Gender Research On Tombs Of The Shang Department

Because tombs carry a lot of related information about the identity and status of the tombs' owners before their lives,they play an important role in the study of archaeological restoration of ancient societies.Since the early 20th century,the status of women in the Shang Dynasty has always been the focus of attention of scholars,but they mostly started from the handed down and unearthed documents to discuss the marriage system and social development model at that time.Only after the introduction of gender archaeological perspectives did they begin to pay attention to the women in the tombs.However,unlike the more comprehensive discussions in the Western Zhou Dynasty,the current research on the gender status of the sexes in the Shang Dynasty is mostly scattered.In order to have a deeper understanding of the gender status of the Shang Dynasty,this article collected 721 tombs of the Shang Dynasty that have been gender-identified,including 380 male tombs,339 female tombs,and 2 mixed tombs for both sexes.Through carrying out a full analysis of their burial information,I have a general grasp of the social status and division of labor of both sexes at that time.The first three chapters of this article take the tombs' setting,the burial objects,and the arrangement of the tombs as the research objects.According to the analysis of different factors such as period,region,scale,the differences between the tombs of the sexes are investigated,and preliminary understandings are obtained.The fourth chapter,based on the previous article,conducted a diachronic survey of the social status of both sexes in the Shang Dynasty based on the tombs' information,made reasonable speculations on the social division of labor between the sexes in the Shang Dynasty based on certain funerary objects,and made a brief summary of the changes in the gender situation between the Shang and Zhou Dynasties based on the existing gender studies in the Zhou Dynasty.Through the research,this article finds that in terms of tomb setting,the average size and main gathering area of male tombs are larger than that of females,and large-scale tombs are more common in male tombs;the difference in burial style is reflected in the prone burial,and the majority of individuals using this funeral are male.With regard to burial items,the frequency,quantity,and types of metal and jade objects used by men in tombs are basically higher and richer than those used by women.The difference in pottery is concentrated on the quantity and the appearance time of the combination of wares.As for the arrangement of the tombs,there are multiple forms such as the gathering of tombs of the same sex,tombs of the same sex or the opposite sex are distributed side by side,and the independent distribution,which may reflect a variety of social relationships such as husband and wife,mother and child,and co-workers.Ascending to the social level,in the Shang society,the civilian class is the main body of society.The social status of the two sexes in this group seems to have undergone a process of development from relatively equal to a slightly higher of male.In the tomb facilities,it appears that males use larger tombs,have a higher using frequency of waist pits,and use more abundant burial utensils.The common weapons,agricultural or handicraft production tools in this part of the tombs may explain to a certain extent that undertaking labor in the family or society is the reason for the relatively prominent status of these men.However,it should be noted that there seem to be a small number of laborers among women,but they may only play a supporting role.Among the aristocracy,men are always the main constituents,and only a few women enjoy this status.Moreover,there seems to be a hierarchy within this class.A very small number of men either held official positions in the Shang dynasty or were power holders in the entire family.The scale of tombs and burial objects were exceptionally prominent,and there were no such identities among women.All in all,gender differences seem to have appeared in the Shang Dynasty.During the Western Zhou Dynasty,under the constraints of the social system,women's dependence on men gradually increased.