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ClassicalAssociation of the Atlantic States, The Johns Hopkins University Press are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Classical World This content downloaded from 128.143.23.241 on Sat, 11 Jun 2016 07:54:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ARCHITECTURE AND BEHAVIOR: BUILDING GENDER INTO GREEK HOUSESWomen were actively constituted as part of the state, cosmologically, socially and politically, and they did not always allow themselves to be passively constituted.'The way societies organize and make use of space, and how the Greeks did so in civic, sacred, and domestic contexts, have been a focus of scholarly attention for some time now.2 This paper is chiefly concerned with domestic space, and the ways in which it articulates and is itself articulated by gender relations. The discussion will touch on the methodological issues of using written texts and archaeological evidence in order to provide a comprehensive view of this aspect of Greek experience. The intention of this paper is to survey the state of the discussion of domestic space, and to suggest some new approaches to integrating texts and architecture in a reconstruction of ancient Greek domestic life.
PreliminariesRecent work on Greek domestic architecture itself has introduced new evidence; meanwhile, outside the field of classical archaeology, new theories of gender, labor, and the use of space have emerged.Much of the recent work on gender and archaeology has been contributed by prehistorians, for whom gender, like other ideological categories, is a problem category. Prehistorians tend to emphasize subsistence strategies, technological innovation, and change over the long term, rather than belief systems.3 In addition, the new work on gender and archaeology, in interpreting ancient sources and reconstructing the past, attempts to take into account women's experience and women's perceptions. Unfortunately, these efforts sometimes encourage a sexual division of labor: female scholars often focus on domestic production, I For the quote, see Foxhall (below, n.63) 89. Thanks to W. R. Connor for originally raising the issues discussed here, to Michael Jameson for inviting me to speak in Tallahassee, and to the participants, especially Brad Ault and Susan Cole. I would also like to thank Stephen Todd, Barbara Tsakirgis, J0rgen Christian Meyer, and Marilyn Goldberg for sharing their unpublished work. This article was substantially revised at the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D. C. (1995-96); 1 am happy to note that Lisa Nevett's recent work (see notes) supports the conclusions reached here.
