Abstract
Anthropologists have led the way in formulating techniques that reveal skeletal differences between males and females. Understanding of physical differences in the pelvis related to childbirth, hormonal impacts on bones, and extensive comparative studies have provided anthropologists with an array of traits and measurements that help them estimate sex using just bones. Forensic anthropologists and bioarcheologists are improving their ability to differentiate males and females by increasing research on a variety of postcranial bones and through the use of molecular data, especially new methods called proteomics, to identify sex in prepubescent juveniles. As remains from more cultures and time periods are studied, sex identification will continue to improve, because skeletal sex differences are in large part biologically determined. Yet, anthropologists have also been at the forefront of arguing that sex lies on a spectrum. Anthropologists who view sex as on a spectrum may deter sex identification progress; from their perspective, an individual of an undetermined sex may just be a nonbinary individual. Anthropologists who consider sex is on a spectrum are coming to this conclusion in part because they are looking for anatomical ideals, mistaking pathology for variation, and confusing independent variables with dependent variables. Nonetheless, anthropologists need to continue to improve sex identification techniques to reconstruct the past accurately, which may reveal less strict sex roles than previously presumed and help with the identification of crime victims. Forensic anthropologists should also increase their efforts to identify whether individuals have undergone medical procedures intended to change one’s gender due to the current rise in transitioning individuals.
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Editor’s Note
After learning about the cancelled symposium that was to be held at the joint meeting of the American Anthropological Association and the Canadian Anthropology Society in 2023, as discussed by Weiss in this paper, and, after listening to Professor Weiss’ talk on the panel held by the Heterodox Academy (also discussed in this paper), I asked Professor Weiss to submit this Guest Essay to the journal. The paper was peer-reviewed. Comments about the paper are welcome in the form of a Letter to the Editor.
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Weiss, E. No Bones About It: Sex Is Binary. Arch Sex Behav (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-024-02851-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-024-02851-3