CHAPTER 32
Ethnicity and Gender
Kathryn Lomas
Introduction
The ways in which ethnic identities are formed and maintained by ancient societies have
been topics of much research and discussion in recent years, and a common thread run-
ning through this discussion has been a move away from essentialist notions of fixed
ethnic identities and a recognition of the fluid and multi-layered nature of ethnicities
(Jenkins 1997: 40–8). The extent to which different groups in society experience and
respond differently to some aspects of identity has been an important feature of dis-
cussions on this topic, as has the plural nature of identities, with different registers of
identity—ethnic, social, family, personal, etc.—coexisting and interacting. One particu-
lar aspect that is often omitted from the debate is, however, the significance of gender
in the development of ethnicities—somewhat curiously, since gender roles and identities
themselves have been an important research topic in the past few years. Ethnicity is often
assumed to be gender-neutral and to be experienced across a given society by both men
and women in the same ways. However, there may in fact be significant differences in
the ways in which men and women experience and express their ethnic identity, or their
roles in maintaining that identity (Herring and Lomas 2009: 3–4).
This can be traced to both formation of ethnic identities within communities, and to the
ethnic categorization of those communities by outsiders. The importance ofhabitus—the
construction and maintenance of identities through aspects of lived experience as well as
through large-scale public acts and symbols—has been highlighted by many studies of
ethnicity in the ancient world (cf. Woolf 1998: 5–16), and it should be recognized that
men and women may experience this differently. For instance, women may be responsible
for passing on language or cultural customs to their children, and therefore play a role in
shaping and reinforcing the identity of a community; men, in contrast, may focus more
A Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean, First Edition. Edited by Jeremy McInerney.
© 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.