Sex, Gender, and Sexual Orientation in a Mortuary Context

Photo Credit:http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/8713614-archaeologists-may-have-found-the-first-considered-gay-caveman

In 2011 the media went wild with the discovery of what they dubbed as a “gay caveman”.  The grave of a male from the corded ware era was discovered by archaeologist in the Czech Republic. These said archaeologist went on to point out that the man’s positioning and posture was not typical of males found in this time period and that his grave more closely resembled that of females. During the period of 2900 and 2500BC men were traditionally buried lying on their right side with their head pointing to the east, while women were positioned on their left side with the head facing to the west. In this particular instance the man was laying on his left with his head facing west. As well as this uncommon burial position the man was buried with house hold jugs and no weapons.  In an era when males were generally buried with weapons or flint knives and women were traditionally buried with jewelry and domestic jugs. The lead researcher at this dig, Kamila Remisova Vesinova, tells media that it is likely ‘that he was a man with a different sexual orientation, homosexual, or transvestite.’  The question is how can she suggest this based on the small amount of evidence? This grave is just one example of difference, it cannot be properly compared. Ideas of gender and sexual orientation are culturally constructed and fluid, meaning that they are constantly changing and may be different depending on when and where you are looking. We have assumptions that we form from our enculturation into our societies, but these need to be placed aside when doing archaeology because our beliefs are not always the beliefs of the people we are studying. There are many alternative conclusions to the reason that this man was buried in this fashion and they don’t suggest that he was homosexual or transvestite. Perhaps this is an example of a ‘deviant’ burial where they are positioning him in this way so as to symbolize that he is not male, a non-male, or that he has lost his male standing and not to say that he is female or to suggest anything about his gender or sexual orientation.

 

In class today the professor said “Sex is what’s in your pants, gender is what pants you want to wear and sexual orientation is whose pants you want to be in.” I liked this analogy because it reminds us that gender and sexual orientations are constructs. How they are perceived in a society varies and how they present themselves varies. Archaeologist can’t really make conclusions on these from the context of the grave for many reasons one being ‘the dead don’t bury themselves’. The way in which someone is buried ultimately depends on the ideas or beliefs of the person that is burying them and don’t necessarily represent the feelings and beliefs of the individual being buried.