The ways in which individuals understand their roles as gendered beings and their relationships to other gendered beings is constantly pushed and pulled by forces both internal and external to the individual and the family/social/economic unit to which they belong. Gender interacts with a myriad of other social prisms-including, but not limited to, competing gender ideologies, socioeconomic class, patterns of identities and relationships. The village of Deerfield was an ideal lens through which to explore issues of culture change and the re-creation of social order, specifically gender relations and family structure, throughout the late eighteenth and into the twentieth century.

"During the last half of the nineteenth century, a number of social and economic factors converged that resulted in the rural village of Deerfield, Massachusetts becoming almost entirely female. This drastic shift in population presents a unique lens through which to study gender roles and social relations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The lessons gleaned from this case study will provide new insight to the study of gender relations throughout other historical periods as well.Through an intensive examination of both historical and archaeological evidence, the author presents a clear picture of the gendered social relations in Deerfield over the span of seventy years. While gender relations in urban settings have been studied extensively, this unique work provides the same level of examination to gender relations in a rural setting. Likewise, where previous studies have often focused only on relations between married men and women, the unique case of Deerfield provides insight into the experiences of single women, particularly widows and "spinsters".This work presents a unique contribution that will be essential for anyone studying the historical archaeology of gender, or gender roles in the Victorian era and beyond."

Gender Ideologies as Complex Social Forces.- Theoretical Framework for Understanding Gender Roles and Relations.- The Village, Families, and Archaeological Assemblages in this Study.- Gendered Landscapes in Historic Deerfield.- Complex Intersection of Social Relations and the Material World.- Critical Analyses of Separate Spheres and the Role of Life Cycle in Shaping the Material World.- Through a Kaleidoscope: Gendered Lives in Deerfield, MA.