Gender and the creation, structuring and interpretation of knowledge

Abstract

Bar bara WoodPer versely for a col lec tion con cerned with lit er acy, this ar ti cle con sid ers a pe riod whe n there was no lit er acy, because there was no writ ing , and for a large span of time pos si bly no rec og nis able lan guage. It is con cerned with the pe riod of his tory la belled 'pr ehi story', that is, 'b efore writ ten lan guage'. Brit ish pre his tory is cur rently dated be tween around 500 000 BC, evi denced by bone frag ments found at Box grove in Sus sex, and the Ro man in vasion and oc cu pa tion of 43AD. There are thus half a mil lion years of hu man ac tiv ity in this coun try which are known only through the work and in ter pre ta tion of field, mu seum and aca demic ar chae olo gist s. This pa per is con cerned with this in ter pre ta tion and with the body of lit era ture which has grown up around the pe riod. It inves ti gates how and by whom the past has been con structed, who has the power of in for ma tion an d in ter pre ta tion and the ques tion of whether this in ter pre ta tion is ob jec tive.