Díaz-Andreu, M. and Tortosa, T. 1998. Gender, Symbolism and Power in Iberian Societies. In Funari, P.P. et al. (eds.), Historical Archaeology. Back from the Edge. London, Routledge: 99-121. By Margarita Díaz-Andreu

https://www.academia.edu/1233680/D%C3%ADaz_Andreu_M_and_Tortosa_T_1998_Gender_Symbolism_and_Power_in_Iberian_Societies_In_Funari_P_P_et_al_eds_Historical_Archaeology_Back_from_the_Edge_London_Routledge_99_121?email_work_card=title&li=0 This chapter explores the interplay between gender as an active and negotiable identity and the artistic representation of gendered human bodies. In works of art, and in particular in works of art which have been comissioned, as was the case with those which are the focus of this chapter, the potential role of material culture in controlling, maintaining and transforming social relations increases dramatically. This is because of the conscious nature of the signification involved making the art laden with intentionality. In this chapter we consider the role of art in the structuring and negotiation of gender relations in Iberian society. We focus on a specific set of works of art particularly relevant to the study of the representation and negotiation of gender: representations of the human body. In the case of commisioned art, three active agents can be identified: the person (or institution) who orders the work of art, the artist and the audience. If these agents live within the same community (and this was probably by and large the case in Iberian societies) then all of them will share a common code of representation which allows them to decode the signifier of the work of art (Bourdieu 1984: 2). This code is not, however, immutable and fixed, but consists of a set of rules that people take as a basis for negotiation. Artistic codes can be contested in a number of ways. Here, we will deal with a particular challenge to the artistic code: that which chanlleges the relationship between the signifier and the signified rather than any pure artistic rules1.. As Olmos (1991: 555) has pointed out, 'the image was not banal in the Iberian world but was always charged with intention and meaning'. The understanding of this meaning is, however, not straightforward, as it was related to a code whose power lay in its potential ambiguity