Scholars within a range of disciplines have shown that both museum exhibitions and the archaeological discipline to a great extent lean on the grand narratives of evolution, progress, development, and the rise of the West. In these narratives, the white Western man, physically and symbolically, heads the evolution from nature (woman) to culture (man). This chapter analyses the exhibition Prehistories 1 at the National Historical Museum in Stockholm, Sweden and particularly focuses on two parts of the exhibition, which are of specific significance for understanding the relation between Prehistories 1 and the representation of diversity. Museum exhibitions are created to communicate knowledge. The exhibition Prehistories 1 is displayed at the National Historical Museum in Stockholm, Sweden. The journey throughout the history made in Prehistories 1 starts with a female character represented as blending with nature and ends with a male character sitting on a throne.
Source: To tender gender: the pasts and futures of gender research in archaeology. I.-M. BackDanielsson and S. Thedéen (eds.). Stockholm Studies in Archaeology 58. Stockholm: Departmen tof Archaeology and Classical Studies, Stockholm University, 2012. pp. 97–115. Reprinted with permission of the author.