Sex, Gender and the Third Science Revolution

In the last decades, ancient DNA and dental peptide analysis have made sex estimations of individuals from human remains significantly more reliable, even for children before puberty and from bone fragments. Archaeologists no longer need to rely on the assessment of sexually dimorphic morphological traits of bones alone. Intellectual reflection on the nature and meaning of scientific data, however, has rarely kept pace with analytical advances, and the Third Science Revolution has not solved the fundamental question of how exactly, if at all, sex and gender are linked. Since human lives and social relations are rooted in both nature and culture, evolutionary-based principles as well as cultural and historical developments must be part of all studies of gender. It is important to raise awareness that male and female are not the only options, even in the biological sciences, and that the link between bodies of different kinds with femininity, masculinity and queer identities, as well as concepts such as motherhood and warriorhood, needs to be explored rather than taken for granted.