1st Edition

Mothering and Archaeology Past and Present Perspectives

Edited By Laura Seifert, Suzanne M. Spencer-Wood Copyright 2025
394 Pages 33 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

394 Pages 33 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

394 Pages 33 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Mothering and Archaeology brings to light new insights connecting mothering in the past and present by exploring all aspects of this important but frequently under-valued and thus neglected subject and is underpinned by feminist theorizing of motherhood and mothering. Taking a comprehensive approach, this book explores the archaeology of mothers in private and public places in the past and... Read more

1. Introduction

Laura Seifert and Suzanne M. Spencer-Wood

Mothering at Prehistoric/Protohistoric Sites

2. Great Mothers, Motherhood and Ma’atic Principle in Ancient Egypt, An Afrocentric Analysis

Nilgun Anadolu-Okur

3. Iron Age Motherhood as Social Institution and Lived Practice

Katharina Rebay-Salisbury

4. Of Mothers and Midwives in Postclassic Central Mexico

Celise Chilcote-Fricker, Diana K. Moreiras Reynaga, Geoffrey McCafferty, and Sharisse McCafferty

Mothering at Historic Sites

5. Materializations of Historical Transformations in Western Ideologies and Conceptualizations of Motherhood and Mothering Practices: from Private to Public 1650-1900s

Suzanne M. Spencer-Wood 

6. “Sometime Come the Mother. Sometime the Wolf”: Mothering Youth in the Midst of War in Nineteenth Century Yucatan

Minette C. Church

7. Separation, Tension, Trauma: Exploring Mothering and Cultural Resilience at the Mount Pleasant Indian Industrial Boarding School

Sarah Surface-Evans and Jason Luna

8. The Materiality of Yearning: an Archaeology of Carceral Motherhood in 19th Century Van Diemen’s Land, Australia

Eleanor Conlin Casella

Mothering, Sexual Politics, and Archaeology

9. Of Monks and Mothers: Using Archaeology to Gain Perspective and Foster Feminist Activism

Laura Seifert

10. Archaeology and Motherhood in a Nordic Welfare State

Tiina Äikäs and Anna-Kaisa Salmis

11. I’m too tired to come up with a clever title: Archaeology and Motherhood

Holly Kathryn Norton

12. Kids in the Trenches: Women as Mothers and Professionals in Archaeology

Elizabeth A. Hoag and Kathleen Von Jena

13. A personal story of these Roles I play: Site Mama, Uncle/Dad, Mommy, and oh yes… and CRM Archaeologist

Quinn-Monique Ogden

Commentary

14. Commentary: Feminist Theories, Mothering and Archaeology

Suzanne M. Spencer-Wood

Biography

Laura Seifert has more than 20 years of experience in archaeology, museums, and higher education. Seifert has spent her career working on archaeology projects from the Canadian border to the Caribbean, with a focus on the southeastern United States. Since earning her Masters’ degree from East Carolina University, Seifert has been digging through Savannah’s museums and squares. She is the Chief of Resources Management at Fort Pulaski National Monument in Georgia, when not mothering her young son (because federal regulations do not permit childcare while working). 

Suzanne Spencer-Wood is a Professor at Oakland University in Michigan, USA, and was an Associate of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University 1992-2019. In 1989 she organized the first two conference symposia on gender research in historical archaeology, at the Joint Archaeological Congress and at the Chacmool Conference, and has several publications on feminist theory and gender research in historical archaeology that address mothering in homes and institutions for children and children’s social agency.