Hur kan man tolka genus? - En genusundersökning av gravfältet Simris och Istabygravfältet i södra Sverige från yngre förromersk och romersk järnålder.

Sammanfattning: The overall aim of this study is to get closer look at the prehistoric individual on a more social level. This will be attempted through a qualitative understanding of how one can interpret gender using a source material from two Iron Age cemeteries both located in the very southeastern corner of Sweden. In doing this, the study revolves around a crucial understanding of three theoretical ideas: Gender, Funerary Rituals, and Object. The source material consists of fifteen individuals altogether, split up between determined and undetermined sex. A back-and-forth approach between the source material and the three theoretical ideas will then attempt to elucidate different gender roles. The study encountered various grounds of success when implementing theoretical views regarding the object’s ability to communicate and represent gender differences when combined with a physical presence of the individual’s skeleton. However, due to a lack of understanding regarding funerary rituals from the Iron Age period, the possibility of misrepresentation interfered with the process of interpreting gender. The results of the study were somewhat inconsistent due to the general nature of gender, the idea of gender as something rather ’ever changing’ led to a variety of gender roles the majority of the burials that might of been, yet again, they may very well not have been.