The elusive minority: non-binary gender in prehistoric Europe

Binary and non-binary models (F: female/feminine; M: male/masculine) Photo: Nicola Ialongo/Eleonore Pape Research team at Göttingen University analyse data from burial sites spanning nearly 4,000 years People tend to think that the idea that biological sex is linked with one-s role in society belongs in the past. But was it even the case in prehistory? Archaeologists at the University of Göttingen have investigated the representation of gender in Neolithic and Bronze Age graves (around 5500 BC to 1200 BC), in order to understand if the idea of gender in prehistoric Europe was really as -binary- as might be expected. The researchers found that the role of prehistoric individuals was mostly - but not solely - determined by their biological sex. The researchers, however, also found that the methods currently available leave a lot of room for error. The results were published in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal. Many people assume that the two biological sexes produce two genders. However, if we consider sex and gender separately, there are at least four possible combinations.