Att transcendera det normativa : Om gränsöverskridande vikingatida genus med ett transgenderperspektiv, i Vivallens grav 9 och Birka grav Bj 581

Sammanfattning: This essay aims to introduce perspectives from transgender studies into archaeology´s gender analysis, by re-examining two graves. The essay examines two graves, grave 9 from Vivallen, and grave Bj 581 from Birka, Sweden. These two graves are examples of graves with a difference in archaeological gender assessment, and sex as determined by osteology and DNA-analysis. The essay discusses the grave material, and the written sources, to examine how people in the Viking Age with non-normative gender-expressions can be understood using tools from queer-and transgender studies, with the aim to not make cis-normativity the default interpretation