Remains of a man belonging to a late-neolithic, early-copper-age community outside what is now Prague were unearthed showing distinct signs of status as a "third gender."
Some of the fine details are a bit muddled in the press reports, which are apparently just copying each other and not going back to the source for clarification, but there is no question as to the main story.
The lead archaeologists on the dig are Katerina Semradova, who reportedly gave a press conference on Tuesday, and her superior, Kamila Remisova Vesinova, who appears for a brief interview on this: Press TV clip.
News outlets, including USA Today and the NY Daily News are reporting the story under the banner "Gay Caveman," which I find infuriating. The Corded Ware people were not cave-dwellers. The Telegraph elevates it to "Homosexual Caveman." The Sun, oddly enough, shows a tiny bit more respect in calling the remains Stone Age instead of caveman, and then blows it completely with gay jokes and their idea of a caveman drag photo.
As I said, I've found more than one version of the facts, so there is a question about the details, but the main story is this: The Corded Ware Culture clearly distinguished the graves of its members by gender. Men were buried on their right sides with their heads pointing west, women on their left side with their heads pointing east. Men were buried with tools and/or weapons. Women with pots and other domestic goods.
So, the point of the story is, they found a man buried in the respectful tradition of a woman. From 5000 years ago. He was accompanied by household goods, not tools or weapons.
One press report says the body was found on its left side, head pointing west, which would be a third combination. The other stories are saying on its left, head pointing east, same as the women were. I'd love to ask the archaeologists. If anyone finds an actual clip or direct interview where they say so, please post a link.
I'm also irritated at the press for not having enough reference points to write the story correctly. Whether the man was gay or not is a little hard to prove 5000 years later. Using the word simply reflects the cultural bias of the writers. What is clear is that a man was honorably buried in the tradition of a woman, so was clearly accorded status as a woman in that society, which is pretty much the definition of transgender.
Thanks.
Comments
Possible intersex
That was my first thought. An intersexed person in the stone age might well have a male skeleton but be regarded as female by her people. That in fact, is the simplest explanation and the idea of telling someone's sexual orientation from such scant clues is just rampant homophobia in a thin disguise.
A transgender person would be the next most likely. Someone who was simply a gay man in a stone age culture would not necessarily have feminine traits.
The hidden agenda of these reports is the fear and hate many ignorant people have toward people who are different. And yet, this sort of visibility is better than the invisibility that cloaked LGBT issues in decades past. When the wrong attitudes are visible, it's easier to educate people as to what the right attitude should be.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
This is the same story
I blogged about yesterday from the Daily mail. The speculation about sexual orientation is just that, speculation.
There were however some nice photos in the Daily Mail article.
http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/blog/26888/earliest-transgende...
Angharad.
Angharad
Ooops!
Sorry for the reprise. Believe it or not, I did take a quick gander at the blog headers to make sure no one else posted it, but I didn't go back far enough. It's amazing how quickly the items scroll down these days. I'm also sorry I got disgusted with the press coverage and gave up before clicking through to the Mail's story. Believe it or not, it was amongst the best of the lot. The reader comments were very entertaining, too, even some of the ones that made me want to throttle the reader.
Yes, very nice photos. Thanks for reposting the link. I'll have to be less dismissive of the Mail from now on.
Anthropologists have written
Anthropologists have written for years about people whom we would refer to as marginal in our socieyt, and their acceptance in small scale societies. It was only after Christianity and Isalm and their ignorant, judgemental hierarchy that people became marginalized, on many fronts.
We know from study of many small scale cultures that "two-spirit people" were believed to have special relationships with the spirit world, and were honored with special status, often taught the curing arts and were holders of the groups tales and mythological stories that were "parapbles" teaching the group's values to the next generation. It makes sense that the person would be more important than the differences between spirit and the physical. Small scale societies usually have small populations with high death rates, and so value each member, and try to find suitable roles for all their people rather than marginalizing them, unlike "civilization".
CaroL
CaroL