ETRUSCAN GENDER

   The study of Etruscan gender has been focused on the study of Etruscan women. Work is now developing to explore the subtle disctinctions between the masculine and feminine. The principal distinction between the two genders is between highly adorned women, prepared for the male gaze, and men, much less adorned and naked to the waist. The adorned women probably wore highly visual and differently dyed fabrics, with considerable attention to the hair and jewelry, strengthened by perfumes and cosmetics—in other words, very much part of the cultural world of the Etruscans. The man was situated more in the natural world, less affected by cultural artifice, associated ideologically with power, office, and warfare.

   See also BURIAL; DRESS; MIRRORS.