It was impossible to have foreseen this.
As if everything on the planet isn’t already racist, homophobic, transphobic, Islamophobic, misogynistic, or other such nonsense, a new controversy is brewing among anthropologists about archeologists identifying ancient human remains by gender. No, you haven’t accidentally stumbled over to The Babylon Bee.
Let’s look at a few definitions from Merriam-Webster before we go on.
Archeology refers to the scientific study of the material remains of human activity and culture.
Anthropology refers to the science of people, especially the study and analysis of human beings in time and space. It includes their physical characteristics, and social, environmental, and cultural relations.
Professor Jonathan Turley from George Washington University Law School summarized the madness perfectly:
Professors are objecting to identifying ancient human remains by biological gender because they cannot gauge how a person was identified at that sic time. Others are objecting to identifying race as a practice because it fuels white supremacy.
Really?
Misgendering ancient human remains is also a disgraceful act.
Professors are objecting to identifying ancient human remains by biological gender because they cannot gauge how a person identified at that the time. Others are objecting to identifying race as a practice because it fuels white supremacy. https://t.co/z83gUhoeUv
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) July 18, 2022
According to The College Fix gender activists (rolling eyes emoticon) want to stop archeologists from identifying remains bearing the “male” and “female” designations. They claim scientists don’t have the ability to determine how ancient people identified themselves.
Emma Palladino who is seeking an advanced archeology degree and is a self-proclaimed “rightful heir of Ilsidur” — a bizarre reference to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings —tweeted this whacked-out gem, in early July, as part of a seven-tweet, crock of crap missive:
You may have heard from trans+nonbinary friends that archaeologists will eventually assign your gender. This means that no matter what your gender transition is, you can’t escape your assigned sex.
Professor. Please, I wait with bated breath to hear your explanation. Palladino limits who can view her tweets.
You may have heard from trans+nonbinary friends that archaeologists will eventually assign your gender. Trans+nonbinary friends, you may have heard that archaeologists will one day assign your gender to you.
— Emma Palladino (@EmmaPalladino) July 4, 2022
College Fix pointed out that it got worse when Palladino said,
However, defining remains as ‘male’ and ‘female is not the ultimate goal of any excavation. We aim to achieve the ‘bioarchaeology of the individual’, which combines all that we find about a person into an open-ended and nuanced biography of their lives.
Huh?
Trans Doe Task Force is an organization of gender activists. It was created to examine “how current standards for forensic person identification disservice people who don’t fit the gender binary.”
The group’s mission statement reads:
We propose a gender-expansive method for human identification. This involves searching unidentified or missing databases for context clues such as decedents who are wearing clothing culturally coded to another gender.
Our own database contains missing and unidentified people we believe to be Transgender or gender-variant. The majority of current databases don’t allow for the comparison of missing and unidentified across binary sexual categories.
Let me translate: “We seek every excuse possible — even sciencey, really intelligent-sounding, meaningless absurdity in an effort to justify our predetermined anti-gendering position. ”
However, San Jose State archaeology Professor Elizabeth Weiss says eliminating gender classifications amounts to “ideologically-motivated fudging.” College Fix was told by Weiss that academics are working together to “come up with all the academy’s favorite shibboleths in agreement.”
In Aleut and Inuit collections, early anthropologists mistakenly thought strong female skeletons were male skeletons. This perpetuated the false belief that females were less hardworking than their male counterparts.
Over time, archaeologists have worked tirelessly to determine which traits in sex are determined regardless of culture. This policy is detrimental to science and women.
In forensics, it is a crucial skill to be able to seduce skeletal remains. This skill is essential for criminal investigations. It will also negatively impact victims’ families and prevent justice from being done.
Weiss was forced to pay a high price for her professional honesty. Because she was not allowed to collect human remains, Weiss is currently suing San Diego State. This is her retaliation for her opposition to the repatriation or return of human remains.
Professor Weiss clearly underestimated the demand for scientific opinions from professionals in academia’s now-closed but very awake halls.
Turley, an academic seems to agree with Professor Weiss. Turley wrote a piece about this insanity for his website.
Gender seems to reflect physical differences that impact society and migration
However, some of these writers are reliant on legal and political events. It is worth having an open discussion about whether or not these concerns should be used to limit scientific inquiry.
Some believe the emphasis should not lie on data collection but on the importance of such data.
But, most things in America can be seen through the lens of a predisposed position. It is not based on objective facts, historical data, or logic.
Think about it. Objectively, of course.
