Declaration on Behalf of an Archaeology of Sexe

This article is an attempt to demonstrate the basic weakness of gender as a theoretical concept when studying prehistoric embodiment. ‘Gender ‘is theoretically linked to ‘sex’, known as the ‘sex–gender system’. The study of past genders, in the sense of prehistoric normative roles and symbols, has decreased in interest among archaeologists, in favor of studying sex, i.e., sexual practice and orientation. This switch to sex is part of archaeologists’ endeavors to understand prehistoric bodily subjects. I will here recapitulate on the concept of gender and its serious limitations. I will furthermore try to shed light on how the turn to sex involves an encounter with almost exactly the same fallacies as did the focus on gender. As an alternative for the future, I suggest social identity and embodiment be studied under the theoretical label of ‘sexe’.