Archaeologists used to dig up stuff and people and say, ‘This happened.’

Now, archaeological groups ask for papers that will “question the natural and cultural boundaries of a body (and) also examine how gender may cross the biological/cultural divide to form the situated experience of personhood. How does bodily mobility across boundaries affect gendered experience? How do we recognize such a processes in the archaeological record?”

http://www.e-a-a.org/tea/sr18_38.pdf

“The goal of the session was to encourage archaeologists who work on gender to focus on boundaries and boundary-crossings, and those who work on boundaries to focus on gender.”

“Drawing on feminist science studies, Tomášková suggested that the Neanderthal body reflects meanings and metaphors that illuminate archaeology’s shifting position as the science of the past, while reflecting social and historical changes of European societies.”

(All I was looking for was information on the Raqefet Cave, and I got much more than necessary. Example: Neanderthal remains reflect a metaphor. Oh.)