Textiles and Gender in Antiquity: An Introduction

Résumé En

From the moment, a researcher dips their pen into the field of textile studies they are confronted with the issue of gender. Gender and textiles interweave in a myriad of ways. The most obvious, and most well documented in modern gender and dress studies, is the manner in which, across space and time, gender identity is expressed through dress. Gender, however, also plays a part in the production of textiles from the growing/rearing of original raw materials to the final wardrobe product. The aim of the conference at which most of these papers had their first airing, was to examine and question some of the gendered activities associated with the chaîne opératoire of textile production, as well as to look at ways in which dress has acted as markers of femininity and masculinity across time. The conference also marked the end of a major international research programme: Ancient Textiles from the Orient to the Mediterranean (ATOM), a collaboration between CNRS (Archéologie et Sciences de l’Antiquité, Nanterre), CTR (Centre for Textile Research, University of Copenhagen) and the University of Leicester. The volume is divided into four sections for ease of reading but there are many interconnections between chapters. These connections highlight the cultural depth of attitudes which define femininity and masculinity and the roles deemed suitable for particular genders in different societies across time, and the ways in which textiles interweave with them all.