Gender, Change and Identity: Is Gender the Most Important Aspect of a Person’s Identity or Is It Just One of Many?

A person’s identity is a complex fabric. It is in a constant state of flux, depending on factors such as age, family status, profession, and economic and social status. Gender is also one of these factors, and one that has attracted, and continues to attract, a lot of scholarly attention. Does this necessarily mean that gender makes the most important contribution to a person’s identity? In all stages of a given person’s life? In all cultures? As a case study, this paper examines the tomb painting of a late antique elite girl from Naples. It will be shown that, at least in this case, gender was less important for identity than were social status, religion and sanctity. This slightly surprising emphasis was generated first by the family’s high social status (combined with a wish to propagate this status) and second by the task that had been assigned to the little girl: to be the instrument of her parents’ salvation. As such, she is represented in the tomb painting in a manner that is independent of the kind of identity she may have experienced herself. A final paragraph is devoted to the methodological implications that follow from this for the study of gender in Late Antiquity. These involve an awareness of the kind of evidence analysed, a plea for an intersectional approach and the question of how many different genders can be postulated for late antique society.