An Anthropologist Explains Why Skeletal Sex Is an Estimate, Not a Certainty
By
Caroline VanSickle
Summary
An anthropologist who studies sex differences in the human skeleton pushes back against the popular meme that "if an anthropologist finds your bones, they will say you are either male or female." The article explains that skeletal sex estimation is probabilistic, not deterministic — anthropologists estimate sex based on traits that exist on a spectrum, and many skeletons are classified as "indeterminate." The author argues that biological sex is not a strict binary and that anthropological methods actually reveal the limitations of binary claims about human identity, supporting a more nuanced understanding that includes trans and gender nonbinary individuals.
Source
bskyAn Anthropologist Explains Why Skeletal Sex Is an Estimate, Not a Certaintyprosocial.worldKey quotes
· 3 pulledHundreds of years from now, if an anthropologist finds your bones, they will say you are either male or female.
I can tell you that my ability to estimate (not determine!) the sex of a skeleton from 100 years ago is limited by the pr
Biological traits, like one's skeleton, are more meaningful than a person's lived identity.
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