Ethnicity and Gender 485Barker, Hodges, and Clark 1995: 182–201). One factor that Italian communities seem
to have in common, however, is the development of a strong sense of local culture and
identity, which remained important until well after the Roman conquest and in many
regions.
The primary form of identity was that of the state, and wider ethnic identities seem to
have been relatively weak until the first centuryBC. This poses some problems when it
comes to defining ethnicity in Italy. We have a wealth of information about the names
and whereabouts of ethnic groups, but it mostly comes from sources writing well after
the Roman conquest and, in some cases, written by people with relatively little first-hand
knowledge of Italy. The use of collective ethnic names was relatively rare until the first
centuryBC(Bradley 1997). Before that, people tended to describe themselves with ref-
erence to their home city or state—for instance, as Iguvines or Tarquinians, rather than
as Umbrians or Etruscans. This does not imply that ethnic identity did not exist before
the first century. It simply underlines the difficulties in recognizing self-defined ethnic
identity and in relating this to characterizations of that identity created by other people.
The Inside Perspective: Ethnicity and Gender in Visual
and Material Culture
Given the relatively small amount of written evidence generated by Italian societies (all of
it epigraphic), it might be helpful to start with consideration of gender and ethnicity in
visual and archaeological evidence from various areas of Italy. Italian cultures produced
a vast range of visual art, ranging from tomb-paintings, sculptures, figurines and reliefs
(mostly of a funerary or ritual nature), and decorated metal or pottery vessels. These,
augmented by other forms of archaeological evidence such as votive deposits and grave
goods, give us a rich body of data about how these societies saw themselves, including
how they represented both ethnic identity and gender roles.
Although vase painting, votives, and funerary iconography cannot tell us how ethnic
identity was experienced on a day-to-day basis, they do tell us how ethnicity was com-
memorated in contexts in which identity is likely to be particularly significant, such as
funerary or ritual contexts.
One area that is particularly rich in data is the Veneto, a region predominantly occupied
by a group known as the Veneti, but with some Etruscan and Celtic settlement (Capuis
1993; 2001; Williams 2001: 71–8, 195–200). Judging from the funerary and votive evi-
dence, women had an unusually high profile in Venetic society, particularly in the archaic
period (ca. sixth–fourth centuriesBC). Votives depicting women, or with inscriptions
suggesting that they were dedicated by women, are found in large quantities in many of
the major sanctuaries of the region, suggesting that women played an important role in
the ritual life of Venetic communities. The funerary evidence confirms the prominence
of elite women. The proportion of female burials in the funerary record is higher than
in many other areas of Italy, and many of the elite female tombs contained notably rich
grave goods—in some cases wealthier than those of similar male burials.
There is also a rich iconographic tradition, represented in both votive contexts and
on non-ritual prestige objects, which includes numerous visual representations of
women (Pascucci 1990: 59–92; Zaghetto 2003). Many sanctuaries—especially those