The change from a hunting-gathering lifestyle to one dependent upon farming constitutes a truly 'revolutionary' event in the human career. Most archaeologists agree that how ancient people organized their work and family groups was crucial to the success of early attempts at farming. Yet little serious attention has been paid to the social organization of labor in the prehistoric past. This book addresses that lacuna by investigating sexual divisions of labor. As a case study, Peterson chose the southern Levant of West Asia, where the world's first farming societies emerged some 10,000 years ago. Shattering long held assumptions about women's work that lead to generalizations about gender roles, Peterson shows that gender studies can be both scientific and thoroughly grounded in feminist theory.

"Sexual Revolutions is superb, and, indeed, important. It has considerable significance for both general questions about the archaeology of gender and for more particular concerns about Near Eastern prehistory. Peterson presents a stimulating synthesis of theory and osteological evidence concerning the role of women in the agricultural and urban 'revolutions' of south-west Asia, with the focus on the southern Levant." - Antiquity

"In sum, this book, the fourth book in a series on Gender and Archaeology edited by Sarah Nelson, is a gem. It introduces new hard data and judicious interpretation into a subject too often dominated by unsubstantiated but fervently held theories....it's value as a textbook: both readable and scholarly, it is a wonderful demonstration of wha science is good for. In addition to her admirably clear prose, Peterson has selected good graphic and illustrative materials." - American Antiquity

"This book is an important one that should be read by all scholars interested in issues of labor and social organization in the archaeological record. Written in a readable and accessible style, it is both a scholarly work and one that can be easily used as a case study in classes. Peterson's work points us in a direction that many other scholars may wish to pursue." - Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research

"Peterson's substantive results are intriguing.... This is an important piece of work not simply because of its substantive contribution. One of the primary contributions of this study is its skepticism.... Peterson generally makes good and valid use of ethnographic analogy, especially when it comes to materialist generalizations." - Reviews in Anthropology