All  

Store Banner Desktop

Store Banner Mobile

Excavations of ancient households and study of fingerprints in New Mexico reveal that men and women were equally involved in domestic pottery production. Source: John Kantner / UNF.

Fingerprints Overturn Ideas On Women In Ancient Native American Society – But What About The Third Sex?

Print
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Fingerprints are very important in criminal investigations, but it seems they are also increasingly important when it comes to archaeological studies. By studying 1000-year-old fingerprints, American experts have been able to upturn the accepted view of what was a woman’s role in a Native American society. This research is providing new insights into the Chaco culture of New Mexico and demonstrating how it survived in a hostile environment.

Lasting Impressions of the Chaco Culture

The Chaco culture flourished in the valleys of northern New Mexico between 800 and 1300 AD. They were the first to build using pueblo buildings and constructed complexes, with up to 650 rooms. The Chaco people were able to use irrigation techniques to survive in a desert where modern people do not live. The culture collapsed because of a great drought in the 13 th century but they are seen as the ancestors of the modern Puebloan people of the south-west of the USA.

In the 11th-century the Ancestral Puebloans built huge structures in the Chaco Valley, thought to be the site of religious pilgrimage. (John Kantner / UNF)

In the 11th-century the Ancestral Puebloans built huge structures in the Chaco Valley, thought to be the site of religious pilgrimage. (John Kantner / UNF)

Because they were a pre-literate people we know little about the Chaco and we are reliant on their material remains to understand them. One thing that is evident is that these Native Americans were expert potters. According to the National Geographic they “produced a type of pottery called ‘corrugated ware’ made by coiling thick ropes of clay on top of one another to form large vessels.” A great many Chaco ceramic shards have been found and many have fingerprints.

Study of Fingerprints by Forensic Science

A team from the University of North Florida led by Dr. John Kanter began to examine 938 shards from one site and their finding have been published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. One of the team members, David McKinney, a former member of law enforcement suggested they use of police techniques to evaluate the indentions left by the Chaco potters on their ware. The researchers sought to determine the gender of a potter by measuring the indentions left by their fingers on the wet clay. The majority of the ceramics investigated according to ABC news are “pinch pots used for food preparation and storage.”

The breadth of ridge marks of the fingerprints left on 11th-century pottery were used by researchers to determine the likely sex of the potter. (John Kantner / UNF)

The breadth of ridge marks of the fingerprints left on 11th-century pottery were used by researchers to determine the likely sex of the potter. (John Kantner / UNF)

The team assumed that they would find that all the fingerprints would be female. This was based on colonial accounts of the descendants of the Chaco culture, from the 17 th century. Indeed, today females in Puebloan culture make pottery, and this activity is considered to be women’s work.

Not Women’s Work

According to ABC news, the researchers measured the “width of ridges and furrows of each fingerprint to determine whether the pottery was crafted by a male or a female.” Males have larger and higher ridges, and this allowed the researchers to identify the gender of those who made the print. The study found using law enforcement techniques that just under 50% of the fingerprints were male, some 40% were female or juveniles, and roughly 12% could not be determined. The National Geographic reports that “66 percent of older shards featured “male” fingerprints, while more recent pieces were almost evenly split between male and female fingerprints.”

11th-century pot made by an Ancestral Puebloan potter. (John Kantner / UNF)

11th-century pot made by an Ancestral Puebloan potter. (John Kantner / UNF)

This was sensational as it was contrary to what the researchers expected to find. They found that both males and females participated in pottery making and at one point more men than women were active in the manufacture of ware from clay. PNAS reports the finding, “suggests that the contributions of each sex varied over time and even among different social groups in the same community.”

New Insights into Native Americans

This has important implications for our understanding of the ancestral Puebloan people. It seems that in the past that the manufacture of pottery was not solely the province of women. This means that both genders worked together, and this may mean that women had a relatively high status in Chaco culture. It may also show that the specialization of labor did not result in a division of work based on gender, as commonly assumed by historians.

There are some caveats when it comes to the findings based on the study of the fingerprints. Some have argued that forensic techniques may not be appropriate for archaeological studies. Many believe that the methodology is flawed because the differences in the fingerprints may not be due to the gender of the potter but simply reflects the amount of pressure that they applied and other factors.

A Third Sex?

It is also thought that gender in Chaco society was not constructed in the same way as modern Western societies. They appear to have had a ‘Third Sex’, that is a gender that was neither male nor female. They often were considered to have spiritual capabilities and gifts and a privileged place within the group. There were many other Native American groups who had an intersex or androgynous category of people.

The findings on the sex of the potters may not really help us to understand the division of labor in Chaco society and its evolution. This is because many of the male fingerprints may have belonged to a member of the ‘Third Sex’ according to ABC News. This could mean that the researchers’ interpretation of the findings with regard to what constituted men and women’s work could be distorted by the gender structure of Chaco society.

Dr. Kantner in the field – The study of ancient fingerprints “helps explain why these people were able to actually live in places that no one can live in today.” (John Kantner / UNF)

Dr. Kantner in the field – The study of ancient fingerprints “helps explain why these people were able to actually live in places that no one can live in today.” (John Kantner / UNF)

The study of the fingerprints is providing new insights into the Chaco. It is showing us the possible status of women and the nature of the division of labor in that society. The biometric evidence from the fingerprints may indicate why the Chaco were so successful. Men and women worked together, and this helped their communities to flourish in an often-brutal environment. The research findings have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Top image: Excavations of ancient households and study of fingerprints in New Mexico reveal that men and women were equally involved in domestic pottery production. Source: John Kantner / UNF.

By Ed Whelan

 

Comments

It would be very useful for authors and everyone to get in the habit of differentiating between gender and sex. There is no such a thing as a third sex. Even intersexed people are a combination of both male and female primary and secondary sex characteristics, but they are not a third sex unto themselves.
Sex is biological, it's in our chromosomes and most people are either XX or XY. A few who are inter-sexed may have different combinations but they are still primarily male or female.
Gender is basically what used to be referred to as sex-role stereotypes. The aesthetics and mannerisms that are enforced upon people from birth. These are cultural and are not really hardwired in accordance with being male or female (sex). Sometimes they coincide, sometimes they do not and sometimes they are brutally imposed on people who do not want them and can't perform them with any degree of gusto or credibility. Overall, you could say gender is oppressive to many people and appealing to some as well. Please stop conflating sex and gender.
The people archaeology attempts to study are not part of a modern paradigm. Most people are able to understand that performative preferences and defaults do not a biological sex make. Divisions of labor along male and female (sex) lines have been common to many cultures but these are not always consistent from culture to culture. Attempting to interpret something as delicate sex and gender balance ratio through the contemporary identity fracas is at best irresponsible and revisionist.

There was no confusion about what gender anyone was born in Native American society. There were men that had a vision or dream that instructed them to dress as a woman, they were given special powers of prophecy and certain healing ceremonies. In Lakota they were called Winkte & it was a Winkte that foretold that 100 whites would be killed at the Fetterman massacre ( I believe that 89 soldiers died there) stop trying to twist history to justify what is going on with society today.

Not surprised about your comment regarding that homopaedophile William ??
Without reading your comment I was very suspicious about him, reading the above article ??
You have just confirmed my suspicion ..

I was intrigued by the phrase "the third sex" and researched the author, Walter L. Williams, finding the following:
"On 30 April 2013, a federal arrest warrant was issued for Williams in the United States District Court for the Central District of California for sexual exploitation of children, travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, and engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places. Williams was accused of engaging in sexual acts with two underage boys in the Philippines via webcam.[22]
He was arrested in a public park in Playa del Carmen, Mexico one day after he was put on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list[25] and was extradited to Los Angeles, California.
The FBI, with reasonable suspicion, searched Williams's personal computer, finding unclothed photographs of teenage boys.[22] In 2014, he pleaded guilty to illicit sexual contact with boys aged 14 to 16 in the Philippines"
So I think that said article is biased, as well as his in www.theguardian.com

Ed Whelan's picture

Ed

My name is Edward Whelan and I graduated with a PhD in history in 2008. Between 2010-2012 I worked in the Limerick City Archives. I have written a book and several peer reviewed journal articles. At present I am a... Read More

Next article