The (Not So) Gay (Not So) Caveman

Have you ever heard of the gay caveman?  If you happen to Google this particular search term you’ll find headings such as “5,000-year-old male skeleton ‘outed’ by the way he was buried”, etc.  There is even a twitter account for the “Gay Caveman”, but whether this is related to the archaeological find or not is a little fuzzy.

The archaeological find itself was made outside Prague, where the male skeleton was buried as a female – head facing west, lying on the left, and buried with household jugs.  We can assume that this was not a mistake, as funerary rites at this point in time were very important.  However, I think that many Western assumptions played a large role in the labelling of this skeleton as the ‘gay caveman’.

Grave of the 'gay caveman'

The distinction between gender and sex is that the sex of a person is biological, whereas gender is societal or cultural.  In the Western world, we have two sexes that are normally aligned with two genders: male or female.  However, we tend not to acknowledge that individuals may not fall into these discrete categories, whereas other cultures show evidence of the acceptance of more than two genders.
 

I think the grave goods found with the skeleton could be indicative of a third gender, or the presence of a different societal role than the average man of the period.  The skeleton may not have been buried with weapons, as was the norm for males; however, it was also not buried with any jewellery, as was expected in female graves.  This grave is distinct from expected burials of both genders, in a way.  To immediately jump to the conclusion of homosexuality is a result of our bias towards the two gender norm.  Other possibilities are just as plausible with such a small amount of evidence to rely on.  I also question the number graves that they have to compare this sample to.  Perhaps this is not a deviant grave, and perhaps there are more individuals with this style of grave that have not been uncovered!  

Identifying a skeleton to be either male or female is also objective, as there can be manly women, or feminine men.  Perhaps this skeleton was a woman after all, but this was just less evident in the remains.  There are many other ideas to be considered when investigating the archaeological evidence when you remove Western biases.  However, it could very well be that this man was gay.  This may be another archaeological question that we can never fully answer.

And to briefly address the ‘caveman’ label - well, that’s just silly.  This skeleton is from the time of pre-Bronze Age Corded Wear culture.  This is far from the image that comes to mind when you say ‘caveman’.  Archaeology lingo 101.    

Works Cited:

McDowell, A. 2011. Gay caveman probably not gay or a caveman. National Post. http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/04/17/gay-caveman-probably-not-gay-or-a-caveman/

The oldest gay in the village: 5,000-year-old- male skeleton ‘outed’ by the way he was buried.  2011. Daily Mail. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1374060/Gay-caveman-5-000-year-old-male-skeleton-outed-way-buried.html

Caveman image: http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/ignorant-people-get-to-vote-too/18646/cartoon-caveman-with-a-club/