Characterizing the deep roots of Gender Inequalities through molecular archaeology – GenIn

GenIn proposes a multi-disciplinary approach aiming at better understanding the deep roots of gender inequalities by exploring the status and life of women during the transitional period between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age in occidental Europe. More specifically, GenIn aims at leveraging the latest advances in molecular archaeology to document the populations’ heterogeneity in terms of genetic origins, to explicit family structures, endogamy levels and residential rules and to compare the health status of women and men. Newly developed molecular and computational approaches will lead to the unprecedented characterization of past epigenomes, strongly influenced by the individual’s environment, including psycho-social context. This will advance our knowledge on the life of women in the Neolithic and on gender contrasts emergence in European populations during prehistory, which will help understand the extent to which these phenomena still shape present-day societies.