Review

Reviewed Work(s): Ungendering Civilization by K. Anne Pyburn

Review by: Joan M. Gero
Source: American Anthropologist, Vol. 107, No. 3 (Sep., 2005), p. 543
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3567076
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 Single Reviews 543

information Piker gleans about Okfuskee itself, but also be- showing how the "culture" notion got in the way of un-
cause of the important methodological contributions this derstanding specific historical cases of rapacious greed and
book makes. power grabbing. But if the ultimate proof is in new insights
that follow from the premise, Pyburn's argument, however
Ungendering Civilization. K. Anne Pyburn, ed. New York: thought provoking, is not delivered in this volume. There
Routledge, 2004. 242 pp. are solid and well-researched studies from globally diverse
contexts: Viking Scandinavia, Great Zimbabwe, predynastic
JOAN M. GERO Egypt, Harappa, Sumer, Minoa, Cahokia, the Moche, and
American University the Maya (the last by Pyburn herself). Perhaps the students'
case studies are not well selected to make the point, or they
lack the time
Anne Pyburn's edited volume Ungendering Civilization, in or the access to adequate data to make the illus-
which her students provide nine case studies of trations
emergingconvincing. But it also possible that the case studies
cannot be thought
states to support her introductory theoretical statement, is through without the words and concepts
of "genders,"
radically stimulating, innovative, brilliant in parts, and, at or "males" and "females," to fix what we want
to talk
the same time, disturbing in all its originality and about. Instead, many of the chapters in this volume
implica-
tions. I have not had such a good "think" about aregender
forced toin
illustrate Pyburn's provocative theory precisely
a long time. in "gendered" readings of the past against which Pyburn
is
Pyburn's powerful introduction puts the argument arguing.
onRather than dismissing or replacing essentializ-
ing viewsthat
the table: Like Eric Wolf's culture-shattering arguments of gender, the authors here reiterate and reapply
them in
ultimately disaggregate and disallow the concept of homo- studies, with titles such as "Reinterpreting Women's
Roles in Moche
geneous and discrete "cultures," so too must "genders" be Society" or "Tracing Women in Early
Sumer."
deconstructed from their conceptual unity. Pyburn argues
It is also problematic that few of the case studies (with
forcefully that genders do not exist in any fundamental
the exception
way; rather, they are adopted as a research construct or of Tracy Luedke) evidence much reading of
variable, a traditional typological unit on which feminist
models literature,
of in archaeology or more generally. They
cultural evolution depend. But, she argues, genders have are
all read
notWolf, and they are admirably prepared in their
irreducible and opposing forces or units or groupings. regional data,
The but they cite nothing or very little of the vast
very notion of a "female" and "male" duality is literature
meaning- on gender, in archaeology or elsewhere, an odd
less for the same reasons that Wolf made clear when he proposition if they are setting out to deliver the death knell
argued that "cultures" were spurious-although sometimes on gender.
useful-heuristics: There is more variability within each cat- All that said, and without irony, I recommend this is
egory than between them, despite ethnohistoric and ethno- a wonderful, significant, must-have book. It is a first-rate
graphic accounts that sometimes report starkly bimodal di- model for anthropological teaching: A striking new propo-
sition is put before the class and they are challenged to use
visions of labor. And just as Wolf insisted that, ultimately,
defining groups of people as "cultures" contributed more it against data. We should all be so inspiring and inno-
harm than good, so too would Pyburn have us reject "gen- vative in our classrooms. Moreover, the introduction and
ders" as a typological construct with unfortunate homoge- following chapters pose fundamental questions about how
nizing, essentializing, and evolutionary implications. research agendas follow from framing propositions. How
Pyburn's argument is compelling, following a line can of these be recognized and tested? How do we evaluate
reasoning that already underpins some well-positioned what is correct, useful, or appropriate in conducting our re-
feminist research. But as presented here, and as a generalsearch? The book generally offers well-prepared chapters, on
scholarly principle, I have reservations about the whole- a global scope, about early states. Finally, the stand-alone in-
sale (e.g., epistemological) dismissal of the notion of "gen-troduction is well worth the modest price of this paperback
volume.
ders." Most fundamentally, how can we capture the dynam-
ics we are after without phenomenological grounding in a
semantic category? It is a simple fact that human dynam-The Cultural Politics of Markets: Economic Liberaliza-
tion and Social Change in Nepal. Katharine Neilson
ics cannot be observed or understood without a conceptual
Rankin. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004.243 pp.
lens, an organizing vocabulary that supports a categorical
framework. It is not a matter of preferences but possibili-
ties: A conception-free view of "gendered" arrangements ANNE
is RADEMACHER
an epistemological impossibility, and if we dismiss our fa-
Yale University
miliar conceptual tools as inadequate, how are we to get at
what we have been used to calling "male" and "female"?In The Cultural Politics ofMarkets, Katharine Rank
a fundamental assumption of neoliberal econom
It is also worrying that the case studies generally do not
illustrate what can, by avoiding the traditional typological market access necessarily leads to social progress.
forms the ideological foundation for the vast major
categories, be done better. Wolf rested his case for challeng-
ing "cultures" in Europe and the People without History by ternational development interventions conducted

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