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Sexing skeletons
Apr. 29th, 2011 08:33 pmWritten as part of the Frequently-Or-Not-So-Frequently-Asked-Questions project (itself part of the annual Three Weeks for DreamWidth), for the prompt "I've often wondered how archaeologists determine the sex of a skeleton - I know there are differences in the pelvis, but what else is taken to be a clue? I'm also curious about how accurate it is, and whether anyone's done any studies on that."
Sex estimation of skeletons is one of the fundamental methods of bone analysis, and, yes, lots of studies have been done on that. Essentially, there are three ways of sexing (human) skeletons: shape and relative size of the bones, grave goods associated with a particular sex/gender, and DNA testing. This post is primarily dealing with skeletal sexual characteristics, but the other methods will get a brief mention.
( cut for length )
And finally, just remember that it’s always more complicated once you go into the details…
*: cis = having a gender identity that matches the sex one was assigned at birth. Opposite to trans gender.
Cross-posted to![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
archaeology and fonsfaq
Sex estimation of skeletons is one of the fundamental methods of bone analysis, and, yes, lots of studies have been done on that. Essentially, there are three ways of sexing (human) skeletons: shape and relative size of the bones, grave goods associated with a particular sex/gender, and DNA testing. This post is primarily dealing with skeletal sexual characteristics, but the other methods will get a brief mention.
( cut for length )
And finally, just remember that it’s always more complicated once you go into the details…
*: cis = having a gender identity that matches the sex one was assigned at birth. Opposite to trans gender.
Cross-posted to
archaeology and fonsfaq