Archaeologists unearth 5,000-year-old 'third-gender' caveman

[NeoGreen]

Caveman was buried like a woman, leading scientists to question his sexual orientation

http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/archaeologists-unearth-5000-year-old-third-gender-caveman

Archaeologists investigating a 5,000-year-old Copper Age grave in the Czech Republic believe they may have unearthed the first known remains of a gay or transvestite caveman, reports the Telegraph.

The man was apparently buried as if he were a woman, an aberrant practice for an ancient culture known for its strict burial procedures.

snip

"From history and ethnology, we know that people from this period took funeral rites very seriously so it is highly unlikely that this positioning was a mistake," said lead archaeologist Kamila Remisova Vesinova. "Far more likely is that he was a man with a different sexual orientation, homosexual or transsexual."

I thought this was interesting...

[Malraiders]

1. A socially advanced caveman culture with no LGBT

prejudicial judgements?

How advanced is that?

[Betty Karlson]

4. Can one now assume that being accepting

of GLBT is the default position for primitive societies, and that prejudice doesn't set in until those societies become so large and complicated that deliberately excluding a whole minority is no longer the deathknell of the groups as a whole?

[NeoGreen]

5. That is how I would interpret the discovery...

...plus, considering how few graves (overall) from that time period that have been found and properly described/investigated by archeologists and the similar observation in another culture, mentioned in the article, it likely represents a fairly, wide-spread if somewhat uncommon (i.e. in the range of ~1 to 5%), occurrence. Acceptance of a 3rd gender is not culturally unique, or exceptional.

It could be argued that cultures that express prejudice and rejection are the exception.

[Betty Karlson]

6. Dear Lord, let that be true:

My faith in humanity might yet be restored.

[One_Life_To_Give]

12. From 1 data point?

Don't think you can conclude much more than the single instance. Not without some supporting data to indicate such. That would be like some future aliens discovering Barney Frank was a Senator and concluding that the US was a totally Equal Country. IMHO

[Betty Karlson]

14. Other data points would include (just a few examples):

* Maori gay weddings preceding the arrival of Europeans on the islands.

* Myths that suggest significant parts of pre-islamic and pre-christian Africa were accepting of homosexuality.

* Gay-friendly elements in early hinduism (which is actually an amalgate of Dravidian and Indo-European cultures plural).

* Two-spirit individuals being accepted in some native American cultures (sadly, most of those cultures were eradicated long before we wanted to compare them for data).

* All the GLBTQ accepting elements in what remains of the Pelasgian mythology.

[central scrutinizer]

2. But what bathroom did (s)he use?

it's always comes down to the bathrooms

[nichomachus]

3. He had his own bush n/t

[MillennialDem]

7. Bad reporting. Gay or transvestite? Should be transgender (preferred) or at least transsexual

[gregcrawford]

8. Do correct me if I'm mistaken...

... I'm not too clear on the distinction, but don't "transgender" and "transsexual" include some sort of surgical and/or hormonal procedures? I doubt that ancient cultures has access to such sophisticated pharmaceuticals, so dressing like a woman would be about the best he/she could manage, in which case, transvestite would be the appropriate term, would it not?

[LostOne4Ever]

10. Transsexual implies that someone is undergoing transition to become their target sex

[font style="font-family:'Georgia','Baskerville Old Face','Helvetica',fantasy;" size=4 color=teal]Transgender simply means one who does not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth.

Transvestite implies a person who crossdresses due to a fetish. [/font]

Edit: "target sex"..."not other sex." Bad lost, quit using binary-normative language!

[MillennialDem]

11. Transgender is an umbrella term - covers transsexuals, crossdressers, transvestites, nonbinary peopl

e, and even to an extent intersexed people and butch women / feminine men.

Transsexual itself is a dated term though - it does imply someone is undergoing surgical and/or hormonal transition, but since the term has "sex" in it it implies a fetish (even though there isn't one). These days people who are transitioning will usually just say transgender or trans or or "trans ____" (insert man, woman, or person). If there is a need for clarification, you may of course ask

And as lost said, transvestite implies a fetish from dressing in opposite sex clothes.

[Betty Karlson]

15. I gather that in caveman times, the distinction was a moot point

Given that the safest way to assign oneself the other gender was to consistently appear as someone of the other gender, back when surgery was life-threatening in itself (no anesthetics).

[Canoe52]

9. 5,000 years old?

That would've made him one of Adam and Eve's kids.

I guess that was before God told everyone to start being prejudiced towards the gays.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

13. Time for this again....

[grahamhgreen]

16. A cavetrans!

[shaayecanaan]

17. or not

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/04/10/czech.republic.unusual.burial/


-- Reports that surfaced last week about the remains of a "gay caveman" found in the Czech Republic have prompted scientists to take on an unlikely foe -- an overhyped news media that may be overblowing the archaeological find.
"Dudes! I could be wrong, but I think that to have a 'gay caveman,' you need a skeleton that is both gay and a caveman. And this ain't either!" John Hawks, an associate professor of anthropology at University of Wisconsin-Madison, wrote on his blog in bold type.
Hawks joined a chorus of fellow paleoanthropologists, archaeologists and other bone experts who carefully dissected media reports about the dig, which began to increase after first appearing in British and Czech newspapers