Gender and Sex

Gender is a cultural construction, a system of cultural categorisation that uses biological sex differences as a way of structuring thought and practice, but is not determined by them. A consequence of this definition is that there is a high degree of correlation between biological sex and social gender, but not always a one to one correspondence. ¹ Material culture can be studied in order to characterise the types of gender construction present in prehistoric society. One route to understanding gender construction and gender roles is by the recognition of identifiable men and women, either in representations through various media or through inhumations and cremations and their accompanying artefacts.