Rings of life: The role of early metalwork in mediating the gendered life course

This paper explores the changing role of early metalwork in mediating age-g ender dimensions of social identity in the Copper Age of the Carpathian Bas in. Taking a life course approach, it suggests that metal was used to conve y difference within exceptionally complex and contrasting constructions of male and female life. Variation in the use of metal throughout the Copper Age was linked to shift s in the pattern of age-gender life course constructions. The expansion of metalworking in the early Copper Age may be regarded as a socio-cultural de velopment of the categorization of the person originating in the late Neoli thic, enabling those categories to be maintained and refined. The decline i n metal production at the end of the Copper Age can be related to a reconfi guration of age and gender relations. The design of metal objects played an important role in expressing the performed relationship between biological and social life change. In mediating the life course, metal objects acted as foci of time, powerful symbols of life stages and events.