ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a broad background for the research by coarsely recounting the history of gender studies in archaeological research and focuses on gender in Inuit archaeology, specifically. There is a significant precedent for archaeological research on expressions of precontact Inuit gender. Many studies seek to understand precontact Inuit gender identity and social relationships between gendered people. Beginning in the early 1990s, gender and queer theorists propounded the culturally constructed nature of both gender and sex, claiming that they result from culturally specific body practices and the everyday performance of gender roles and that they can change over time. There is a long history of gender-based research in archaeology, the central focuses of which have changed over time based largely on the cultural and political circumstances of the archaeologists themselves. Further, archaeology has tremendous power to influence—whether intentionally or inadvertently—the understandings of what is normal, natural, and right.
