Before, During, and After Gender

What would a non-essentialist history of gender look like? In this paper we suggest that mainstream gender history, archaeology and related disciplines have inadvertently black-boxed some of the most interesting questions about what past gender may have been like. Traditional, Eurocentric, approaches treat gender as variable, but only within certain predefined limits, they do not radically question what happens if we shift the term definitionally. This constrains both the stories we can tell about gender, and the questions we can ask. In contrast, we draw upon feminist conceptions of difference to offer alternative histories ranging from where and how gender may have first emerged to its transitions in Europe over the last 7000 years. Assumptions about gender in Europe have played an outsized role in mainstream and hegemonic accounts. By problematising how gender emerged and changed in Europe, we can help decenter this narrative. Drawing on notions of protean difference, this reconceptualises gender as a form of identity which is not automatically applicable to all human societies, has a specific history, and, potentially, a shelf life.