Rosemary Joyce facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Rosemary A. Joyce
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Rosemary Alexandria Joyce
April 7, 1956 |
| Nationality | American |
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| Institutions | University of California, Berkeley |
Rosemary A. Joyce (born 1956) is an American anthropologist and archaeologist. She studies ancient societies and cultures. Dr. Joyce is known for her work in Honduras. She helped discover that ancient people made a type of beer from chocolate. She also studies how gender roles were seen in old societies.
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About Rosemary Joyce
Rosemary A. Joyce was born in 1956. She is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. There, she teaches about anthropology. Anthropology is the study of human societies and cultures.
Discoveries in Archaeology
Since 1977, Dr. Joyce has done archaeological research in Honduras. She looks at ancient homes and pottery. She also studies how gender roles were understood in Mesoamerica. This is a historical region that includes parts of Mexico and Central America.
Her work shows that women held important positions in society. This was true even though men were shown more often in ancient art. Dr. Joyce also found that some art showed young males being viewed by both men and women. This suggests that gender roles might have been more flexible back then.
Comparing Ancient Cultures
Dr. Joyce also compared the Maya civilization with Ancient Egypt. She worked with Lynn Meskell on this study. Both cultures existed before the idea that the mind and body are separate. In both cultures, most ancient objects and writings are about powerful men.
The Story of Chocolate Beer
Another important part of Dr. Joyce's work was with John Henderson. He is an anthropologist from Cornell University. They studied old pottery pieces from Honduras. They found traces of cacao (the plant chocolate comes from).
They discovered that ancient people used cacao to make a type of beer. At first, they fermented the cacao pod and threw away the seeds. Later, they started using the seeds to make a bitter, non-alcoholic chocolate drink.
To be sure, Dr. Joyce and Dr. Henderson asked other experts for help. They contacted Patrick McGovern, an archaeometrist, and Jeffrey Hurst, a chocolate chemist. They confirmed that the pottery had theobromine. This chemical is found in cacao and is rare in other plants.
This research showed that the Honduran site traded with Mayan cacao fields. These fields were thousands of kilometers away. Even with this trade, Dr. Joyce found that societies in Honduras were different from the Maya world. They did not have the same level of social inequality. Evidence suggests that women were just as likely as men to hold positions of power in these smaller, connected cities.
Awards and Recognition
- 2022 Alfred Vincent Kidder Award from the American Anthropological Association
- Honorary doctorate, Leiden University in 2022
