Gender roles and identity at Chiribaya Alta, Peru: A multiple correspondence analysis of mortuary contexts

Abstract

Gender is an important structuring social identity, but archaeologists continue to struggle with non-binary ways to approach gender in the past. This study uses grave good presence and absence to examine the nature of gender roles and gender identity at Chiribaya Alta, Peru. Multiple correspondence analysis, which groups burials based on grave goods and then uses sex as a supplementary burial, is a good way to examine gender without assuming it is a binary system. This analysis indicates that normative gender roles are reflected in grave good assemblages, with males associated with keros (beer cups), textile bags, and panpipes. In contrast, females are associated with textile production tools and textile kerchiefs. Despite these normative expressions, the existence of seventeen individuals buried with objects that are not normative for their gender shows that Chiribaya gender identity was flexible at the individual level.