Legend of the locked doors: The sexualization of archaeological site workers in the Middle East

Abstract

Sexual violence in fieldwork contexts is an urgent and pervasive problem. In archaeology, much discussion is currently ongoing regarding how to change fieldwork policies and climate in order to end sexual violence in the field. In this context, I examine a legend that circulates among the Bedul Bedouin community in Petra about an American archaeologist who locked women students inside their bedroom at night in order to protect them from endangering themselves by going out at night. While I cannot corroborate the story with former students on the project, studying the contemporary life of this legend can teach us about the confrontations of race, gender, and sexuality that occur on archaeological sites in the Middle East and elsewhere. Examined in the context of research on Muslim masculinities and the myth of Arab men's hypersexuality, I use this legend to argue that our approaches to ending sexual violence in archaeology and other fieldwork disciplines should avoid reifying Orientalist and racial stereotypes if these approaches are going to be effective in making our fields safer.

Archaeology in 2022: Counter‐myths for hopeful futures

“…At its annual meeting in 2022, the American Anthropological Association—an organization that has largely focused on and benefited from expanding knowledge of Indigenous people—featured the first Indigenous program chair in its 120‐year history (Chin, 2022). At the same time, the association's flagship journal featured numerous accounts of the ways that anthropology reinforces patterns of gendered and racialized violence (Bradford and Crema, 2022; Mickel, 2023), ableism (Durban, 2022), and the exclusion of scholars of color (Mondesire, 2022; Tallman et al., 2022). The point is not that the progressive or dystopian narrative paints the “real” picture of the state of anthropology or archaeology in the present.…”