Gay caveman
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Over the weekend, the debate over the ‘gay caveman’ has raged on with various archaeologists and paleoanthropologists speaking out against the media hype. Here is how the argument began. During a press conference in Prague, Czech archaeologists discussed an rare burial from the Corded Ware customs, dating from 2800-2500 BCE. Katerina Semradova, one of the archaeologists, stated that “We believe this is one of the earliest cases of what could be described as a ‘transsexual’ or ‘third gender grave’ in the Czech Republic”. Fellow archaeologist Kamila Vesinova argued that “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… [it is] far more likely is that he was a gentleman with a unlike sexual orientation, gay or transsexual”.
It was these simple statements that led to a media frenzy over the appearance of a ‘gay caveman’. The argument posed by archaeologists was oversimplified and reduced into a single sound munch. Articles were published in all formats of online and print media, discussi
‘Gay caveman’ spin just bad science
Iranian news service PressTV reported on April 6 on the finding out of an ancient human burial in a suburb of the Czech capital Prague.
The serious, belonging to the third millennium BCE Corded Ware cultural tradition of Europe, contained the skeletal remains of a person that the archaeologists who uncovered the burial designated as male. Without DNA testing, however, it is unfeasible to say for sure.
The skeleton was buried in a position previously thought to be exclusively associated with females.
The archaeologists said the position in which the skeleton was buried and the absence of the gender-specific grave goods usually found in Corded Ware graves suggested that it was a man with a gender individuality or sexual orientation that fell outside of the heterosexual male/female sphere.
This interpretation generated considerable media interest.
A number of news outlets, including FOX News, the British Daily Mail and Telegraph, and widespread Australian media sites Ninemsn.com and News.com.au ran the story under sensationalist headlines “outing” the “first known gay caveman”.
Leaving aside the fact that at 5000 years elderly, the remains are
'Gay caveman' theory gets a rocky reception
Archaeologists in Prague say they've uncovered a Stone-Age man buried in a position usually reserved for women — but media claims of a "gay caveman" may be exaggerated, according to some researchers.
The skeleton, which dates back to about 2,500 to 2,800 B.C., was establish in the outskirts of Prague. The culture the man belonged to (known as the Corded Ware culture for their pottery decorated with the impressions of twisted cord) was very finicky about grave rituals, reported Iranian news network Press TV, which visited the excavation site. According to the Czech news website Ceskapozice.cz, Corded Ware males were usually buried on their right sides with their heads facing east. This man, however, was buried on his left with his head facing west — a traditionally female position.
"We found one very specific dignified of a man lying in the position of a lady, without gender specific grave goods, neither jewelry or weapons," direction archaeologist Kamila Remisova Vesinova of the Czech Archaeological Society told Press TV.
Not gay, not a caveman
Vesinova and her colleagues told reporters that the dude may have belonged to a "thir
The Allure of Gay Cavemen
This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the writer, not necessarily those of Scientific American
Third genders, two spirits, and a media without a clue.
Author's Note: Earlier this month the UK Daily Mail reported on continued excavation at an archaeological site adjacent Prague where researchers described an individual with an alternative gender identity. The following post originally appeared at Neuron Culture hosted by Wired after the original report last year.
In 1993 the reputable German weekly Der Spiegel printed a rumor that Otzi, the 5,300-year-old frozen mummy discovered in the Otztal Alps two years earlier, contained evidence of the world's earliest known lesbian act. "In Otzi's Hintern," wrote the editors, referring to the Iceman's hinterland, "Spermien gefunden worden." (If you require a translation, chances are you didn't want to know anyway.) The rumor quickly spread on computer bulletin boards as the recently unveiled World Wide Web inaugurated a new age in the free flow of misinformation. The origin of the rumor, as Cecil Adams discovered, turns out to have