An exemplary illustration of women’s role in the performance of cultural texts can be found in the Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus’ Germania. Where he states that, “The barbarian women, excluded from hand to hand combat, participated importantly through theatricalized performance on the sidelines.” Dwight Conquergood explains how women played an integral role on the battlefield through performative ritual in which they would literally cheer the men to victory. Conquergood states, “The women were not content to stay at home and await the outcome of the battle…” Conquergood further cites that women were witnesses to the valor of their men and in a sense served as performative directors through, “…womanly shrieks, applause, or scorn…” while the men engaged in battle.
Performative differences existed between men and women primarily because of the boasting custom. In a boast, men would proclaim their glorious past achievements in public. This practice of boasting would occur in drinking halls in front of community members, and as Conquergood point out, “Boasts, then, are personal narratives in which the speaker recollects and shapes past experiences into a sequence which inexorably calls for a sequel.” The role of these ‘boasting men’ was to fulfill their boast in battle and thereby the performative action was predicated by the boast itself. If a man were to not fulfill his boast, he would be ostracized and scorned. Although Conquergood gives one 'legendary' example of a woman baosting (Minutia), the boasting was largely a male tradition and served, primarily to be used in battle. As previously discussed, women would engage in their own form of performative action on the edges of the battlefield, although not held personally for these actions as in the case of a male boast.
We can discern from the text that contributions of both men and women were valued in Anglo-Saxon society. While they may not have participated in physical combat, Anglo-Saxon women were attached in a type of performative tandem to their men while a battle ensued. Just as it can be said that without men, there would be no warriors to defend a village, it can also be said that without women there would be ineffectual support for these warriors. It is certainly worth mentioning that absent the battle, men did very little, while women took over nearly all of the responsibilities in the village. Conquergood cites Tacitus’ report that when not in battle or hunting, men digressed to ‘sloth and feasting’, “surrendering the management of the household, of the home, and of the land, to the women….”
