Is there any interesting research or studies regarding what ancient people or cultures pre monotheism did in regards to gender or sexuality?
I have old friends who take the Joe Rogan tribal view of like eating meat all the time and I just want to challenge them about the whole alpha male thing.
Scythians are famous for warrior burials with bodies that are female/xy. Something like 25%. We don't know enough to say if these people were equivalent to modern trans men, or were warriors who happened to be men, or were part of some social category we don't have an equivalent to. Unfortunately it's very hard to make good guesses about complex cultural phenomena like gender roles, especially without written sources.
I also recall that there is a group in i want to say southern africa where some afab people had a gender role that was broadly comparable to trans men. I don't want to say it was one to one, and i can't remember enough to say how their gender was understood in the culture, but they lived as men, taking wives, participating in mens councils and social groups, and fighting when appropriate.
Please forgive me if my language is not appropriate. I'm struggling to find language to discuss gender roles across very different cultures without making assumptions or being reductive towards cultures that I don't have enough detail on.