Sarah M. Nelson

Sarah Milledge Nelson's bold thesis is that the development of states in East Asia - China, Japan, Korea - was an outgrowth of the leadership in smaller communities guided by shamans.

The Archaeology of Northeast China is an up-to-date synthesis of the archaeology and pre-history of the region called Dongbei by the Chinese, but known in the west as Manchuria. Based on recent archaeological discoveries, and fully illustrated, the book presents evidence to show that far from being a backwater palely reflecting the glories of central China, Manchuria in prehistory both had its own developmental trajectory, parallel to but different from China, and contributed to the formation of the characteristics of what came to be Chinese. New information on the northeast region of China indicates that it was not populated exclusively by nomadic peoples, but that some of the earliest farming sites can be found here and native plants such as millet and soybeans were domesticated early on. The Hongshan culture with its Goddess Temple and female figurines is unique, with spectacular and unprecedented jade carving. Manchuria may have been an important location for the development of bronze weapons, and Lower Xiajiadian culture has painted pottery that can be seen to be forerunners of the magnificent Shang bronzes.

Sarah Milledge Nelson takes on the formidable task of attempting the first comprehensive feminist, theoretical synthesis of the flood of archaeological work on gender. She examines the roles of women and men in such areas as human origins, the sexual division of labor, kinship and other social formations, state development, and ideology. Nelson provides examples from gender-specific archaeological studies worldwide to examines such traditional myths as woman the gatherer, the goddess hypothesis, and the amazon warriors, replacing them with a more nuanced, informed treatment of gender based on the latest research. She also examines the structure of the archaeological discipline in her attempt to understand and change a discipline that has made women all but invisible - both as researcher and object of research. Nelson's book is a benchmark work for all archaeologists working on, or interested in, gender and points the way toward fruitful avenues for further research.