Wow. I wish that was all I could say about this 'gay caveman' idea. I read about seven of the newpaper articles that dealt with the issue and it was pretty ridiculous. Either they just took what the archaeologist said about the man being buried the 'wrong' way and so was gay (which is kind of really stupid) and ran with it or they actually talked to someone in the field who told them it was probably a bit of a stretch. As I'm sure everyone can tell I'm on the side that thinks they're goign a bit far without a proper amount of data. I ahven't read any peer reviewed pubished work on the topic by the original archaeologists and would like to becuase in the newpaper articles a lot of information is missing. First of all how aure are they that these skeletal remains are indeed male? From a picture they looked relatively complete but as Erin mentioned in class, sexing of skeletons is on a sliding scale. Also she gives no data onto how many graves she is comparing this with if; it is an anomally out of a few thousand graves it could be interesting but even out of a hundred not so much. Also a big one for me as I'm taking evolutionary archeaology classes is that an agricultural community is not cavemen! Everytime they mention the 'caveman' bit it makes me cringe, I was hoping even the popular media would be able to tell the difference between pre H. sapiens and ancient farming community of very modern looking and acting human beings. Which brings me to the idea of the 'gay' caveman, the concept of 'gay' is a completley made up cultural phenomenon which easily could not have existed in the Corded ware culture that this person was a part of. The researchers are projecting thier own ideas of what a 'normal' man or woman should be buried like and if they aren't then what this means. There are many places in the world in which a man or woman can take on roles of that of the opposite sex while not becoming a different gender or 'gay'. Sexual preference, which is what the term 'gay' implies in Western culture, is not represented at all in this burial and so I feel this term is inappropriate to describe this man. While this burial is interesting it is definitly not the only one of its kind in the world and without more data and information on the subject I feel it is impossible to make the kind of claims that the researchers are making.
Also in Western socitey homophobia is a huge probelm which needs to be addressed and calling this individual a 'gay caveman' just beacuse he was treated in an unusual way could produce big issues in a field which has already had too much prejudice throughout its history.