The DNA that changed the history
Challenging our bias
In 1878, the body of historic Viking warrior was found in Birka, Sweden. The grave site had a huge cache of weapons. And two buried horses further proved warrior’s esteem status, therefore warrior was assumed to be male.
In 1970s a young researcher observed the bones had female characteristics. However apparently, weapons trump the pelvis when it comes to gender and it wasn’t until 2017, that DNA finally established that warrior was indeed female.
The warrior interpretation was never challenged until the deceased was revealed to be a woman and the argument shifted to, “maybe the skeleton was misplaced”, or “maybe there was second skeleton” or any other reason why these items were buried along with this female.
A noted anthropologist Pillip Walker, criticized in his 1995 published book chapter on sexing skulls, that when archaeologist dig up, they almost always find more males which is not consistent with gender ratio. It was known that Viking women could inherit property, be powerful merchants, yet why was it so difficult to comprehend that a woman could be warrior?
So here is something for you to ponder:
1. How our bias shape our perception of truth?
2. Women’s role and society norms have been different during different time period. For example DNA testing of skeleton buried in ancient Scythian burials from Ukraine to Central Asia proved. more than 37% of active warrior were women[2]. On the other hand, 19th and 20th century European society had lesser participation of women in workforce and military. How different this discovery would have been if society norms were different in 19th century or the burials were discovered in some other time period?
[1] https://www.livescience.com/64816-woman-viking-warrior-burial.html
[2] Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men — Book by Caroline Criado-Perez
