Beth Anderson
I wonder if we're going to talk about trans and non-binary people when we're using physical characteristics of skeletons to assign a gender. #XmasLectures
Dec 26, 2022 at 8:27pmWeb
Show threadWoozle HypertwinDec 27, 2022

@betandr I'm no expert, but my understanding is that skeletons are often ambiguous as to sex, which should certainly qualify as "nonbinary" sex identification. As for being trans or having nonbinary gender, that would require finding cultural indications of gender identity that might conflict with a positive identification of binary sex.

It'd be interesting to hear what the experts have to say about this, however.

Show threadBeth AndersonDec 27, 2022
@woozle As I understand it, it's not as simple as a hard binary anyway. But also a skeleton which appears to have female characteristics may be that of a trans man, which could be determined with a more thorough examination. In the same way that people are assigned a sex at birth after a cursory examination of their external genitala.
Show threadBeth AndersonDec 27, 2022
@woozle I often wonder when I've been watching archeology programmes and they've found a burial which is a "male" but with "traditionally female" grave goods. I think in the 90s people were confused why this was.
Show threadWoozle HypertwinDec 27, 2022

@betandr 🤔

"Oh, we didn't know about that back then." - @Harena's mom :D