and physical anthropology. Topical themes glow engagingly -- including shamanism (in ancient Greece) and hermaphroditism (in early Modern Europe) -- but, while each interesting in themselves, these papers are drawn from an even greater diversity of cultural settings and they hardly make a coherent collection.

The book on the impacts of contact with the Europeans and Japanese in Oceania works very well. TORRENCE & CLARKE introduce eight studies of sites in Australia (including an interesting piece by CLARKE on Groote Eylandt, a paper on rock art, and a long study, by J. Birmingham, of foraging around a missionary site), a very sound case study of the dislocation of life in North Island, New Zealand (C. Phillips), and a couple each from Melanesia (including a satisfying analysis by Dr TORRENCE of change in artefacts) and Micronesia. Why, though, is the theme of subjective identity not explicit here? It is probably because, although the editors mention `long-term processes' of `negotiation' (p. 16), the articles are remarkable for focusing, in fact, on the sort of `short term changes' (p. 176) traced by A. CLARKE. Americanists too will find this book rewarding; but it would be difficult to apply most of its lessons to prehistory.