A Transgender Viking? No Way Ragnar! By Brian Simpson
Those who champion the gender agenda look for historical confirmations of their views, on the smallest sample of evidence, even while viewing history as a social construction. The claim has been made by the woke academic establishment that a 1,000 year-old grave in Finland, basically at the end of the Viking era, was that of a non-binary person. There were in the grave what they interpret to be, projecting cultural bias, “female” clothing and jewels, but also symbols of masculinity, including a sword. There was a DNA analysis conducted, which was admitted to be based upon limited samples, and thus open to error, allegedly showing that the individual had Klinefelter syndrome. This involves a male having an extra X chromosome, thus being XXY. Such individuals, while male, have small penises and are usually infertile. Some males do not even realise that they have this syndrome, so there is no “typical” “gay’ behaviour necessarily.
This is an example of modern researchers, biased with contemporary gender agenda ideologies, reading back into time and planting their biases upon past data. There is nothing that can be inferred about how society regarded this individual. What they are trying to cook up is that this a gay male dressed in female clothing, but it is cultural prejudice to suppose that the clothing and small amount of jewels are “female,” or that a sword is exclusively male. It would be like supposing that a raincoat from the 1940s discovered 1,000 years later by Martian archaeologists going though the ruins of the Earth, indicated the transgenderism of today, when it simply had some unisex attributes, all culturally relative. Or, that past Scottish kilts indicated transgenderism, when it is nothing of the sort, and I am sure William Wallace would show offence. Don’t offend Bill. Kilt he may wear, but his sword is long and broad.
Further individuals with Klinefelter syndrome are not typically “gay.” That too, is a contemporary projection. And even if it was, it could well be that one isolated individual came from a wealthy family, and was thus protected. He/she/whatever lived what they would view as a bit of an odd life, but did no harm. Perhaps dying young, relatives buried him/her/whatever, as he/she/whatever requested in a will. And that was that. They thought that they would leave a mystery for future morons who dug up the grave to ponder. I would certainly do this as a practical joke, so why not the people of that time?
This is part of a trend done by the academic woke to take down the image of the Vikings as a rugged masculine tribal group, to show that the ideologies of today are historically normal and should not be opposed. Anyone with historical knowledge of the times knows that this is just bs. Even if there was one such example established in one small region, it shows nothing about an entire historical era, where many similar individuals remains have been found with ropes around their necks in bogs.
“Modern analysis of a 1,000-year-old grave in Finland challenges long-held beliefs about gender roles in ancient societies, and may suggest non-binary people were not only accepted but respected members of their communities, researchers have said.
According to a peer-reviewed study in the European Journal of Archaeology, DNA analysis of remains in a late iron age grave at Suontaka Vesitorninmäki in Hattula, southern Finland, may have belonged to a high-status non-binary person.
First discovered in 1968 during building work, the grave contained jewellery in the form of oval brooches as well as fragments of woollen clothing suggesting the dead person was dressed in “a typical feminine costume of the era”, the researchers said.
But unusually, the grave also held a hiltless sword placed on the person’s left side, with another sword, probably deposited at a later date, buried above the original grave – accoutrements more often associated with masculinity.
For decades, the researchers said, archaeologists had assumed either that two bodies, a man and a woman, had been buried in the Suontaka grave, or that it was evidence strong female leaders, even woman warriors, existed in early medieval Finland.
“The buried individual seems to have been a highly respected member of their community,” said the study’s lead author, Ulla Moilanen, an archaeologist from the University of Turku. “They were laid in the grave on a soft feather blanket with valuable furs and objects.”
DNA analysis, however, showed the grave held the remains of only one person – and that they had Klinefelter syndrome. Usually, a female has two X chromosomes (XX) and a male has one X and one Y (XY). In Klinefelter syndrome, a male is born with an extra copy of the X chromosome (XXY).
Males with the syndrome, which affects about one in 660 men, are still genetically male and often do not realise they have the extra chromosome, but the condition can cause enlarged breasts, a small penis and testicles, a low sex drive and infertility.
The Finnish researchers warned that the DNA results were based on a small sample and only a relatively small number of genetic sequences could be read, meaning they had to rely to some extent on modelling.
But they said that based on their data, it was likely that the body in the Suontaka grave had the chromosomes XXY. The high-status burial led them to conclude the person may have identified as outside the traditional gender divisions.
“The overall context of the grave indicates that it was a respected person whose gender identity may well have been non-binary,” they wrote.
If the characteristics of Klinefelter syndrome were evident, Moilanen said, the person “might not have been considered strictly a female or a male in the early middle ages community. The abundant collection of objects buried in the grave is proof that the person was not only accepted, but also valued and respected.”
The finding challenges the idea that “in the ultramasculine environment of early medieval Scandinavia, men with feminine social roles and men dressing in feminine clothes were disrespected and considered shameful”, the researchers said.
The person may also have been accepted as a non-binary person “because they already had a distinctive or secured position in the community for other reasons”, the researchers said, such as coming from a wealthy or influential family or being a shaman.
Paleogeneticists and academics with expertise in ancient DNA analysis contacted by the Livescience website generally said the study was “convincing” in showing the person buried in Suontaka was likely to have been non-binary.
Archaeologists and historians also backed the findings, saying it was “exciting” to see new work engaging with questions of gender and identity. Leszek Gardeła of the National Museum of Denmark said the study showed early medieval societies “had very nuanced approaches to and understandings of gender identities”.
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